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02/11/2012 - Victoria, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - On a Saturday when many players near the top of the leaderboard struggled, Jessica Korda shot an even-par 73 to claim the lead after three rounds of the Women's Australian Open.
The American Korda sits at four-under-par 215, one shot in front of Nikki Campbell, Hee Kyung Seo and So Yeon Ryu.
The shuffling of the leaderboard came after another tough round at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
Ryu, the reigning U.S. Women's Open champion, was the second-round leader but stumbled to a three-over 76 on Saturday. She reached minus-eight early in her round and looked like she might take control of the tournament, but went on to post six bogeys.
Seo was right below Ryu after the second round, but carded a 75 on Saturday.
"It's one of the hardest courses I have ever played," said Seo. "It's probably in the top-five or the top-three, and sometimes the breeze is quite crazy. Also, the green is firm and fast, plus the undulations. Most of the players struggled at times."
Campbell was one of a few players to take advantage of the second-round leaders' struggles, firing a 70 to gain a share of second place.
"The wind was a lot stronger than the first two days," Campbell said. "You had to trust your shots a lot more and stay patient."
Two-time defending champion Yani Tseng (71), Katie Futcher (71) and Lorie Kane (72) are tied for fifth at two-under-par 217.
Ryu and Seo were threatening to pull away from the field early in their rounds.
Ryu birdied the par-five second and followed that with another birdie at the par-three third. Meanwhile, Seo birdied the third, after which Ryu was at eight-under and Seo sat at six-under.
But Ryu's round started to unravel when she gave both shots back with bogeys at the fifth and sixth. She birdied the eighth, but again followed that up with a bogey to make the turn at six-under.
Seo also birdied the eighth, but posted a bogey at the holes immediately before and after and made the turn at five-under.
They began the back nine with their scores back where they were after the second round, but both continued to struggle.
Ryu didn't have a single birdie during her final nine holes, instead recording bogeys at the 11th and 14th. She still had a share of the lead heading to the last, but bogeyed that was as well to drop into second.
Seo double-bogeyed the par-four 14th and bogeyed the 16th to fall two shots behind Korda, but ended the round on a positive note. A birdie at No. 18 lifted her into second.
Like Ryu and Seo, Korda had an up-and-down round. She bogeyed the fifth, but responded with birdies at Nos. 7, 9 and 10 to reach six-under. That would have left Korda as the decisive leader had she stayed at that score, but she dropped shots at the 13th and 17th.
Korda is the daughter of Petr Korda, a former professional tennis player who won the 1998 Australian Open.
"My dad was world No. 2," Korda said. "I told him I want to beat that. It would be a great accomplishment, an awesome thing."
Julieta Granada and Melissa Reid were tied for third with Korda after the second round, but both endured above-par rounds on Saturday. Granada shot a 76 to fall into a tie for eighth at one-under with Brittany Lincicome (73). Reid posted a 77 and sits at even-par overall, tied for 10th with first-round co- leader Stacy Lewis (77).
NOTES: Only nine players sit below par...German Sandra Gal began the third round in contention at one-under, but shot a 10-over 83 on Saturday to tumble into a tie for 53rd...Amateur Lydia Ko, 14, fired a 72 and sits in a tie for 18th at three-over 222. Ko is the youngest winner of a professional golf tournament, having claimed the title at the NSW Open in January.
<< Westbrook, Thunder cruise past Jazz
Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Russell Westbrook scored a game-high 28
points as the Oklahoma City Thunder cruised to a 101-87 victory over the Utah
Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena on Friday.
Kevin Durant added 19 points and Serge Ib
<< Sharks outlast struggling Blackhawks
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Benn Ferriero's goal early in the third period
proved to be the winner, as the San Jose Sharks kept the Chicago Blackhawks
reeling with a 5-3 victory at HP Pavilion.
Justin Braun, Dan Boyle, Joe Thornton a
<< Kings place Stoll on IR
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Kings placed center Jarret
Stoll on injured reserve Friday with an abductor muscle injury.
Stoll suffered the injury in the latter stages of the third period of
Thursday's 3-1 loss
<< O'Reilly's late goal leads Colorado past Carolina in OT
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan O'Reilly scored the game-winner with 1.2
seconds left in overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche a 4-3 win over the
Carolina Hurricanes.
With time winding down, O'Reilly picked the pocket of Jus
Westwood vaults into Dubai lead >>
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lee Westwood fired a five-under
67 on Saturday to vault into the lead at 15-under par after three rounds of
the Dubai Desert Classic.
Westwood was three shots behind Rory McIlroy and Thom
Hantuchova to face Kirilenko for Pattaya crown >>
Pattaya City, Thailand (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion Daniela
Hantuchova and Maria Kirilenko were semifinal winners Saturday and will meet
for the title at the Pattaya Open.
The third-seeded Hantuchova eased past Taiwanes
Thrashers activate Stapleton off IR >>
Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Winnipeg Jets have activated center Tim
Stapleton off injured reserve.
Stapleton had been sidelined since January 20 with a lower body injury. He has
appeared in 37 games this season, entering Saturda
Jets activate Stapleton off IR >>
Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Winnipeg Jets have activated center Tim
Stapleton off injured reserve.
Stapleton had been sidelined since January 20 with a lower body injury. He has
appeared in 37 games this season, entering Saturda
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
MySportsbook.com and Kentucky Derby Offer Bonuses
The 2008 Kentucky Derby has announced a $1-million bonus for this weekend’s 134th ‘Run for the Roses’ and MySportsbook.com is doing the same.
Well, not quite $1 million, but MySportsbook.com is offering a 75% rebate for Kentucky Derby lines. Check out the exclusive horse racing bonus for all the details.
According to MySportsbook.com, the favorites for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky are: Curlin (+250); Street Sense (+500); Scat Daddy (+700); Circular Quay (+750); and Nobiz Like Shobiz (+800).
Derby organizers announced this week that there will be a $1-million bonus at the 2007 Kentucky Derby odds if the first-place horse wins by more than 6 1/2 lengths – the margin of Barbaro's victory last year. The bonus would be divided Saturday among the winning trainer, jockey, owner and a charity, with each receiving 25 percent. The designated charity is the Barbaro Memorial Fund.
''It's certainly creative, it's certainly fun and it has something for the horsemen, which we always want to embrace,'' Churchill Downs president and chief executive Robert Evans said at a news conference. ''What's really cool is it will force us to remember Barbaro.''
Meanwhile, the Derby favorite – Curlin – is going against the odds this year. It's been 125 years since Apollo won after skipping his 2-year-old season, and not since Regret in 1915 has such a lightly seasoned horse worn the blanket of red roses.
Arkansas Derby winner Curlin – unbeaten in three career races – tries to overcome both those obstacles in Saturday's 133rd Derby.
''We're not running against history,'' trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday. ''We're running against who they load up.''
Six other horses have run in the Derby without benefit of 2-year-old races and with three or fewer starts. The best any of them managed was a sixth-place finish by Showing Up last year.
Asmussen dismissed suggestions that Curlin's lack of racing experience could keep him from the winner's circle.
”He exudes confidence and he's got a great presence about him,'' the trainer said. ''I feel great about the position we're in. He's not worried about anything, why should you be?''
The Kentucky Derby is at 4:04 p.m., ET Saturday.
For complete odds on the Kentucky Derby, visit MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting