Bandages and all, Creamer a major champion

Golf Betting Lines

07/11/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paula Creamer squeezed one final par out of prickly Oakmont and threw her hands over her face. The left hand was bandaged thumb-to-wrist, something else to absorb the tears.

She cried, yes, but this time the source of her waterworks was victory, not defeat. This time the sight of her on-course sighs was endearing, not frustrating.

This is the Paula Creamer we've been waiting for all along. And boy did she arrive at the right time.

Creamer broke through for her first major championship Sunday, winning the biggest one of them all, the U.S. Women's Open, with a steely two-under 69 in the final round.

Just four months after surgery to repair ligament damage in her left thumb -- four months after she wondered if she would ever play golf at a high level again -- Creamer was the only player to finish under par on a course that was built 107 years ago to confound the game's best.

Never shooting worse than a 72, Creamer posted a three-under 281 for the championship to beat Suzann Pettersen and Na Yeon Choi by four shots.

"It's incredible," Creamer gushed soon after the final round -- and it was.

Consider that Creamer played her last 52 holes in under 36 hours after the tournament was suspended early on Friday because of storms. Also consider that long-hitting Argentine Angel Cabrera won the men's U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2007 with a five-over 285.

How did Creamer do it? By being the player we all thought she would be five years ago when she became the youngest winner in the history of the LPGA as an 18-year-old who hadn't yet walked in her high school graduation.

Down to the last hole, Creamer never buckled. This wasn't the player who huffed and puffed her way to an out-of-sorts 79 in the third round of last year's U.S. Women's Open at Saucon Valley.

Creamer hit out of a bunker on a third of her holes that day, including one shot that sailed over the green and onto the trampled grass of a pedestrian path.

She chunked three chip shots and walked off with a triple-bogey, handing her ball to a young girl in the gallery. She sighed her way through the round that day, playing herself out of contention for the second year in a row.

There were sighs at Oakmont, too, but of a different kind. Creamer stepped away from an approach shot late in the final round, took a deep breath, then lined it back up and knocked it safely onto the green.

A television camera caught her shaking out the jitters and flashing a smile that stretched all the way to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

It was in the bag.

With no traffic ahead of her on the leaderboard, and no one close in her rearview mirror, Creamer kept her foot on the pedal all the way to the end, making two late birdies and three straight pars to finish off her ninth career LPGA title.

It was, finally, the first of what should be a career full of major championships.

"I can't even describe what I feel," Creamer said. "It is just amazing to have my name on this trophy with some of the best players that have ever played the game."

Creamer's victory gave American women two majors in the same season for the first time in three years. (Cristie Kerr won the LPGA Championship last month to become the No. 1 player in the world.)

More important, perhaps, is this: We finally got another glimpse of the Paula Creamer who once dared to challenge Annika Sorenstam on a ruling at the season-ending ADT Championship. That was in 2005, when Creamer was a rookie and Sorenstam was only the best player in the world.

Oakmont saw the gutsy, get-out-of-my-way Creamer who won seven titles by the time she was 22 years old. It was the steady, laser-focused player who once shot a 60, the second-lowest score in LPGA history.

Her victory on Sunday should finally allow us to forget the gum-snapping Paula Creamer who appeared in those Precept commercials with Nick Price a couple of years ago, blowing bubbles and talking about puppy dogs and crushes.

She'll always be the Pink Panther, for sure, but any notion that Creamer is a less-than-serious competitor disappeared with those butterflies in her stomach on Sunday.

Creamer is a major champion now, bandages and all.

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Out west, 22nd-ranked Arizona State will be battling for their first victory over 21st-ranked California since 2000. Although the Golden Bears are listed as 7.5-point favorites, the Sun Devils are 3-0, lead the nation in sacks with 18 and possess the Pac-10's leading passer in sophomore quarterback Rudy Carpenter.

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NCAA Football betting lines (home team in CAPS)
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Date Favorite Opponent Point Spread
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Sept 21 GEORGIA TECH Virginia 17
Sept 22 NEVADA Northwestern 6.5
Sept 23 MICHIGAN Wisconsin 14
Sept 23 Minnesota PURDUE 3
Sept 23 SYRACUSE Miami (Ohio) 6.5
Sept 23 MISSOURI Ohio 21.5
Sept 23 Louisville KANSAS STATE 14
Sept 23 TENNESSEE Marshall 22
Sept 23 CLEMSON North Carolina 16.5
Sept 23 FLORIDA Kentucky 24
Sept 23 Iowa ILLINOIS 20.5
Sept 23 FLORIDA STATE Rice 30.5
Sept 23 AUBURN Buffalo 41.5
Sept 23 BOWLING GREEN Kent 7
Sept 23 NAVY Tulsa 4.5
Sept 23 VIRGINIA TECH Cincinnati 27
Sept 23 BYU Utah State 29
Sept 23 OHIO STATE Penn State 16.5
Sept 23 TEXAS Iowa State 25
Sept 23 Washington State STANFORD 10
Sept 23 CALIFORNIA Arizona State 7.5
Sept 23 UCLA WASHINGTON 3
Sept 23 INDIANA Connecticut 1.5
Sept 23 Central Michigan EASTERN MICHIGAN 4
Sept 23 WYOMING Air Force 1
Sept 23 UTEP NEW MEXICO 9.5
Sept 23 West Virginia EAST CAROLINA 21
Sept 23 Boston College NORTH CAROLINA STATE 7
Sept 23 GEORGIA Colorado 27
Sept 23 ARKANSAS Alabama 1.5
Sept 23 BAYLOR Army 11
Sept 23 WESTERN MICHIGAN Temple 28
Sept 23 MISSISSIPPI Wake Forest 2.5
Sept 23 KANSAS South Florida 5.5
Sept 23 TEXAS A&amp;M Louisiana Tech 23.5
Sept 23 UAB Mississippi State 9.5
Sept 23 LSU Tulane 36
Sept 23 Utah SAN DIEGO STATE 6.5
Sept 23 BOISE STATE Hawaii 15
Sept 23 Notre Dame MICHIGAN STATE 3
Sept 23 USC ARIZONA U 22
Sept 23 Oklahoma State HOUSTON 1
Sept 23 OREGON STATE Idaho 23
Sept 23 OKLAHOMA Middle Tennessee State 29
Sept 23 MARYLAND Florida International 18.5
Sept 23 AKRON North Texas 17.5
Sept 23 SOUTH CAROLINA Florida Atlantic 29.5
Sept 23 NEBRASKA Troy 23
Sept 23 SMU Arkansas State 6

For complete NCAA football odds and World Series odds please visit MySportsbook.com