in Golf Articles

It’s January. That can only mean one thing – golf season.

OK, it’s golf season in Hawaii, which is where the PGA Tour kicked off the West Coast Swing portion of its 2007 schedule with last week’s Mercedes-Benz Championship, won by Vijay Singh. That’s officially a small-field event; this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii is, as the title suggests, open to a full tournament field. That includes a sponsor's exemption, which has been used to invite Michelle Wie for the past three years. Make it four, as Wie is once again part of the fun.

For those of us who have been wrapped up in BetUS.com Sportsbook section.

There are also “matchup” bets that pit one golfer against another to see who produces the superior result. Check out the “Other Sports” menu and you’ll find dozens of matchups for the Sony Open, as well as the European Tour’s Joburg Open in Johannesburg, South Africa. If that’s not enough to satisfy your golfing jones, you can also find more exotic offerings for both events in the props section.

For now, if you’re one of the legion of golfing aficionados who wants to lay some cash on a certain Mr. Eldrick “Tiger” Woods, you’re out of luck in Hawaii. The AP male Athlete of the Year for 2006 is waiting until later this month for the Buick Invitational to make an appearance. His wife, Elin Nordegren, is expecting the couple’s first child sometime this summer. That opens up the Sony Open field for the likes of Singh, who has already done much to reclaim the form that he showed in 2004, when he was the PGA’s Player of the Year. The Fijian phenom is the “favorite” for this week’s tournament at +550, followed by Jim Furyk at +800.

The concept of Singh carrying chalk at +550 can be a bit disorienting for those not used to betting on individual sports with a large field. The best golfer simply isn’t going to win every tournament, which tends to make longer shots more valuable from a handicapping perspective. But Woods went through a period of dominance last year that threw a giant monkey wrench into that strategy. He won eight of the 15 tournaments he entered, including six in a row to end the 2006 season – all after the death of his father, Earl.

Tiger pointed out how difficult it is to win consistently in an individual sport when he accepted the AP honors in December, expressing surprise that Roger Federer finished a distant third (LaDainian Tomlinson of the Chargers was second) despite winning nearly every tennis match he played in 2006. “Anytime you’re over 50 percent winning in our sports, it’s probably a good year,” Woods told reporters. “I know how hard it is. I know what it takes to get to that point. I hate to say it, but people in the media and fans don’t understand how hard it is. Players do.”

With any luck, so do handicappers. Tiger is likely to miss even more time over the summer to be with his family, so 2007 is shaping up to be a year of new faces winning in unfamiliar places – much like 2004, when Singh was able to dominate while Woods went through an extended rough patch in his stellar career. It’ll take a little more elbow grease to make a profit betting on golf this year, but without the luxury of betting on Woods in every single event, those handicappers who do their homework will have an even greater advantage over the betting public.