World Cup of Golf

[Ian]

Does anyone consider Woods/Duval good value at a best priced -225 (-400 most places) to win this tournament?
They are undoubtedly the best 2 players in the field but surely Woods must be knackered by now and his aim of winning the number of tournaments he wanted to has now evaporated, and Duval only came alive in the last 2 rounds of the Mickey Mouse Williams "World" challenge
for Woods' charity (which Tiger couldn't win).
I will probably be scraping a very large ommelette off my face but Argentina, eachway, with 2 in form home players who know the course, have to be better value at +1000 1/4 odds 1st 3(ladbrokes & firststake or +1200 Surrey 1/5 3).
Or am I missing something?
Or is anyone really interested?
You should be - there is money to be made in these events (see mine and DTB's posts on the Williams challenge last week)

[This message has been edited by Ian (edited 12-04-2000).]

 

[Ian]

Having small bet
Argentina 4-1 1/4 1,2,3,4 Coral Eurobet betting without the USA
Cannot see 4 of the other sides finishing above the home side so I feel fairly safe in getting my money back. Other books are only
7-1 with the USA and only offer the 1st 3 places

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Ian Will be passing on this event,but enjoy reading your thoughts on it.

 

[Stanley]

Here's a good indication of why Simon Bold are very beatable: they have odds on the top individual for the EMC World Cup

Do they need a golf specialist!!!

 

[Ian]

Stan
Coral Eurobet and several others have had markets on top individuals most of the day until they realised (or rather were told) that due to the change of format these bets were no longer possible

 

[Stanley]

That surprises me about Coral Eurobet - their golf line-maker is usually pretty sharp. You would think he would have realised the change in format.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Decided to take small flyer on Wales (without usa)@16/1 Sportingbet
Would back them at even odds in drinking match or fight

 

[Stanley]

My preview:

A new format, but it won't make any difference this week. With many of the world's leading players missing, it is rather a surprise to see Tiger Woods and David Duval team up together. They are ranked #1 and #3 in the world rankings, while the next highest-ranked player is Thomas Bjorn, ranked #19, and the next cumulative ranking after the US team (4) is Spain at 61! Last year Tiger won this event on behalf of the US team despite Mark O'Meara; even Duval on foreign territory will do better.

The course will not present a great challenge this week - it is short at 6,900 yards and has very little rough. The greens are reported to be flat and not particularly hard or fast. This would be a ridiculously low-scoring event! The only defense this course will have will be the wind. When the Argentine Open was played here in 1994 in high winds, Mark O'Meara won the event and still managed to shoot ten-under-par.

The two outright plays are Ireland and Argentina; the odds on the USA are too short to even consider, despite the almost inevitability of their win. Instead Easybets are offering 5/1 for both Ireland and Argentina to be placed in the first-four - out of 24 teams that's a great chance While the Argentinians have home advantage this week, both teams have players that play particularly well in wind. If it blows, they might even challenge the US team. With the Americans and the Spanish team, they are the only ones to have two strong players together and while McGinley sat out the European Tour trip to Brazil earlier this year, Harrington didn't and finished 2nd and 1st in those two events; both the Argentinians finished in the top-30 in both events.

Outright plays:

Ireland to finish in the first-four 5/1 @ Easybets
Argentina to finish in the first-four 5/1 @ Easybets

Will look at matchups this evening.

 

[Stanley]

Oops! Got carried away with finding Argentina @ 16/1

The odds for Argentina & Ireland were 4/1 to be placed [5.00 in Easybet's terms].

BTW can get 20/1 on Ireland at Simon Bold with e/w 1/4 odds on first 3 places and at DAS win only.

Also forgot to mention that Messrs Harrington & McGinley won this event together at Kiawah Island in 1997 and they are the usual Irish pairing. Teamwork and the sum of the parts, etc. will be important this week

 

[Ian]

Stan
Totally off topic but there is a programme on Channel 4 tonight about gambling that might be worth a watch starts at 10.35

 

[Stanley]

From the Channel 4 site:

Gambling - a mugs game or an easy way out of the nine-to-five? Writer and frequent gambler Jonathan Rendell has ?12,000 of Channel 4's money to try and find out. In the first of three episodes, Jonathan takes the money and bets - on the horses, in the slot machines, at the boxing, and in the casino. In this fascinating experiment, Channel 4 challenges Jonathan to come back with more than the ?12,000 he starts with. But at the end of the series will he have any left at all, or will he be very rich?

Hmmm, I wonder, which one will it be?

Anyone trying to get rich quick will fail at this game - especially if it involves slot machines - there are no shortcuts, just lots of homework and a pooling of resources as we have here

 

[Stanley]

72-hole plays:

Argentina to beat Japan -150 @ Sportfanatik [3 units]
Had been -135 earlier today and wish I hadn't waited now! Total mismatch between the hosts and Tanaka/Maruyama; can't believe it sill stay at -150 for much longer either!

Australia to beat Germany -118 @ Easybets
Parsons may be a bit of a liability to the in-form O'Malley, but can't see Cejka and Gogele reversing their recent run of poor form while playing in a foreign continent

Paraguay to beat England -143 @ Easybets [2 units]
Out goes patriotism when there's money involved! Davis & Spence have been little golfed of late and while I know nothing of Esteban Isasi, with Carlos Franco as a partner and on their home continent when so few international tournaments are played there, I think they will finish higher than many people expect

Scotland to beat Wales -111 @ Easybets [3 units]
Can't believe they have Wales as the favorites here. Woosie has not recreated his early season form for quite some time and will let Price down. Lawrie is a seasoned continent-hopper and Orr is just a good all-round player. They should challenge for one of the place spots

 

[Ian]

Stan
(Check out latest post on Ford Open)
Reference your earlier comments on top scorer at this event I sent Betsmart an email this afternoon (at 5pm) asking them how they intended finding out who was going to be top individual scorer. Funny how it was removed within 5 minutes

 

[Stanley]

1st round fourball plays:

Australia to beat Canada +130 @ Intertops [3 units]
Sweden to beat England -140 @ Intertops [3 units]
Scotland to beat Zimbabwe -150 @ Intertops

 

[Ian]

Stan
and there you have the answer as to why I don't bet on the GG's (and it wasn't even his money)

 

[Stanley]

Was it my imagination or did Jonathan Rendell start off clean-shaven and confident and by the end of the hour looked sleazy, unshaven, greasy-haired & desperate???

Good for TV viewing I suppose with him making every cardinal betting error in the book - they've all been discussed in the 'General Discussion' forum here. I suppose that's the difference between betting and "sports investment"

 

[Stanley]

1st round fourball update: 2-1 and +5.40 units

That's half of the ten units in the bag

Won both 3-unit plays as Australia beat Canada by three shots and Sweden beat England by two. Still smarting about losing the Scotland play: they were five ahead after ten holes and then could only secure one birdie and seven pars to close; Zimbabwe closed with eight straight birdies to win by two

All four 72-hole plays are ahead as well: Argentina by three over Japan, Australia by four over Germany, Paraguay by two over England and Scotland by four over Wales. Doesn't get much better than that! Outright plays look good also: Argentina lead the event with New Zealand and are three shots ahead of 5th place (play loses), while Ireland got off to a very slow start, but still managed a mid-table place and just four shots behind 4th place (play wins). With the greatest leaderboard movement due to take place on foursomes days, the experience of playing together many times will be important for Ireland tomorrow and I'm still very confident with that play as well.

Back with 2nd round foursomes plays in the morning.

 

[Ian]

Stan
That makes two happy people here with the one play on Argentina looking good
I had been tempted to take the 5-1 Korea to beat Ireland today as in this format anything can happen and 5-1 is a big price in a match up over just 18 holes.Hindsight is a wonderful thing
Was it me or did Tiger look tired? I can still see the US being beaten but it would take a braver man than me to oppose them

 

[Stanley]

Must admit I did have an off-the-record play on Argentina to beat the US team as well today:

Extra Bet for Bet Offer : EMC World Cup: First Round Matchup #6

Extra Bet Summary Date Time Selection Odds Stake Refund Win Status
Dec 07,2000 11:37 Argentina 2.9 ###.00 0.00 0.00 Open

[Stake deleted]

Tiger did look tired and they seemed quite reliant on Duval at the end. But I'm sure they'll dispose of Zimbabwe tomorrow. Will be a completely different tournament tomorrow, certainly a much better format for this event

 

[Ian]

Stan
Snap took 5-2 Argentina to beat US
Yes I bet over the 18 holes