Delaware Governor Jack Markell spoke on a Sports Illustrated web telecast Tuesday regarding his decision to support legalized sports betting in his state.
Delaware becomes the only state east of the Mississippi River to allow betting on sports after the governor signed the legislation with Markell signing the bill into law this past Thursday.
Markell explained that 30 years ago that Delaware had a sports lottery and it wasn't successful. But when the U.S. outlawed legalized sports betting across the country, states that already had it were allowed to keep it.
(Unlike neighboring New Jersey, Delaware has no plans to bring sports betting online. New Jersey is still in the process of trying to pass legislation making Internet sports wagering legal).
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Well, he better figure something out pretty quick. His wire-to-wire victory Sunday in the St. Jude Classic punched his ticket to Bethpage Black.
“Right now I don’t know if we’re going home first or what we’re going to do, whether we spend tomorrow traveling, going home and repacking,” Gay said. “Get to work on Tuesday I guess.”
Gay came to Memphis as one of seven players with a chance to grab the Open exemption as a multiple winner in the last calendar year. He responded with his second win in his last five events and the third victory of his career, beating David Toms and Bryce Molder by five strokes.
“I felt I had to go out and play golf. If I won, I’d get the chance to play,” Gay said.
He grabbed the $1,008,000 winner’s check at TPC Southwind in runaway style, too.
Gay led by only a stroke after each of the first three rounds, then shot his third straight 4-under 66 to pull away. He birdied three of the first six holes to take all the suspense out of the final round, and birdied the 18th to finish at 18-under 262.
Toms finished with a 65, and Molder had a 70. John Senden (64), Paul Goydos (68) and Robert Allenby (69) tied for fourth at 12 under.
“It was a pretty good golf tournament except for one guy stealing the show,” said Toms, the tournament winner in 2003 and 2004.
Phil Mickelson, in his first event since announcing wife Amy has breast cancer, and John Daly, returning from a six-month PGA Tour suspension, tied for 59th at 1 over. Mickelson closed with a 75, and Daly shot a 70.
It wasn’t as large a victory as in April when Gay won by 10 at Hilton Head. It just felt like that on a day where no one could get close enough on wet fairways that stopped balls with almost no roll. Officials had moved up the start by four hours hoping to beat incoming storms that popped up in the morning to delay the start of the final round—by four hours. It didn’t rain again.
Gay needed only 100 putts to become the fourth wire-to-wire winner in the tournament’s 52-year history and first since Justin Leonard in 2005.
Gay started pulling away on the par-3 fourth. After his tee shot landed near the pin and rolled 20 feet past, he rolled in the birdie putt to reach 16 under. Molder hit into a bunker and bogeyed—a swing that gave Gay a four-stroke lead. Gay rolled in a 30-footer on No. 6 and a 17-footer on No. 9 for birdies.
The club let him down on his two bogeys.
He found a greenside bunker pin-high on No. 7 and blasted out to 15 feet, but two-putted. He missed a 9-footer for par on No. 10.
But Gay made up for that by sticking an iron a foot away for birdie on the par-3 11th—the island green—for birdie to go back to 17. That’s when Molder was convinced this was Gay’s tournament.
Playing in only her fifth professional tournament, the steely nerved rookie from Sweden shot a 4-under 68 on Sunday to win the McDonald’s LPGA Championship by four strokes over Lindsey Wright.
Nordqvist finished at 15-under 273 in the tournament’s final stand at Bulle Rock Golf Course. After letting a five-shot lead dwindle to one, Nordqvist sank a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 14 and essentially clinched her first career victory with a 35-foot putt for a birdie on No. 15.
When the shot dropped into the cup, the 22-year-old Swede pumped her fist with delight.
Not that she ever felt the need to panic. Throughout the week, Nordqvist appeared more nervous in the interview room than on the course. So after her advantage fell to a stroke, her mindset never changed.
“I just kept being patient. I think that’s really what paid off at the end,” she said.
Wright, who shot a 70, said, “It was amazing. Under that amount of pressure, not being in that position before and in a major and being a rookie? You can’t get any better than that. She really didn’t falter today. She didn’t show any nerves at all.”
Nordqvist completed the final four holes of the suspended third round at 7:30 in the morning, then teed off as part of the final twosome shortly after 2:30 p.m. She took a two-shot lead into the fourth round, quickly increased the margin and held on to earn the $300,000 top prize.
After Nordqvist concluded the tournament with a birdie putt on 18, her coach and several friends rushed onto the green to spray her with champagne.
“That was great. I couldn’t see anything,” Nordqvist said, grinning.
Playing in her fifth LPGA tournament, Nordqvist celebrated her birthday Wednesday, shot a 66 on Thursday, took the lead in the second round Friday and held onto it throughout the weekend.
Her best previous finish this year was a tie for 17th in the Corona Championship.
“Obviously, it’s a great feeling. It’s been an incredible week,” Nordqvist said. “I had so much fun.”
Looking surprisingly fresh and calm, Nordqvist birdied No. 1 and opened up a four-shot lead with an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 6. The gap widened to five shots when Wright bogeyed the seventh, but birdies by the Australian on Nos. 8, 9 and 12, combined with Nordqvist’s lone bogey on 13, cut the gap to one.
Nordqvist rebounded with her birdie-birdie salvo, leaving the final three holes a mere formality. Wright birdied 16 but bogeyed 17, and Nordqvist used a marvelous approach to set up a 3-footer for birdie on 18.
“To hit that shot on 18, if that was me, I think I probably would have wedged it around the green,” Wright said.
That would be the final shot in the tournament’s five-year run at Bulle Rock. The LPGA Championship will get a new sponsor and a new home in 2010.
The memory of this one, however, will linger.
“It was almost like a little bit of a match-play event coming down the stretch,” Wright said. “I thought she was really holding it together, and I thought, she’s not giving this championship away. I have to go for it.”
Wright gave it a shot, but Nordqvist wouldn’t relent.
Jiyai Shin (68) was third at 10 under; Kyeong Bae (68) was 9 under, and Angela Stanford (69), Nicole Castrale (69) and Kristy McPherson (70) followed at 8 under.
Nordqvist’s victory follows that of Yani Tseng, who won as a rookie in 2008 at Bulle Rock. Tseng tied for 23rd Sunday.
Nordqvist said this week she patterned her game after Swedish great Annika Sorenstam. Now, like Sorenstam, Nordqvist’s first win on the LPGA is in a major tournament. Sorenstam broke into the win column in 1995 at the U.S. Women’s Open.
Woods will enter as the winner the last time the US Open was played at Bethpage Black, the last US Open, and the last event he entered before this weekend.
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The US Open starts Thursday, and Woods has solidified his normal position as the heavy favorite by finishing the Memorial two weeks ago with another amazing comeback to win.
Woods will enter as the winner the last time the US Open was played at Bethpage Black, the last US Open, and the last event he entered before this weekend.
Bet on tiger woods at: Online Sportsbooks
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I think I have post a topic like this .
Sorry ....:o
Is this a joke 😄
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The first race starts in the U.S. on July 4th with qualifying events from Monmouth Park.
All Breeders' Cup Challenge races will be televised on ESPN, TVG and HRTV, TSN in Canada and in more than 120 countries. For more information on each of the qualifiers, refer to the complete 2009 Breeders' Cup Challenge schedule. Mark your calendar for the 2009 Breeders' Cup World Championships: Nov. 6th and 7th!
Get all your online horse racing odds at the Bodog Sportsbook and Racebook
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Early goals by Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan put the U.S. team ahead by 2-0 at halftime. Give credit to American goalkeeper Tim Howard for making a number of great saves. Striker Luis Fabiano finally found a couple of holes and scored just after the restart and then again in the 74th minute.
The final blow came with just six minutes left when Brazil captain Lucio made a key play to Elano Blumer, who made no mistake in putting it away.
So close!!
Famed boxing champion and future Hall of Fame fighter Oscar de la Hoya, one of the most decorated pugilist in the history of the sport, retired as a professional today during a noon press conference in Nokia Plaza LA Live in downtown Los Angeles....
Read more: Oscar De La Hoya has announced his retirement
:what:
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I Love Soccer :dance:
Even though they lost to Brazil 3-2 on Sunday in the Confederations Cup final, they gave us some of the best soccer in US history.
Early goals by Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan put the U.S. team ahead by 2-0 at halftime. Give credit to American goalkeeper Tim Howard for making a number of great saves. Striker Luis Fabiano finally found a couple of holes and scored just after the restart and then again in the 74th minute.
The final blow came with just six minutes left when Brazil captain Lucio made a key play to Elano Blumer, who made no mistake in putting it away.
So close!!
NO JOKE :helpme
His death was announced by the French Tennis Federation on its Web site.
Paris-born Montcourt, who was ranked as high as 104th by the ATP World Tour, and who was rated the 19th player in France, had begun a ban yesterday for gambling on tennis matches in 2004. He hadn’t bet on his own matches.
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(Donaghy's release date has recently been in question due to concerns about his medical condition).
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