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Avenel was developed over 220 acres in Potomac, Maryland's rolling countryside, just minutes away from famed Congressional Country Club. The course is a perfect stadium golf facility, designed for hosting a PGA Tour event.
Gil Morgan shot four sub-par rounds in 1990 to edge a hard-charging Ian Baker- Finch by one shot. Morgan, who started the final round three shots back, shot 69 for the win, while Baker-Finch, who trailed by seven, closed with 66. Billy Andrade became a first-time winner in 1991, as he birdied the first playoff hole to defeat Jeff Sluman. Andrade shot four rounds in the 60s to tie Sluman at a tournament-record total of 263, a mark that still stands today.
Two shots behind Bobby Wadkins with one round to play, Mark Brooks carded his fourth straight round in the 60s to clip Wadkins and D.A. Weibring by three shots in 1994. Lee Janzen defeated Corey Pavin with a 12-foot birdie on the first extra hole to capture the 1995 tournament. Janzen, who shot four rounds in the 60s, won the last playoff in the event's storied history.
One shot off the pace with one round remaining, Steve Stricker carded his fourth straight round in the 60s to post a three-shot victory over four players in 1996 with his wife Nicki on the bag. Justin Leonard won for the second time in his career when he captured the 1997 Kemper Open. Leonard, who opened with three straight 69s, closed with 67 to defeat Mark Wiebe by one. Nick Faldo, Nick Price and Greg Norman finished three behind.
For the second straight year, a first-time winner was crowned, as Tom Scherrer came from two behind on Sunday to post a two-shot win in 2000. Scherrer was the only player to post all four rounds in the 60s. When Frank Lickliter won in 2001, he became the ninth player in the last 19 years to make this tournament his first PGA Tour victory. The 2001 event was completed on Monday for the first time due to inclement weather.
Rory Sabbatini returned to the winner's circle for the first time in three years, as he closed with back-to-back 68s for a four-shot win. With his victory, Sabbatini became the fourth player in the last five years to either hold or share the 54-hole lead and go on to victory. The 2003 event changed names to the FBR Capital Open.
The PGA Tour stepped in to do some redesign work in 2005 and the tournament was moved to nearby Congressional Country Club.
No. 2 is the longest hole on the course, a whopping 622 yards from the gold tees. This par five bends to the right and plays downhill towards the green. A massive strike off the tee down the right side can cut the corner of the dogleg, but be wary of the thick rough, sand and tall trees that guard the bend. The proper second shot is to lay back around 100 yards for your third to leave a simple pitch to a very long, boomerang-shaped green. A back-left flag could be quite difficult, since a deep bunker looms large.
Aesthetically, the fourth is one beautiful hole, with a lake left and tall trees right. Scoring-wise, you better be on your toes. Although the fairway is very wide, it slopes from right to left and any ball hit towards the left will most certainly end up wet. A play down the right will set up a medium iron to a well-guarded green. The putting surface slopes from back to front, with sand left and deep and a grass hollow to the right. Talk about pinpoint accuracy.
A love-hate relationship will certainly develop with the par-five sixth. Just 520 yards in length, the sixth is a severe dogleg-right hole with tall trees and water all along the right. As a par five, the hole is quite simple, as evident by the 2006 stats from the Booz Allen Classic, where the hole played as the easiest on the course at 4.619 with 23 eagles and 198 birdies. The biggest problem lies with the green. Although quite wide at 35 yards, it's just six paces deep with water and a rock wall fronting the putting surface. Two bunkers deep will snare all long shots. Quite a daunting target.
The dogleg-right, par-four seventh is a gem, stretching 461 yards from the back buttons. A blast of over 220 yards is required just to reach the elevated fairway. The wide fairway is accessible, but beware of the 35-yard long trap to the left of the landing area. A medium iron should be enough to get home to the slightly-downhill green. The putting surface is wide and long with sand short and deep. A back-right flag with the wind in your face could be one of the most difficult shots on the course.
The inward nine starts off with one of the simplest holes on the course, a par four of just 374 yards in length. A wide fairway is quite receptive to a three-metal off the tee, setting up just a little wedge to another small green. The putting surface is quite wide, but just 28 yards deep with two bunkers behind the green. So where's the beef? Well, it's a creek that runs in front of the tee and down the left side of the fairway, fronting the putting surface. Don't be discouraged, this is a birdie chance.
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The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.
Thursday, August 21
NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37
NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road
In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.
Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):
* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games
Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.
Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.
Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.
That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.
Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.
CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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