Cook gets first Champions Tour win in second week

Golf Betting Lines

10/21/2007 - San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took only two weeks, but John Cook has become a winner on the Champions Tour.

Cook, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour, fired a six-under 65 on Sunday to come from behind and win the AT&T Championship. He finished the event at 15- under-par 198 to win the title by two.

Cook tied for 36th place last week in his Champions Tour debut at the Administaff Small Business Classic. He had not won at all since Reno in 2001, but now has made his mark on the elder circuit.

Mark O'Meara, who held at least a piece of the lead after the first two rounds, had a chance at his first Champions Tour win, but could not keep up with Cook. O'Meara, who took second to Bernhard Langer last week, bogeyed the last to shoot a two-under 69 and take second at minus-13.

Fred Funk, last year's winner, posted a four-under 67 and tied for third place with Senior Players Champion Loren Roberts (67) and second-round co-leader Tom Kite (70). The trio finished at 12-under-par 201.

Cook did not get off to a great start on Sunday. He bogeyed the third hole, but more than atoned for the error with back-to-back birdies from the fourth hole.

He birdied the par-three ninth, then two-putted for a birdie at the par-five 10th to get within one of the lead, held at the time by Kite. When Cook drained a nine-foot birdie try at the 11th, his third birdie in a row tied him for first with Kite and O'Meara.

Cook had decent looks at birdie from inside 20 feet at the next three holes, but failed to convert any of them. O'Meara bogeyed 11, birdied 12 and bogeyed 13 to trail by one. Kite bogeyed No. 14 to fall one back, leaving Cook alone in the lead.

Cook reached the par-five 15th green in two and sank a four-footer for birdie. That put him two ahead, but O'Meara holed a similar length birdie putt at the same hole to stay within one.

At the 16th, Cook rolled in a 22-foot birdie putt to once again extend his margin to two. O'Meara stayed strong as he made a 24-footer for birdie to remain one behind.

Cook, in the group ahead of O'Meara, missed an 18-foot birdie putt at the 17th. O'Meara had half that distance for his birdie, but missed.

Cook found a bunker off the tee at the par-three closing hole. He blasted out to seven feet and converted the clutch par save. O'Meara needed a birdie to force a playoff.

The two-time major winner in 1998 missed the putting surface with his tee ball. His second stopped 21 feet from the stick, giving Cook the trophy. O'Meara missed that putt for a bogey to lose by two.

For Cook, he became the second rookie in a row to win on the Champions Tour. Langer titled in Texas last week, but Cook took only two starts to break into the winner's circle.

Lonnie Nielsen shot a three-under 68 and took sixth at minus-nine.

Mark Wiebe (71), Dave Stockton (71) and Mark James shared seventh place at eight-under 205. Wayne Levi (70) and Scott Simpson (72) tied for 10th at minus-seven.

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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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