Associated Press
The golf notebook …
TURNBERRY, Scotland ó Here’s a news flash: Odds are Tiger Woods will win the British Open.
The William Hill betting house is offering 13-5 odds on a Woods victory, with second favorite Sergio Garcia way behind at 30-1. Woods is such an overwhelming favorite that oddsmakers are trying to find other ways to bring in money on the tournament.
That includes offering 9-4 odds on two-time defending champion Padraig Harrington making the cut.
Among the proposition bets are 6-4 odds on Woods hitting the fairway with his first shot and 4-11 odds that Woods will win more majors than Roger Federer.
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SAY CHEESE: Tiger Woods’ patience might be tested the first two days of the British Open, and it might not have anything to do with pot bunkers, gorse bushes or those crazy bounces in links golf.
It’s the shutterbug.
Woods will be playing with 17-year-old Ryo Ishikawa, who already has won three times on the Japan Golf Tour and is a a sensation among the Japanese media. When he made his PGA Tour debut at Riviera this year, organizers had to double the size of media dining as credential requests increased fourfold.
A Japanese reporter asked Woods how he thought it would go.
“Very quiet,” Woods said with a smile. “I don’t think you guys will be out there, will you?”
Woods is ultra sensitive with photographers. So is his caddie, Steve Williams, famous for putting one corporate photographer’s digital camera into a pond at the Skins Game when he clicked in Woods’ back swing.
“It will be interesting,” Woods said. “There will be a lot of people inside the ropes. It is what it is. I’ve been there before.”