OffshoreInsiders Handicapping Blog

Tiger Woods is injured, and Phil Mickelson has never performed very well at the British Open, so that leaves South Africa’s Ernie Els as the big Vegas favorite to win the major. British Open odds.

Els went into The Open Championship at just 8/1 odds to grab the trophy, which is something he did at this tournament back in 2002. Els has also had a lot of close calls at the event, with three second-place results (1996, 2000, and 2004), two third-place finishes (2001 and 2006), and a fourth-place finish at last year’s tourney at Carnoustie.

Mickelson falls in behind Els on the odds list at 10/1, with Sergio Garcia at 12/1, and both Justin Rose and defending champion Padraig Harrington at 15/1. Lee Westwood, Jim Furyk, Adam Scott, Retief Goosen, and Vijay Singh were all pegged at 20/1 odds to get the win by Vegas, with Geoff Ogilvy and Luke Donald just a little farther back at 25/1.

Other notables and their British Open odds this week include Stuart Appleby (30/1), Stewart Cink (35/1), Justin Leonard (35/1), K.J. Choi (35/1), Stephen Ames (40/1), and Mike Weir (40/1). Miguel Angel Jimenez is a longshot at just 60/1 odds to get the victory.

The start of the 2008 British Open at Royal Birkdale dominates the sports news on Thursday, but Major League Baseball also swings back into action. There are four games on the diamond Thursday, with the Mets at Cincinnati, San Diego at St. Louis, and Pittsburgh at Colorado in the NL, and Detroit at Baltimore in the AL.

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The top pitching matchup will be in St. Louis, where the Padres’ Jake Peavy (7-5, 2.47 ERA) will take on the Cardinals’ Kyle Lohse (11-2, 3.39 ERA). Peavy has allowed more than three earned runs in an outing only twice this year - and it hasn’t happened since he returned from the DL on June 12. The righthander is coming off a strong outing against the Braves in which he tossed seven scoreless innings and fanned seven hitters.

Lohse is 8-0 with two no-decisions over his last 10 starts, allowing three or fewer earned runs in nine of those outings. The righthander also tossed seven scoreless innings in his last trip to the mound, striking out three Pirates and giving up six hits in his 11^th victory.

Johan Santana, well rested since he wasn’t invited to the All-Star Game, will start for the Mets on Thursday, and he’ll be looking to help the team run its winning streak to 10 games. The lefthander blanked the Giants on three hits over five innings in his final start of the first half, but he’d gone winless over his six starts prior to that despite solid lines. Santana is scheduled to face the Reds’ Johnny Cueto, who lost the Cubs last time out.

There are three WNBA games on the schedule for Thursday, with Minnesota at Houston, Washington at New York, and Los Angeles at Phoenix. The Sparks got another big game from Candace Parker on Monday night as they cruised to a 75-62 win over the Silver Stars. Parker tossed in 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds on the night.

Finally, there’s on Canadian Football League game on tap for Thursday, with the Tiger-Cats out in Calgary to face the Stampeders. Hamilton is just 1-2 straight up and 1-2 against-the-spread so far this season, but the one time they did cover was on the road. Calgary is 2-1 SU and 2-1 ATS, and they managed to cover in their only home contest.