Funk leading by two and looking for a win in Mexico

Golf Betting Lines

02/25/2007 - Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fifty-year-old Fred Funk battled back pain and fired a six-under 64 Saturday to take a two-shot lead heading into the final round at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Funk had eight birdies and two bogeys for the second-best round of the day and stands at 15-under 195 overall. He has held at least a share of the lead after each of the first three rounds.

"It would be nice to go wire to wire. That's what I would love to do," Funk admitted. "I just have to play well."

Argentina's Jose Coceres shot a 65 and is alone in second place at 13-under 197. Australian Peter Lonard (67) and second round co-leader Cameron Beckman (69) are three shots further back at 200.

Funk will be seeking his eighth PGA Tour victory and first since the 2005 Players Championship. He is a career 5-6 when holding a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour.

On Saturday, Funk opened his third round with a birdie at No. 1 despite aggravating a back injury on his tee shot, which drifted right.

"[I] just felt this nerve pain going right down my butt and down my leg and I knew I was in trouble," Funk said. "I was favoring it all day, then it got really bad on a couple of holes."

So bad, in fact, that a trainer had to come out and work on Funk's back after he made a bogey at No. 12 to fall to 12-under par.

It worked.

Battling back problems for the first time, Funk pulled himself off the ground and made consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th and another at the 16th to secure his two-shot lead.

If he wins, maybe he should share the $630,000 prize with the trainer.

"He did something. He pressed so hard on the one part where it was bothering me and I felt something pop a little bit," Funk said. "I don't know if it was my hip or his thumb, but it definitely helped."

Funk is staring at some history.

He will be 50 years, eight months and 11 days old on Sunday. Only five players have ever won a PGA Tour title after their 50th birthday: Sam Snead (52); Art Wall (51); Jim Barnes (51); John Barnum (51) and Craig Stadler (50).

If he holds on, Funk would move ahead of Stadler to become the fifth-oldest champion in PGA Tour history (Stadler was 50 years, one month and 18 days old when he won the 2003 B.C. Open).

Stadler is also the only other player who has won an event on the Champions Tour and PGA Tour in the same season, doing it in back-to-back weeks at the 2003 Ford Senior Players Championship and B.C. Open.

Funk won his second Champions Tour title at Turtle Bay last month. Things will be easier Sunday if the back pain subsides.

"Hopefully it's not going to be a big deal tomorrow. I don't want to dwell on it," Funk said. "It's just something we deal with out here."

Boo Weekley, who shared the overnight lead with Funk and Beckman, had a 70 on Saturday and fell into a tie for fifth place with Skip Kendall at nine-under 201.

Kendall fired the round of the day at El Camaleon, a seven-under 63, to move up from a tie for 49th place overnight.

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Betting Football

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.