Tag: The Open

2022 Open Championship: Sportsbooks clean up as Tiger Woods misses the cut

Bad day for bettors. An even worse one for Woods.

Well, so much for everyone who blindly tossed a few units on Tiger Woods at the 150th Open Championship this weekend.

The Old Course at St. Andrews just totally ate up the GOAT, beginning with his first drive off the tee at No. 1 on Thursday, which landed in a divot and saw him start the round with a double bogey.

Woods officially missed the cut on Friday after finishing 9-over par. His final walk down the 18th fairway was an exceptionally emotional scene for Woods and his fans.

It was less emotional for oddsmakers, who had tremendous liability on Woods this weekend.

Over at Tipico Sportsbook, 10 percent of bets were on Tiger to win (+7000), but 71 percent of bets placed had him missing the cut.

A rough week in Scotland for Woods was expected, as much as bettors wanted to believe otherwise.

Here’s hoping Tiger still has better days ahead of him.

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Ian Poulter sank a ridiculously long putt during a solid opening round at The Open

No one would believe it if it weren’t on camera

LIV golfer Ian Poulter was met with boos as he approached the first tee at The Open Championships, which was immediately followed by an awful shot.

But he’d end the front nine in drastically different fashion than he opened it with.

How drastic? Well, does a historical finish to the ninth hole qualify?

For starters, Poulter made it to the green in one shot, setting him up for eagle on the relatively short par 4. The over 160-foot putt was deemed an “outside chance” to make it to the bottom of the cup on the broadcast. So, of course…

A 163-foot putt, the longest putt ever televised.

Poulter finished the opening round at -3, which currently has him tied for 14th in the standings.

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Si Woo Kim hit the shot of the day out of the Road Hole bunker to save par at The Open

Si Woo Kim made the most of his second shot from the famous bunker on 17 at St. Andrews.

Round 1 of The150th Open is underway at the famous and unrelenting Old Course at St. Andrews and we are already seeing the action that makes this major championship so entertaining year-in-and-year-out.

Si Woo Kim might have hit the shot of the day, however, and from one of the most difficult spots on the course. Kim’s second attempt on the 17th hole — more commonly known as the “Road Hole” — went into the dreaded Road Hole bunker.

At nearly 500 yards, this par 4 was already a nightmare, but trying to get out of the bunker is a nearly impossible feat. Kim’s first shot from the sand —- and third on the hole — caromed off the steep front wall. Dang it.

The second? PERFECTION.

Kim holed out (even if he was barely able to see it from his vantage point), saving par and keeping himself at -3 on the day. To celebrate the unlikely and very lucky make, Kim threw his club high into the sky as the gallery celebrated.

He is still a long shot to win the event — Tipico Sportsbook has him at +19900 — but this shot will live on in legends.

Cameron Young leads the tournament so far on day one with a ridiculous eight under par 64. The Open action continues all weekend.

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Xander Schauffele hit such a cool shot from the road on the legendary 17th hole at St. Andrews

This was so cool. And a little lucky.

The 150th Open Championship is off and running at the legendary Old Course at St. Andrews.

And you know what? This track, which is the home of golf, is still as cool as it has ever been.

What makes this place so fun, besides all of the history, is that players sometimes have to hit shots from all sorts of places – including sometimes the road on the 17th hole, which is commonly known as the Road Hole.

Xander Schauffele found the pavement during his round and decided to use his putter to get out of trouble and onto the green.

Check out this sweet shot:

He missed that putt but whatever, that was pretty sweet.

And a little lucky.

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12 photos of Tiger Woods’ first round of The Open, which got off to a brutal start

Tiger Woods found the water on the first hole after a really bad break.

Tiger Woods spoke all week leading up to the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews about how much this event meant to him and how he didn’t want to miss it for the world.

Well, it took about five minutes into his first round on Thursday for Tiger to be reminded just how brutal this game can be as his tee shot on the first hole came to a stop in a divot in the fairway and then his next shot ended up in the water in front of the green.

Tiger went on to double bogey the first and was 4-over thru his first six holes, which is not the start he was looking for.

Let’s take a look at some photos from his round.

Photos: 2022 Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews

Doesn’t get any better than a firm and fast Old Course.

The last men’s major of 2022 is here and it’s going to be fantastic.

For the 150th edition of the oldest championship in golf, the best players in the world have arrived at The Old Course in St. Andrews for the Open Championship.

Tiger Woods, who we last saw at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, has returned to the spotlight and will tee it up at his favorite golf course in the world Thursday at 9:59 a.m. ET with Max Homa and 2022 U.S. Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick.

Rory McIlroy entered the week as the betting favorite at +900, followed by several players at +1500, a group that included Jordan Spieth.

St. Andrews will play as a par 72 measuring 7,313 yards.

Here are some of the best photos from the week.

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LIV golfer Ian Poulter hit an awful shot after being booed on the first tee at The Open

Ian Poulter seemed a little rattled on the first tee at St. Andrews.

Ian Poulter is usually beloved at The Open Championship but on Thursday morning he heard some strange noises while preparing to hit his first shot of the tournament at St. Andrews – boos.

Yup, fans let Poulter hear it and the veteran golfer seemed a little rattled because he then hit his tee shot way left. In fact, he was lucky the ball didn’t go out of bounds, which is really hard to do on the first hole at the legendary course.

Poulter, of course, is one of the players who has joined LIV Golf. I have to imagine that had a lot to do with the boos.

Here was the scene:

Poulter recovered from that and finished with a 3-under 69.

Twitter had reactions.

Tiger Woods could make this the best week in the history of golf

Can Tiger actually pull this off?

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

The 150th Open Championship is finally under way at St. Andrews and a bunch of big names are already going low at the home of golf.

The biggest name of them all, however, tees off just before 10 a.m. ET. I’m talking about the needle. I’m talking about the guy with 15 majors. I’m talking about the GOAT:

Tiger freaking Woods.

This whole week at the Old Course has been a celebration of the great game of golf. The 150th playing of this championship is a special one. Players and fans have been giddy each day just taking in the scenes at such a legendary place.

How big is this week? Tiger said this on Tuesday:

“It’s the most historic one we’ve ever had. I just didn’t want to miss this Open here at the home of golf.”

So yeah, if Tiger Woods is raising the Claret Jug into the air on Sunday then this will be the greatest week in golf history. Imagine the crowd surrounding that tremendous final hole at St. Andrews. Imagine the partying that would be taking place in all those pubs in that beautiful little town. Imagine the tears that would be falling from Tiger’s eyes.

It would be an absolutely incredible moment that sports fans would never come close to forgetting.

Could it actually happen, though? Could the man who was almost killed in a car accident last year find his championship form for one more four-day stretch? Can the dude with the obvious limp from the devastating leg injuries suffered in that crash fight through the pain one more time and stun us all with another major championship victory?

The betting odds say he won’t be able to do that. Forget about his banged-up body and untested game for a minute – there are too many great golfers playing really good golf right now.

There are also lots of doubts about Tiger and his game. We’ve only seen him play twice this year and while he made the cut at both majors he’s played in, he hasn’t been a factor over the weekend.

St. Andrews, however, seems to be a perfect spot for the GOAT to make some magic. It’s an easier walk than Augusta and Southern Hills. He’s won here twice before in 2000 and 2005. He can plot his way around this links course and show of his brilliance with his legendary short game.

Tiger Woods winning the 150th Open Championship isn’t a crazy thing to think about.

Whatever happens, it’s just going to be a lot of fun watching Tiger at St. Andrews. Nothing is promised. These moments just don’t come along very often. We should all just enjoy these days when we get them.

But if Tiger somehow wins… my goodness. It would just be the best.

Ever.

Quick hits: NHL free agency winners and losers… Braves pitcher’s hilarious reaction to balk… Jordan Spieth crushes ice cream… And more.

\(AP Photo/Derik Hamilton)

– NHL free agency kicked off yesterday and a ton of moves were made. Mary Clarke has the winners and losers from Day 1.

– Braves pitcher Jesse Chavez had a hilarious reaction after committing an obvious balk.

– Jordan Spieth crushed an ice cream bar while playing a practice round at St. Andrews and golf fans loved it.

– Here’s how much money the winners and others will get at The Open.

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Do you remember a dude named Phil Mickelson?

Lefty is back again. But not really.

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

The 150th Open Championship kicks off Thursday morning at the historic Old Course at St. Andrews and one of the men who will be teeing it up is an older fella out of California who has won this major before.

The dude I’m talking about goes by the name Phil Mickelson. He’s a lefty who has won a bunch of times on Tour and has six major championship victories on his resume.

Lefty, as fans have called him for years, has been a shell of himself since he ripped into the PGA Tour in February. He was apparently mad at the Tour for making him $94,955,060 in career earnings and wanted to go join a Saudi-backed league ran by people who he called “scary (expletives)” to teach the PGA Tour a lesson, or whatever.

Mickelson went into hiding after making those comments and wasn’t seen again until he teed it up in LIV Golf’s first event last month in London, where he shot 10-over in the three-round exhibition and finished tied for 33rd place (out of 48 players).

But in all honesty, he’s still very much in hiding and has nobody to blame for that but himself.

This should have been another week to celebrate Mickelson for all that he’s accomplished in this game, which has been a lot. This should have been another week of Lefty making funny videos on social media about hitting high bombs at the Old Course. This should have been another week of wondering if the 2021 PGA champ could somehow win another major in his 50s.

Instead, he skipped out on the champions dinner last night, didn’t play in the awesome Celebration of Champions event on Monday, and will tee off at 2:30 a.m. ET tomorrow with Lucas Herbert and Kurt Kitayama and be done with his first round before most of us are even awake.

Oh, and his only two Instagram posts in the last 20 weeks have been two statements he made about his comments and about his decision to join LIV.

Mickelson will likely miss the cut this week. His golf game has been terrible since his return. After that 10-over finish in London he went 11-over through two rounds at the U.S. Open and missed the cut. Then he went to Portland for another LIV event and finished in a tie for 40th place at 10-over.

None of that is very good, at all.

It’s too bad Phil had to take the path he took. It’s too bad he couldn’t have had fun with all the other past champions last night. It’s too bad he has continued to make empty statements about the people who run LIV Golf.

This is a very special week for golf as we all celebrate the 150th playing of The Open Championship at the home of golf – St. Andrews. The days leading up to the tournament have felt so special, with players taking it all in and legends of the game standing right there with them.

Mickelson, however, has been in the background all week, a place he and his big personality has never liked to be. But it’s a place he sent himself to and it’s a place he’ll likely remain for quite some time.

Quick hits: Panthers punter sells jersey number to Baker Mayfield… KD asks fans about their legacies… Max Homa’s perfect Tiger Woods tweet… And more. 

(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

– Panthers punter Johnny Hecker had a great reaction after selling his jersey number to Baker Mayfield.

– NBA fans had a lot of funny answers to Kevin Durant’s tweet about adding to your legacy.

– Max Homa had the perfect tweet after he found out he’ll be playing with Tiger Woods in the first two rounds of The Open and golf fans loved it.

– Charles Curtis looks at 9 wild possible Donovan Mitchell trades.

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Max Homa had a perfect tweet about playing with Tiger Woods at The Open and golf fans loved it

This is just the best.

Max Homa, like many young golfers, grew up idolizing Tiger Woods. In 2013 after winning the NCAA title he fired off a tweet to the GOAT asking if he could play a practice round with him at the upcoming U.S. Open.

That never came to fruition and Homa, who has now won four times on the PGA Tour, has still never played a round with Tiger.

Well, that’s going to change in an amazing way this week as he’ll be playing the first and second round of the 150th Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews with Tiger freaking Woods.

How cool is that?

Homa, who’s easily one of the nicest people in professional sports, had the perfect tweet after getting that news:

Homa is just the best.

Here’s his tweet from 2013:

Homa has built a huge following on social media by just being himself while having lots of fun with his fans and breaking down their swings in hilarious videos.

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Twitter was rightfully so happy for him: