Former PGA Tour winner Pate leads Bogota Open

Golf Betting Lines

03/06/2010 - Bogota, Colombia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former PGA Tour winner Steve Pate had a five-under 66 Saturday to take a two-shot lead after three rounds of the Nationwide Tour's Bogota Open.

The 48-year-old Pate birdied five of his last 11 holes to post an 11-under 202 and distance himself from a pack of players at the top of the leaderboard.

Tag Ridings, a leader after both of the first two rounds, had a one-under 70 and dropped into second place at nine-under 204.

Three players shared third place at eight-under 205, including Zack Miller, who produced the low round of the day with a six-under 65. Aaron Watkins (67) and William McGirt (70) were also at 205.

McGirt held sway over the field for much of the day. He took a two-shot lead with a pair of early birdies and remained on top of the leaderboard until a bogey at the 13th.

While McGirt fizzled on the back nine, Pate thrived.

Back-to-back birdies at the eighth and ninth holes got him within a shot of the lead, but he didn't grab a piece of first place until a birdie at the 13th.

Pate added two more birdies -- at the 16th and 18th holes -- to secure his two-shot lead.

If he can hold on through Sunday's final round, Pate will taste winning for the first time in more than a decade.

The two-time Ryder Cup selection won six times on the PGA Tour between 1987 and 1998. He might also have won the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic if not for David Duval's final-round 59.

"I have no idea what's going on," Pate joked. "I'm hitting it well. I'm not doing anything stupid."

Basically, Pate is playing it safe.

"Even though I have wedges in my hand I'm making sure it's on the green, short of the hole and trying to putt uphill as much as possible," he said. "It seems to be working out."

Pate made only one cut in four starts on the PGA Tour last year. He also missed the cut in most of his starts on the Nationwide Tour. In fact, he hasn't made more cuts than he's missed in any season since 2005, when he was 5-for-9 on the Nationwide Tour.

No one has to tell Pate he's in rare form. He knows how long it's been since he's had an opportunity this good. Now it's just a matter of holding on for the ride.

"I may go out and vomit all over myself tomorrow," Pate said, "but it's fun to be in this position."

NOTES: Pate shot a bogey-free 66 for the second day in a row...This is the first PGA Tour-sanctioned event in South America...Pate's best finish on the Nationwide Tour is a tie for fifth at the 2008 Mexico Open.

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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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