07/05/2009 - Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Martin Kaymer defeated Lee Westwood in a playoff Sunday to win the Open de France, rolling in a lengthy par putt on the first extra hole to claim his third European Tour victory.
Kaymer closed with a three-under 68 at Le Golf National, missing several good birdie opportunities down the stretch that could have given him the win in regulation.
Instead, the 24-year-old German holed a 30-footer for par on the 18th green to win the playoff. An emerging threat in Europe, Kaymer claimed his other two victories last season.
"This is very special for me to get this trophy today," he said.
Westwood, the 36-year-old Ryder Cup star from England, was attempting to win for the 19th time on tour. He fired a six-under 65 in the final round to climb from a tie for seventh into a share of the lead with Kaymer.
But Westwood knocked his approach shot into the water in the playoff, ending his chances.
The duo finished regulation at 13-under 271, three shots in front of Ian Poulter, whose final round included a blow-up at the 15th hole when the Englishman hit into the water and then shouted at a photographer.
"What are you doing? Are you that stupid?" screamed Poulter, who shot a 67 and took third place at 10-under 274. He went on to bogey the hole.
Ugly as that incident was, it was trumped by the late struggles of third-round leader Rafa Echenique, who shot a six-over 77 and dropped into a tie for 13th place at five-under 279 -- eight shots back.
Among the Argentine's missteps Sunday were two shots hit into the water at the 15th, where he took a triple-bogey seven. Echenique also made a triple-bogey at the 18th hole.
As Echenique failed to protect the lead, Kaymer and Westwood emerged to battle for it.
They both made key birdies early on the back nine -- Kaymer when he drained a long putt at the 10th and Westwood after he nearly holed his approach at the 13th.
But they also took bad bogeys in key spots. Kaymer bogeyed the 12th moments before Westwood, after finding trouble off the tee, bogeyed the 14th when he came up well short on a chip-shot.
Westwood avoided another bogey when he holed a 10-foot par save at the 17th.
Kaymer, meanwhile, missed a 12-footer for birdie at the 16th and an eight-foot birdie putt at the 17th, both times with a chance to take sole possession of the lead.
He hit an iron off the tee at the par-four 18th, later saving par from five feet to force the playoff.
Sticking to his game plan, Kaymer again hit an iron off the No. 18 tee to start the playoff, finding the rough. Westwood, as he did in regulation, hit driver and also landed in the rough.
Barely carrying the water with his approach shot, Kaymer got lucky with a lie in the rough. From there, he chipped it to the far side of the green.
Westwood wasn't as lucky. He sent his second shot into the hazard -- it dropped in between the wooden boards and a sponsor's signage fronting the green.
After taking his one-stroke penalty, Westwood came up well short of the hole with his fourth shot. He then missed his long bogey putt, leaving Kaymer with two chances to win.
Kaymer needed only one shot, as he rolled the long par putt into the center of the cup.
Winning in such dramatic fashion had little effect on the unassuming German, who offered a quick and modest description of his final stroke.
"Four is a really good score on [18] any time," Kaymer said.
The loss earned Westwood his fifth second-place finish in the last two seasons. It all might have been different if he hadn't found the water in the playoff.
"Martin's ball carried the water by a foot and mine must have went in by a foot," said Westwood, who hasn't won since 2007. "That's the chance you take in playoffs."
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The 80th Mid
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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