An into semifinals at U.S. Amateur

Golf Betting Lines

08/27/2010 - University Place, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion Byeong-Hun An defeated Max Homa, 1-up on Friday to advance into the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Championship.

An's quarterfinal victory at Chambers Bay on Friday keeps hope for alive for the repeat. He was the youngest U.S. Amateur champion in history last year at Southern Hills and if he can successfully defend, An would become the first repeat winner since Tiger Woods captured three in a row from 1994-96.

An's semifinal opponent will be David Chung, who knocked out NCAA individual champion Scott Langley, 1-up. It's a rematch of last year's quarterfinals.

This semifinal match features a Stanford guy (Chung) versus a Cal guy (An). The two saw much of each other in Pac 10 action, but Saturday's match is for a spot in Sunday's final.

"Well, it's my luck, I guess, playing a Stanford guy," said An. "We were playing each other a lot of times this year in college, too. If I play well, I'll beat Stanford again."

The other semifinal on Saturday will feature Patrick Cantlay, a 1-up winner over Jed Dirksen in 20 holes, and Peter Uihlein, a 1-up winner over Oklahoma State teammate Morgan Hoffmann.

An was in control through most of his match, building a 3-up lead through 12. Homa chipped away and after an An bogey at 17, An's lead was only 1-up with one to go.

Neither player played the 18th very well and both left with pars. An left with another win and with a win on Saturday, no matter what happens on Sunday, a return visit to Augusta National next year for the Masters.

"I just want to forget about that," An said. "Tomorrow's another match. I have two more matches to go. But if I win tomorrow, I go back to Masters. I'm trying not to think about going back to the Masters. I have to win first."

Chung had an up and down battle with the NCAA champion from Illinois. The match was all-square through 13 holes, but Chung won 14 with a par to go 1-up. Chung birdied the 246-yard, par-three 15th to move 2-up.

Langley went down fighting. He birdied the 17th to cut the deficit to 1-down with one to go, but both birdied the last to give the match to Chung.

Cantlay led after the turn, but Dirksen won 11 with a birdie and took the lead with a par at 14. Dirksen stayed 1-up through 17 holes, but a bogey at the last forced extra holes.

Both players parred the first playoff hole, but a Dirksen bogey at the second put Cantlay into the semifinals.

Uihlein, who could celebrate a U.S. Amateur title Sunday on his 21st birthday, will be waiting for him.

Uihlein and his college teammate battled throughout the match with neither player grabbing more than a 1-up lead.

Hoffmann squared the match at the 14th hole, but Uihlein inched in front with a birdie at 16. Both golfers parred out and it was Uihlein off to the semifinals.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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