Awsi Dooger
New member
By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Sports Columnist
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP)—The bookies make him an odds-on favorite like no other, mostly because Tiger Woods is unlike any other."
***
Nothing like blowing your credibility in less than one sentence. I couldn't read beyond that gaffe.
When has Tiger Woods been an odds-on favorite? I've bet golf for 20+ years and I've never seen it. No unless you are talking about the final round of the match play, something like that, or when he's already built a massive lead.
Prior to an event Tiger has not been odds-on, not from a reputable betting firm, or the consensus of those firms. There are always the scared joints in Las Vegas who panic when someone bets 100 bucks and plummet the line, so no doubt he's been odds-on at those hack joints.
Odds-on means greater likelihood than all other entrants combined. In other words, less than even money, like Seattle Slew or Spectacular Bid at 2/5. Oldtime sportswriters would never botch the reference but now that parimutuel sports are not as popular, odds-on has sloppily attached to mere favoritism. It's not uncommon for NFL announcers like Terry Bradshaw to proclaim a team the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl, simultaneous to sportsbooks offering 8/1 or higher on that team. :laugh:
Online writers without actual journalistic background also screw it up, using odds-on all over the place.
Prior to the Masters, when this column was apparently written, Tiger was roughly 7/4, or +1.75. That's low odds to win a golf tournament but it's hardly odds-on. Tiger wins 27% of his starts so anyone who had bet him at odds-on every time would have long since been broke.
Even at his peak in 2000, coming off the 15 shot win at Pebble Beach, I took 6/5 or +1.20 on Tiger winning the next major, the British Open at St. Andrews. Later in Tiger's career he would have been odds-on in that event, if we had already seen 10 majors or so. I thought he should have been odds-on regardless. But it's so unheard of in golfing terms, the oddsmakers and the speculators kept it slightly above even money. Tiger's been in that area many times. BTW, he was basically 5/2 in last year's US Open.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP)—The bookies make him an odds-on favorite like no other, mostly because Tiger Woods is unlike any other."
***
Nothing like blowing your credibility in less than one sentence. I couldn't read beyond that gaffe.
When has Tiger Woods been an odds-on favorite? I've bet golf for 20+ years and I've never seen it. No unless you are talking about the final round of the match play, something like that, or when he's already built a massive lead.
Prior to an event Tiger has not been odds-on, not from a reputable betting firm, or the consensus of those firms. There are always the scared joints in Las Vegas who panic when someone bets 100 bucks and plummet the line, so no doubt he's been odds-on at those hack joints.
Odds-on means greater likelihood than all other entrants combined. In other words, less than even money, like Seattle Slew or Spectacular Bid at 2/5. Oldtime sportswriters would never botch the reference but now that parimutuel sports are not as popular, odds-on has sloppily attached to mere favoritism. It's not uncommon for NFL announcers like Terry Bradshaw to proclaim a team the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl, simultaneous to sportsbooks offering 8/1 or higher on that team. :laugh:
Online writers without actual journalistic background also screw it up, using odds-on all over the place.
Prior to the Masters, when this column was apparently written, Tiger was roughly 7/4, or +1.75. That's low odds to win a golf tournament but it's hardly odds-on. Tiger wins 27% of his starts so anyone who had bet him at odds-on every time would have long since been broke.
Even at his peak in 2000, coming off the 15 shot win at Pebble Beach, I took 6/5 or +1.20 on Tiger winning the next major, the British Open at St. Andrews. Later in Tiger's career he would have been odds-on in that event, if we had already seen 10 majors or so. I thought he should have been odds-on regardless. But it's so unheard of in golfing terms, the oddsmakers and the speculators kept it slightly above even money. Tiger's been in that area many times. BTW, he was basically 5/2 in last year's US Open.
