Storm ties course record; leads by one in Austria

Golf Betting Lines

06/07/2007 - Vienna, Austria (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Playing so poorly earlier in the week, Graeme Storm withdrew from a U.S. Open qualifier.

Obviously, he left his poor play at Walton Heath.

Storm tied the course record of eight-under-par 63 Thursday to take a one- stroke lead after the opening round of the BA-CA Golf Open at Fontana Golf Club.

Sweden's Martin Erlandsson is one stroke out of the lead. He ran off five straight birdies en route to a seven-under-par 64.

Patrik Sjoland shares third place with Shaun P. Webster and Tom Whitehouse at minus-six.

Storm explained his decision to pull out of the qualifier.

"I'd missed three cuts and I was playing so badly, I thought trying to qualify on Monday would be a waste of time," said Storm, who has missed the cut in three straight starts and four of the last five overall. "And even if I'd qualified it would have been a lot of money and a long way to go and maybe not break 80."

Playing the back nine first at Fontana, Storm caught fire early with three birdies over the first four holes. A birdie at the par-five 15th moved Storm to minus-four.

At the par-five 18th, Storm drained a 25-footer for eagle to take the lead at six-under. Around the turn, he parred seven straight.

Storm sank a seven-footer for birdie at eight and came right back with an up- and-down birdie at the ninth to match the course record.

"I wasn't even going to play here," admitted the 29-year-old Storm. "But I worked on my game over the weekend and decided I had to try to play through my bad spell. I arrived for the pro-am on Wednesday in the same car as Ian Garbutt and he watched me for a while and spotted something in my takeaway. His tip helped me today."

Erlandsson tripped out of the gate with a bogey at the first. He rebounded to birdie No. 2, but then parred the next six holes.

The Swede birdied the ninth to make the turn at minus-one. He ran off five consecutive birdies from the 11th before a two-putt birdie at the last moved him into second place.

Five-time European Ryder Cupper Lee Westwood posted a five-under-par 66 Thursday. He was joined in sixth place by Daniel Denison, Richard Green, Richard McEvoy, Gary Lockerbie and Francois Calmels.

Further down the leaderboard, Miguel Angel Jimenez is tied for 18th at minus- three and defending champion Markus Brier shares 44th at one-under-par 70.

Two other European Ryder Cup stalwarts struggled Thursday as Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie are among a group tied in 101st at plus-two.

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Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds

Super Bowl XLIII, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Super Bowl XLIII is now set, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will meet each other on February 1st in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to battle it out for the coveted Lombardi Trophy. The game kicks off at 6:00pm ET on NBC with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden covering the on-field action. Super Bowl XLIII betting odds at online bookmaker MySportsbook.com have the Steelers listed as an early -6.5 against the spread favorite.Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds

Pittsburgh earned their passage to the big game by beating their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, 23-14 in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. The Steelers jumped on Baltimore early, building a 13-0 first half lead, and never let up on their way to a fairly easy win. Although the Ravens did close to within two points in the fourth quarter, it never appeared as if they had enough offense to pull off the upset.

The Steelers dominating defense held Baltimore to a total of 198 yards while allowing them to convert just three third downs in 13 attempts. Pittsburgh also forced quarterback Joe Flacco into three interceptions, one of which safety Troy Polamalu returned fourty yards for a touchdown.

The Cardinals, by far the playoff team with the longest odds to reach Super Bowl XLIII, did so yesterday with a 32-25 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. Arizona charged out of the gates and built a 24-6 halftime lead that had the Eagles venerable defense reeling. Quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald did most of the damage, connecting on three first half touchdowns.

Arizona, however, could not sustain their momentum and the Eagles took a 25-24 with 10:45 left to play in the fourth. The Cardinals, with the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance hanging in the balance, mounted a fourteen play, 72 yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:52 off the clock. Warner hit running back Tim Hightower on a short screen for the go-ahead, game clinching score that will forever live in Cardinal infamy.

MySportsbook.com's Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds:

Pittsburgh Steelers -6.5 (-110), Over 46.5 (-110), -260 (Money line)

Arizona Cardinals +6.5 (-110), Under 46.5 (-110), +220 (Money line)

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.