Two tours, two wins for Villegas

Golf Betting Lines

03/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Before Camilo Villegas arrived at the first tee Sunday, he called his mother in Colombia. "Tell the little bro congratulations and keep it up," he told her.

More than 1,500 miles away, Manuel Villegas was signing his scorecard at the Nationwide Tour's Bogota Open, a final-round 67 that earned him a tie for 15th place and a $9,900 check.

Hours later, Camilo Villegas holed a 19-foot putt on the last hole to win the PGA Tour's Honda Classic by five shots. His third PGA Tour victory netted him more than $1 million.

Believe it or not, there's some question as to which finish was more valuable.

As the elder Villegas was running away from the field at PGA National -- leaving Anthony Kim, Justin Rose, Vijay Singh and Paul Casey in his dust -- his native Colombia was hosting the first-ever PGA Tour-sanctioned event in South America.

Camilo Villegas played a big part in the landmark tournament. He flew to Bogota on Monday, taught in the junior clinic, played the pro-am, went to the dinner and the player party.

Then he hopped on a plane and returned to his new home -- he lives 15 minutes from PGA National -- to play in the Honda Classic.

In one whirlwind week, Villegas shined a spotlight on a part of the globe that has largely been neglected by the major U.S. golf tours, to their detriment. As the tours have expanded to locations in Asia, Australia and elsewhere, they have largely ignored Latin America, even as those countries continue to produce top-flight talent.

The cold shoulder couldn't have lasted much longer. Not while South America is six years from hosting the first Olympic golf tournament in more than 100 years.

"I believe it can be a huge step for Latin American and South American golf," Camilo Villegas said of the Bogota event. "I think the Nationwide should keep exploring other countries down there. I've had a chance to play throughout all of South America, and it's a beautiful place, full of great people, great golf courses, and the game keeps growing.

"I mean, we keep trying to do our best to represent this game and make it grow down there...and we all should keep doing the same things."

Villegas, 28, noted after his win that many Colombians would be watching the Nationwide event closely (48-year-old Steve Pate won in a playoff). But he also knew they would be following him.

He just hoped that the newspapers in his home country would split the page in half: equal space for him and the Nationwide event. Of course, that was unlikely.

The country's oldest paper ran a large picture of Villegas on the front page with the headline "Que buena onda" -- which, as far as I can tell, is akin to "That's awesome."

"Having the Nationwide event there was huge for my country," Camilo Villegas said. "I'm sure all of those guys are going to come back to the states with a totally different perception of my country. That's what I've been telling a lot of people. I mean, you've got to go there. You've got to visit. You've got to experience it. You've got to just see reality."

For a long time a lot was made of Villegas' potential to be a transformative young player. He could bash the ball. He also had a delicate touch. He worked hard and had the biceps of an Olympic swimmer. He had the Spider-Man crouch he used to read greens, a photogenic move that shutterbugs scrambled to capture.

But for two-and-a-half seasons on the PGA Tour, and one on the Nationwide Tour, there was something Villegas hadn't done: win a tournament. That all changed when he won back-to-back events during the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2008, against two stacked fields.

A year before that, in a column on Sept. 9, 2007, I wrote that the media should "refrain from lauding Camilo Villegas until the young Colombian star does something laudable."

We are certainly past that point now.

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2007 Academy Award Betting : Oscars odds

The 79th Annual Academy Awards odds , which will air February 25th, is sparking an interest throughout the nation with the announcement of its nominees. As the public chooses their favorites, sportsbooks are creating odds for one of the biggest entertainment betting nights of the year.

Whether its at a “Oscar Party” or in an on line sportsbook, entertainment gambling on award shows represent a huge increase in betting. As the public speculation mounts, MySportsbook.com, the largest and most respected sportsbook on the web, posted odds on who is going home with a “Golden Best Friend.”

“ We see a majority of our entertainment wagers come from the Academy Awards,” said MySportsbook.com spokesperson, Tim Dalton. “This is a competition that applies to everyone. These are the people that entertain us on a daily basis and you want to see them win.”

MySportsbook.com posted the following odds for Academy Awards:

Odds to win the Achievement in Directing:

Alejandro González Iñárritu "Babel": 8/1

Martin Scorsese "The Departed": 2/17

Clint Eastwood "Letters From Iwo Jima: 4/1

Stephen Frears "The Queen": 12/1

Paul Greengrass "United 93": 15/1

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:

Leonardo DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond": 11/1

Ryan Gosling in "Half Nelson": 20/1

Peter O’Toole in "Venus": 16/5

Will Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness": 16/1

Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland": 1/11

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:

Penélope Cruz in "Volver": 18/1

Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal": 15/1

Helen Mirren in "The Queen": 1/50

Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada": 10/1

Kate Winslet in "Little Children": 20/1

Best Animated Feature Film:

"Cars": 1/3

"Happy Feet": 2/1

"Monster House": 20/1

Best Foreign-Language Film of the Year:

"Water" – Canada: 22/1

"The Lives of Others" – Germany: 7/2

"After the Wedding" - Denmark: 24/1

"Days of Glory (Indigenes)" – Algeria: 23/1

"Pan's Labyrinth" - Mexico: 1/10

Odds to win the Best Live-Action Short Film:

"Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)": 6/5

"Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)": 7/2

"Helmer & Son": 5/2

"The Saviour": 6/1

"West Bank Story": 7/2

Odds to win the Best Original Screenplay:

"Babel": 7/4

"Letters From Iwo Jima": 3/1

"Little Miss Sunshine": 21/20

"Pan's Labyrinth": 11/4

"The Queen": 5/4

Best Motion Picture of the Year:

"Babel": 11/4

"The Departed": 1/2

"Letters from Iwo Jima": 15/2

"Little Miss Sunshine": 17/10

"The Queen": 20/1

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:

Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine": 11/10

Jackie Earle Haley in "Little Children": 10/1

Djimon Hounsou in "Blood Diamond": 9/1

Eddie Murphy in "Dreamgirls": 2/5

Mark Wahlberg in "The Departed": 5/1

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:

Adriana Barraza in "Babel": 14/1

Cate Blanchett in "Notes on a Scandal": 11/1

Abigail Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine": 2/1

Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls": 1/8

Rinko Kikuchi in "Babel": 11/1

Film To Win Most Oscars:

Dreamgirls: 2/3

Pans Labyrinth: 6/5

The Departed: 6/1

The Queen: 11/1

Babel: 15/1

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: 11/1

Little Miss Sunshine: 15/1


Additional sports and entertainment odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com

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