\nErik Matuszewski, Bloomberg \u00b7 February 9, 2015 at 4:50 pm
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\n\tTiger Woods blamed deactivated gluteal muscles for his latest woes and oddsmakers don\u2019t anticipate a turnaround in his health and game by the time golf\u2019s Masters Tournament starts in two months.<\/p>\n
\tWoods\u2019s odds of winning the season\u2019s first major championship, scheduled for April 9-12 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, have jumped to 50-1 at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. Woods had been listed at 20-1 before pulling out of the U.S. PGA Tour\u2019s Farmers Insurance Open last week in California because of a back injury.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe\u2019s never been that high for the Masters,\u201d said Jeff Sherman, the SuperBook\u2019s assistant manager. \u201cI never thought we would see him at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOver the past year, the 14-time major champion and former No. 1-ranked golfer in the world has played in eight full-field events, missing the cut for weekend play three times, withdrawing three times and failing to finish better than 25th place. Woods made his season debut two weeks ago and missed the cut at the Phoenix Open after shooting an 11-over-par 82 in the second round, the worst score of his professional career.<\/p>\n
\tThat performance has left oddsmakers thinking that 20-1 isn\u2019t enough of an incentive for people to back Woods to end his 10-year wait for a fifth Masters title.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAfter what we\u2019ve seen the past couple weeks, keeping the odds around 20-1 would deter any further betting support,\u201d Sherman said.<\/p>\n
\tThe Masters is golf\u2019s most popular tournament among bettors, Sherman said, pulling in twice as much at sportsbooks as the next closest event, the U.S. Open. At the SuperBook, wagering on the Masters is open from August through April.<\/p>\n
\tFoggy Recollection<\/p>\n
\tWoods blamed his most recent withdrawal on a fog delay that postponed the start of his round at Torrey Pines Golf Club outside San Diego by more than two hours and affected his back.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s just my glutes are shutting off,\u201d said Woods, who has dropped to 62nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, his lowest spot since Oct. 5, 1996. \u201cThen they don\u2019t activate and then it goes into my lower back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe latest setback leaves his preparation for this year\u2019s Masters in jeopardy. It\u2019s not yet known how long Woods will be sidelined and he hasn\u2019t said when he\u2019ll play next.<\/p>\n
\tAfter events in California this week in Pebble Beach and next week in Pacific Palisades, the PGA Tour heads east for its Florida swing. Woods, when healthy in recent years, has tried to play in the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship in Miami and the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando. Last year, Woods withdrew from the Honda Classic in the final round because back problems and underwent surgery to repair a pinched nerve on March 31, a procedure that forced him to miss the Masters and U.S. Open. This year\u2019s Honda Classic starts Feb. 26.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf he feels like it\u2019s best to go and take some time off, not to continue to play, then he\u2019s got to do that,\u201d said Rickie Fowler, who played alongside Woods at Torrey Pines.<\/p>\n
\tMcIlroy Favorite<\/p>\n
\tRory McIlroy of Northern Ireland remains the Masters favorite, with 4-1 odds of winning at Augusta National and completing the career Grand Slam of all four major titles. Jason Day of Australia is now the second-favorite at 12-1 after winning at Torrey Pines in a playoff, with Adam Scott, Bubba Watson and Jordan Spieth listed at 15-1.<\/p>\n
\tWoods used to be by far the most popular golfer among bettors, perhaps not surprising since his 79 PGA Tour wins are second all-time to Sam Snead (82) and he\u2019s been No. 1 in the world rankings for 683 weeks in his career. Now the most popular bets for the Masters, Sherman said, are \u201cyoung guns\u201d like Patrick Reed, Fowler, Spieth and Day.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWith everything that\u2019s going on in his life right now, with the chipping stuff and the injuries, I just really feel bad for Tiger right now,\u201d Day, 27, said. \u201cBut hopefully he\u2019ll bounce back and he\u2019ll get things sorted out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Erik Matuszewski, Bloomberg \u00b7 February 9, 2015 at 4:50 pm Bookmark and Share Tiger Woods blamed deactivated gluteal muscles for his latest woes and oddsmakers don\u2019t anticipate a turnaround in his health and game by the time golf\u2019s Masters Tournament…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}