Online Casinos Enjoy Less Woods Action as Tiger Roars at PGA
For most of the last decade, Tiger Woods has been a runaway favorite for online casino gamblers at any golf tournament he enters. Amazingly enough, Woods' superior level of play has combined with the public fascination with him to make him often favored against the entire field at sports betting sites.This week's PGA Championship offered some respite for online casinos and sports books. Woods had been favored at the three previous major golf events, only to stumble and see longshots pay instead. Bettors used to playing Woods despite the odds and collecting now found Tiger not so automatic.
Tiger went into the PGA having won last week's tournament, but he had also done the same at the Masters, the US Open, and the British Open, and then struggled in early rounds, leaving himself too large a gap to close on Sunday. So, the PGA began today with Tiger as a favorite, but not posting his usual less-than-even-money odds.
With action flowing to Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson, and Retief Goosen, Tiger's backers were finally shrinking slightly in number. So, of course, Woods dominated the first round, shooting a 67, 5 under par for the first round lead.
While early leads do not necessarily mean championships, Woods has shown a pattern of playing well in the later rounds, only to be unable to correct early mistakes. Further, Tiger has never lost a tournament he led going into the final day, proving himself even more formidable as a front-runner than on the comeback.
Online casinos are grateful that Tiger waited until the last major of the year to open so strong; if there's one event that the sports betting didn't reflect unquestuioned confidence in Woods, this is it. Meanwhile, the faithful already are counting their potential winnings with three days to go.
