This Week in Golf - May 27th through May 30th

Golf Betting Lines

05/24/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA TOUR - CROWNE PLAZA INVITATIONAL AT COLONIAL, Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas - Once again, the buzz this week focuses on a possible change atop the world rankings.

Phil Mickelson is in the field this week at Colonial and can overtake Tiger Woods for the No. 1 spot in the world with a victory. Mickelson won this title in 2000 and again in 2008, so the possibility of a change is very real. He also had the chance to become No. 1 at the Players Championship, but that didn't happen.

Mickelson's pursuit of No. 1 is at the forefront this week, but the defending champion is no slouch in the rankings either.

Steve Stricker, No. 4 in the world, defeated Tim Clark, who won the Players Championship a few weeks back, and Steve Marino in a playoff to walk off with the title in 2009.

Stricker is scheduled to compete this week, although his last tour event was the Masters. He won the Northern Trust Open earlier this year, but has been out of action since Augusta with a right shoulder injury.

This week's field is strong, not just because of Mickelson and Stricker. Angel Cabrera, Paul Casey, Stewart Cink, Clark, John Daly, Lucas Glover, Hunter Mahan, Kenny Perry, Vijay Singh, Henrik Stenson and Y.E. Yang are all scheduled to compete.

Jason Day, who won the Byron Nelson on Sunday, is also on tap to appear.

It was here seven years ago that Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 58 years to play in a PGA Tour event. She missed the cut on a sponsors' exemption with rounds of 71-74.

Colonial Country Club has hosted this event since the tournament's inception in 1946. No other course has held a U.S. Open, a Tournament Players Championship and an annual PGA Tour event. In 1991, Colonial added the U.S. Women's Open to that unique repertoire. This is the second oldest PGA Tour event still being played at its original site. The Masters at Augusta National is the oldest.

The Golf Channel has the action on Thursday and Friday and CBS takes over on the weekend.

Next week it's Jack's event, the Memorial. Tiger Woods won last year, but with his neck injury, it's not known if he will be in the field to defend his title.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP, Colorado Golf Club, Denver, Colorado - It's the first major championship on the Champions Tour this week and it's a PGA Tour player who will be defending his title.

Michael Allen won last year's Senior PGA Championship at Canterbury Golf Club in Ohio. He has teed it up 10 times in 2010 on the PGA Tour, with his best finish a tie for fifth in late January at the Farmers Insurance Open. However, Allen has missed the cut in five of his last seven starts.

Allen has also made four appearances on the Champions Tour this year. He finished third at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai the week before the Farmers Insurance Open.

Allen would be one of the favorites this week, but not the No. 1 favorite. That status still belongs to the money leader this year on the Champions Tour, Fred Couples.

Couples has three victories this year on the 50-and-over circuit, but hasn't visited the winner's circle since late March at the Cap Cana Championship. In the meantime, Couples took sixth at the Masters and has two top-12s on the Champions Tour.

Bernhard Langer, Jay Haas, Loren Roberts and Eduardo Romero will all be in the hunt as well.

The first two rounds are on the Golf Channel, then NBC has the final two rounds.

Next week is the Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines, Iowa. Mark McNulty won last year's title.

EUROPEAN TOUR

MADRID MASTERS, Club de Campo, Madrid, Spain - There will be a strong Spanish contingent this week in Madrid, headlined by Sergio Garcia.

Garcia will shoot for his fourth European Tour title on home soil, but will be joined in the field by fellow Spaniards Alvaro Quiros and Miguel Angel Jimenez, both winners this year on tour, as well as Rafael Cabrera Bello and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.

The strong homeland group will be trying to take down defending champion Ross McGowan, who will be defending his first title on the European Tour.

McGowan fired a 60 on Saturday and had a seven-shot cushion heading into the final round. He won by three at Centro Nacional de Golf, but he will be defending on a different course.

Also in the field this week is Luke Donald, who tied for second Sunday at the BMW PGA Championship. He was tied for the lead on the 17th hole, but took a double-bogey. Donald birdied the last to lose by a stroke, but there are Ryder Cup points on the line, so everyone will be looking to cash in on a chance to make Colin Montgomerie's team.

The Golf Channel has all four rounds.

Next week is the Celtic Manor Wales Open. Jeppe Huldahl won last year's title at the site of this year's Ryder Cup.

LPGA TOUR

BRASIL CUP 2010, Itanhanga Golf Club, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - This is an unofficial, 36-hole event in Brazil that highlights some of the best players on tour.

Last year, Catriona Matthew shot a pair of 69s and won the tournament by five strokes over Kristy McPherson. Both players are in the field starting Saturday.

The 2009 event featured 15 players with a $500,000 purse, but this year's championship will have 27 golfers and a $700,000 purse.

Rio de Janeiro is the host city of the 2016 Olympics and that year, golf will make its debut.

There is no television coverage of this unofficial event.

In two weeks, it's the LPGA State Farm Classic in Springfield, Illinois. In- Kyung Kim walked off with the title last year when she beat Se Ri Pak by a stroke.

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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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