Cook gets first Champions Tour win in second week
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10/21/2007 - San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took only two weeks, but John Cook has become a winner on the Champions Tour.
Cook, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour, fired a six-under 65 on Sunday to come from behind and win the AT&T Championship. He finished the event at 15- under-par 198 to win the title by two.
Cook tied for 36th place last week in his Champions Tour debut at the Administaff Small Business Classic. He had not won at all since Reno in 2001, but now has made his mark on the elder circuit.
Mark O'Meara, who held at least a piece of the lead after the first two rounds, had a chance at his first Champions Tour win, but could not keep up with Cook. O'Meara, who took second to Bernhard Langer last week, bogeyed the last to shoot a two-under 69 and take second at minus-13.
Fred Funk, last year's winner, posted a four-under 67 and tied for third place with Senior Players Champion Loren Roberts (67) and second-round co-leader Tom Kite (70). The trio finished at 12-under-par 201.
Cook did not get off to a great start on Sunday. He bogeyed the third hole, but more than atoned for the error with back-to-back birdies from the fourth hole.
He birdied the par-three ninth, then two-putted for a birdie at the par-five 10th to get within one of the lead, held at the time by Kite. When Cook drained a nine-foot birdie try at the 11th, his third birdie in a row tied him for first with Kite and O'Meara.
Cook had decent looks at birdie from inside 20 feet at the next three holes, but failed to convert any of them. O'Meara bogeyed 11, birdied 12 and bogeyed 13 to trail by one. Kite bogeyed No. 14 to fall one back, leaving Cook alone in the lead.
Cook reached the par-five 15th green in two and sank a four-footer for birdie. That put him two ahead, but O'Meara holed a similar length birdie putt at the same hole to stay within one.
At the 16th, Cook rolled in a 22-foot birdie putt to once again extend his margin to two. O'Meara stayed strong as he made a 24-footer for birdie to remain one behind.
Cook, in the group ahead of O'Meara, missed an 18-foot birdie putt at the 17th. O'Meara had half that distance for his birdie, but missed.
Cook found a bunker off the tee at the par-three closing hole. He blasted out to seven feet and converted the clutch par save. O'Meara needed a birdie to force a playoff.
The two-time major winner in 1998 missed the putting surface with his tee ball. His second stopped 21 feet from the stick, giving Cook the trophy. O'Meara missed that putt for a bogey to lose by two.
For Cook, he became the second rookie in a row to win on the Champions Tour. Langer titled in Texas last week, but Cook took only two starts to break into the winner's circle.
Lonnie Nielsen shot a three-under 68 and took sixth at minus-nine.
Mark Wiebe (71), Dave Stockton (71) and Mark James shared seventh place at eight-under 205. Wayne Levi (70) and Scott Simpson (72) tied for 10th at minus-seven.
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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting
NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.
That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.
A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."
It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.
The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.
So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."
Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.
Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Seriously.
The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.
The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.
Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."
The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.
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