MONMOUTH PARK, N.J. (GetMoreSports.com) — A day and a half after Gov. Phil Murphy was all smiles and giggles for the cameras, the scene Friday night at this old racetrack-turned-brand-new-sports-betting facility was a bit different.
The line at the wagering window was short but long, the clerk at the counter was clearly overwhelmed, and a relief pitcher — a guy who lived in Vegas in the 80s — was brought in from the bullpen.
Moments later, the line of bettors was moving like Justify at Belmont last weekend, your faithful correspondent was able to put $20 on the Giants to win 7 games (over/under is a preposterous 6 1/2) and another $20 to win the Super Bowl (hey, when you bring in the guy who has been protecting Tom Brady’s blind side, you are probably onto something. Memo to Eli Manning: Breathe.)
Word on the street (via radio) was that this place was hopping during the Spain-Portugal World Cup match between Spain and Portugal, but the hop had long since left the building by the time the Friday night crowd showed up. The best action was at the outdoor bar, where women dancing to the music in their heads were as abundant as they were polluted.
Somewhere in the distance to the East, Dustin Johnson was probably not yet in his pajamas nursing the four-stroke lead he is taking into the final two days of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock. He is -135 to keep up his magic after winning a week ago in Memphis, and he is really not a guy you want to gamble against when his “A” game is clicking.
But while Johnson did whatever (whoever?) he was doing, it was a safe wager that the folks at the USGA were conspiring to throw a few roadblocks in his way. Let’s just say that they weren’t exactly mowing the rough by candlelight in the overnight hours.
“This golf course,” said Brooks Koepka, who had six birdies over his final 11 holes for a 66 that left him four shots back. “There’s not many birdies. There’s a disaster around every corner. I mean, all it takes is one shot in the fescue, and you could be in there for a while. But you need a good round tomorrow just to give yourself a chance. Anything within three shots of the lead on the back Sunday, anything can happen.”
So keep in mind that as daunting as Johnson has looked, he is one mistake away from an encounter with Snowman, which means par may not even win this tournament. That is not a bad bet, and you can wager it at 7/2 odds with my partners at BetDSI.com.
For those who have been following me on Twitter and reading this site, you already know that I told you about the course conditions long before the tournament began. My Adam Scott pick didn’t pan out as he went 78-75 to miss the cut with his local caddie, but Aaron Baddeley, Marc Leishman and Ryan Fox are hanging around, and you never really want to count out an Aussie.
Leishman (+3) at 50-1 is not exactly a foolish bet.
And while we are talking Australia, 13-1 odds against France ain’t exactly the wagering equivilant of a scrubber.
But back to golf.
Justin Rose is being given the best odds to overtake Johnson and everyone else, being listed at +750. If you want to bet on anyone not named Rose, Koepka, Stenson, Fowler, Fleetwood, Hoffman, Poulter, Pearcy, Thomas or Leishman, the odds are 12-1.
If you think even par wins the tournament, that wager is +175.
If you want my advice, I will counsel you to sell your tickets (if you have them) and save yourself six hours of “So I was on this converted school bus out in Southhampton…” conversation fodder.
Like green napkins at Augusta, certain things remain sacrosanct in the golf world. A Sunday meltdown from someone is a given … and that someone need not necessarily be in the final pairing. A “moments ago” replay of a hole-in-one or a dougle-eagle is not out of the question, and there are prop bets on all sorts of crazy stuff from my buds down in Costa Rica. (Example: Will Mike Pence apologize to Kim Jong Un in 2018? “Yes” is 6-1.) You can’t make this stuff up.
Sort of like running into a drunk mother of three who told a tale of walking down the aisle to the Led Zeppelin song “Thank You” and subsequently went after the wrong hombre with tales of diaper changing techniques. She did not win the man lottery.
But she had a safe way home from the track, where the horses are on vacation and the learning curve is a bit steep. Last call for food at 11 p.m.? Really? Where are we, Inchon?
But as the sports book manager told me, everyone needs to stop making comparisons to Vegas. The folks out there figured out the gambling game a long, long time ago, and once upon a time they actually drew tourists to southern Nevada by promoting the unfettered view of nuclear bomb tests. These are the types of things you learn by visiting places like the Nuclear Testing Museum, which is a good place to go in Las Vegas when the dealer is showing 6 in blackjack, turns over a 16 and pulls a 5. Again and again and again.
Nobody wins all the time, which is why they build big hotels in exotic locales and why governors in 47 more states (OK, maybe not Utah) will eventually be doing what Gov. Murphy was doing in the photo above.
Sports gambling is the new normal, and as we all should know, the “new normal” is not always normal.
Eli Manning getting blindsided while being protected by Eric Flowers is normal. But that will not be happening anymore. Same goes for golf: Until they play the 18th on Sunday, nobody has won the tournament. So if you think Dustin Johnson is in a comfort zone, do your homework on what some of Johnson’s comfort zones have looked like. His lead might be as stable as Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and I will bet you Paul Manafort’s bologna sandwich that nobody will have a red number on the scoreboard when it is all said and done in Southhampton on Sunday night.
