Thursday News and Betting Rundown

The PGA Tour's postseason schedule gets going Thursday morning, with golfers teeing off at The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club. Here's your Daily Sports Roundup…

Event of the day . . .

Tiger Woods would have been pegged as the favorite to win both The Barclays and, eventually, the FedExCup, but knee surgery will keep the world's top player out of the PGA Tour's playoffs this season. That opens the door for everyone else to pick up some cash and titles over the next few weeks, with Phil Mickelson currently listed as the 7/1 Vegas favorite to take the trophy in The Barclays.

British Open and PGA Championship winner Padraig Harrington is next at 10/1 odds, with Sergio Garcia at 12/1, and each of Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk, and Ernie Els at 15/1. Anthony Kim, Adam Scott, and Vijay Singh are then all tied at 20/1 odds to win The Barclays, followed by Kenny Perry at 25/1, and each of Mike Weir, K.J. Choi, Geoff Ogilvy, Stewart Cink, and Stuart Appleby at 30/1.

The top 120 golfers in the FedExCup standings after this weekend will advance to next week's event, the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in Norton, Massachusetts. The PGA Tour playoffs then continue with 70 golfers at the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club from September 4-7, and finally 30 golfers at The TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club from September 25-28.

College football futures…

While Kentucky nabbing Morgan Newton may not affect college football futures this year, our recruiting sources say he is going to help them very soon, perhaps as early as next year.

Non sports betting events of the day…

Former OffshoreInsiders.com hottie Rumer Willis is dating actor Micah Alberti. Don't forget our Hollywood betting odds. Another emeritus sex symbol Luciana Barroso has given birth to Matt Damon's child.

We are still waiting on BetUs Sportsbook to post odds on the next Bigfoot sighting. They have been in a cone of silence about when. However, they likely will post odds on IOUSA's opening box office.

Future candidates for our hottie Hall-of-Fame include comedian Laura Kightlinger and soccer player Carli Lloyd.

Olympic betting…

Recent big winners for bettors include Lucas Rossi, Hope Solo and the USA women's soccer team, while the USA softball team won money for the sportsbooks with their early exit.

Betting events of the day…

The Bears and 49ers begin the fourth week of the NFL preseason betting and the top handicapper in the land continues your winnings. From them: we commence making it 4-of-4 winning weeks in football (got the full year pass yet?) with the 49ers-Bears side. We make it 4-of-5 with Wise Guys, a dog and a runline getting back the juice last night.

Also the power of 620 sports services behind every selection has a huge betting card in MLB and NFL. The MasterLockLine traces our roots back to the 976-LOCK scorephone days of the early 1980s. One of the few handicappers/sports services that have been documented winners since said days is Bill Tanner. You know him as the handicapper who outshined and lapped dinosaur Doc's Sports Service circa 1993 as the Big 10 guru. Somewhat lesser known is that he has not lost an NFLX Platinum Play since 2001. Only his 4^th NFLX Platinum Play since and to say the least the sportsbooks are on red alert.

Don't hope solo when betting sports. Get the Vegas experts at OffshoreInsiders.com 

Non-event of the day . . .

Kyle Orton vs. Rex Grossman? It's like Canyon College against Belmont University. J.T. O'Sullivan vs. Alex Smith vs. Shaun Hill is like Beth Ann Chester taking on Rosie O'Donnell. As far as quarterback battles go, those ones aren't exactly riveting. However, we'll get to see all of those pivots on Thursday night (starting at 9:00pm ET) when the Bears host the Niners in the first game of Week 3 of the NFL's preseason schedule. The oddsmakers have the Bears pegged as 3-point home favorites, with the total at 37.5 points.

Also on the schedule . . .

Some of the American League's best pitchers will take to the mound on Thursday. Cliff Lee (17-2, 2.43 ERA) will try to guide the Indians past the Royals. Roy Halladay (14-9, 2.64 ERA) will take the mound for the Blue Jays against the Yankees. John Lackey (10-2, 3.22 ERA) will try to pitch the Angels to a win over the Twins. In the other Junior Circuit game on Thursday it'll be Oakland at Seattle.

It's busier in the National League on Thursday, with six games on the schedule. The Dodgers will host the Rockies, with Florida at San Francisco, Washington at Philadelphia, Atlanta at the Mets, and San Diego at Arizona. As well, Carlos Zambrano (12-5, 3.38 ERA) and the Cubs will be looking to pick up a victory at Wrigley Field against the Reds.

Finally, there is one Canadian Football League game on the schedule for Thursday night, with Saskatchewan at Edmonton. The Eskimos were opened as 2.5-point home favorites in that contest, with the game's total sitting at 56 points.

News from the wire . . .

The Bears stated earlier in the week that Orton would enter the season as the team's starting quarterback, so that will take a little bit of pressure off him on Thursday night . . . O'Sullivan will start for the Niners on Thursday night, and he's the leading candidate to be their top quarterback when the regular season gets underway . . . the Cardinals and Anquan Boldin continue to battle over the wide receiver's trade demands.

Peek at the future . . .

There are four more NFL games on tap for Friday night: Philadelphia at New England, Tennessee at Atlanta, Houston at Dallas, and Green Bay at Denver . . . the Yankees open a series in Baltimore on Friday night, with former Orioles ace Mike Mussina (16-7, 3.35 ERA) expected to take the mound for New York . . . the semifinals of the Olympics men's hoops tournament will be played at 8am and 10:15am ET on Friday morning.