Covello moves in front at The Players Cup

Golf Betting Lines

07/16/2010 - Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vince Covello posted his second consecutive five-under 66 on Friday and moved in front after two rounds of The Players Cup.

Covello finished 36 holes at 10-under 132 and is three strokes ahead at Pine Ridge Golf Club.

First-round leader Aaron Goldberg carded a one-under 70 in round two and fell to second at minus-seven.

Brady Stockton (70) and Jose de Jesus Rodriguez (66) are knotted in third place at six-under 136.

Covello began on the 10th tee Friday and broke into red figures right away with a birdie at 10. He added another birdie at the par-five 12th, but that was the last positive for some time.

Covello, 27, parred his next six holes, but bogeyed back-to-back holes at one and two. He atoned for the miscues with four consecutive birdies from the third, starting with a 20-footer at No. 3, to reach nine-under par.

"That (birdie on three) really got me going," acknowledged Covello. "You just have to keep going, you never know what's going to happen. It's a great track and there are birdie chances out there. You just have to take advantage of them."

He got to 10-under par at the par-five eighth. Covello, who finished third earlier this year, birdied the hole and will take a three-shot lead into the weekend in search of his first win on the Canadian Tour.

"My game has been pretty good, but I've just had a tough time putting it all together," he said. "You need to keep a good attitude when you're trying to get out of a funk, which I've done. I'm just trying to limit my mistakes."

Brock Mackenzie (71), Danny Sahl (68), Alan McLean (68), Richard Lee (66) and Johnny Bloomfield (71) are knotted in fifth place at five-under 137.

NOTES: Mackenzie tops the tour's money list...2009 champion Graham DeLaet is playing on the PGA Tour this season...The 36-hole cut fell at two-over 144 and Andy Matthews, who won this year's Mexican PGA Championship, made it on the number.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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