Blumenherst to face Uribe for Women's Amateur title

Golf Betting Lines

08/11/2007 - Carmel, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Amanda Blumenherst collected eight birdies Saturday to knock off 2006 champion Kimberly Kim and advance to the final of the U.S. Women's Amateur.

Blumenherst will face off again Maria Jose Uribe for the title after trouncing Kim, 5 & 3, in Saturday's semifinals. Uribe held on for a 2 & 1 win over Ha Na Jang to advance to the finals.

The 20-year-old Blumenherst, who was the oldest semifinalist, rolled in a clutch eight-foot putt to save par at the first and took off from there.

She drained a 10-foot birdie try on two, then two-putted from the fringe for birdie on the par-five fifth at Crooked Stick. Those birdies gave Blumenherst a 2-up cushion.

Kim was unable to save par on the sixth and also bogeyed the eighth to fall 4- down. Blumenherst pushed her lead to 5-up with a tap-in birdie on the 10th, kicking off a stellar stretch of golf.

The 15-year-old Kim pitched to 12 feet at the par-five 11th. Blumenherst blasted from a greenside bunker to within a foot of the cup and was conceded birdie. Kim responded by making her 12-footer to remain 5-down.

At the 12th, Blumenherst dropped her second shot three feet from the hole and Kim responded by knocking her approach to seven feet. Both made their birdie putts.

Blumenherst nearly aced the par-three 13th, leaving her shot inside a foot. Kim, once again, answered in fine fashion. She left herself three feet for birdie and made the putt.

After four straight birdies, Blumenherst finally blinked as she missed a seven-foot birdie try on 14. Kim won the hole after her second shot stopped within a foot, but she was still 4-down with four to go.

Kim found a greenside bunker with her second to the par-five 15th. She blasted some 20 feet from the hole, but three-putted for bogey to give Blumenherst the victory.

"It was a lot of fun. I played really solid, hit the ball well and the putts were falling," said Blumenherst, a two-time ACC Player of the Year at Duke. "It was a combination of everything and it worked out. That was a lot of fun not having to putt, but I'm putting well too so it would have been OK either way. Kimberly never gave up, that was nice to see. It was lot of fun. We were giving each other birdies and having to make them. It was a great round."

"There was really nothing I could do about it. Putts weren't falling, I was getting bad bounces, but there is nothing you can do on days like that," admitted Kim, who became the youngest tournament champion ever last year at 14. "I tried and made a lot of birdies, but so did she."

There was far less action in the Uribe-Jang match. Uribe drained a long birdie putt on the third to go 1-up, Jang was conceded par on the fifth and that squared the match. They traded wins at eight and nine as Uribe bogeyed eight and Jang bogeyed the ninth.

Uribe took the lead for good with an eight-foot birdie putt on 10. At the 15th, Uribe made another eight-footer for birdie to move 2-up. The 17-year-old Colombian ran in a long birdie putt to seal the 2 & 1 win.

"I just need to keep doing what I'm doing (in the final)," Uribe said. "I need to make more putts because it is match play and putting is everything here."

The 36-hole final will be contested Sunday.

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Horse Betting

(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).

The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.

"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."

Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.

"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."

When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:

CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.

DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.

PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.

You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.

"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."

Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.

(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)

Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."

But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."

Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."

Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."

All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.

In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.

"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."

To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.