Birdie Putt At Watney Harrington

Golf Betting Lines

The 38-year-old got to eight-under par at the long, par-three 17th. Geiberger played a three-iron 15 feet left of the hole and converted the breaking birdie putt. He parred the 18th to shoot his lowest round of the season.

 

This is reminiscent of 2004 as Geiberger came into that event needing a big paycheck to earn his PGA Tour card for the following year. He won that tournament and now, 144th on the money list, needs a strong finish in 2006 if he is to play the PGA Tour in 2007.

 

At the par-four sixth, Rollins knocked his approach close and tapped in the short birdie putt. He made it two in a row at seven when his 11-foot birdie try found the bottom of the cup. Rollins closed out his front nine in style when his second at the par-five hole missed the putting surface. He chipped to eight feet and ran home the birdie putt to make the turn at five-under-par 31.

 

The second nine featured much of the same for Rollins, who finished 11th on this year's United States Ryder Cup team. He holed a 15-foot birdie putt at No. 11, then took advantage of par fives on the back nine. Rollins two-putted for birdies at both holes and walked to the par-three 17th tee at seven-under par.

 

"You can't win today, so I knew that even if I made par on 18, I was still in good position," said Rollins, who won this year's B.C. Open for his second tour victory. "I was disappointed with the tee shot on 17, but I didn't let it get to me."

 

Watney began on the back nine Thursday and collected a birdie at his first. He added a 12-foot birdie putt at 12, an eight-footer at 13 and a 20-foot putt at 14 to reach four-under par through his first five holes.

 

At the first, Watney sank a 15-foot birdie putt, but dropped a shot when he missed a five-foot par putt at the third. Watney recorded birdies at four, seven and nine to join the leaders.

Gamvling Golf Betting Blog

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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