Tiger wrong on Haney book

Golf Betting Lines

01/23/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's amazing the things we choose to care about.

Hank Haney, the famed former swing coach for Tiger Woods, is writing a book titled "The Big Miss." It's about Haney's years coaching Woods and Haney's said numerous times that this will not be some tell-all scandal rag.

But Woods isn't satisfied.

"I think it's unprofessional and very disappointing," Woods told ESPN.com in a telephone interview, "especially because it's someone I worked with and trusted as a friend. There have been other one-sided books about me, and I think people understand that this book is about money. I'm not going to waste my time reading it."

Those are some harsh words from Tiger, but they aren't appropriate.

There is a murky area about whether it's bad form to write a book about people you worked with, or for. Some pros probably won't use Haney after this, but to my knowledge, he isn't really coaching much these days.

Clearly, Woods has never liked when employees talk out of school about him, but Haney is no longer an employee, so, per the First Amendment, a book seems like fair game.

"I was a witness to greatness," Haney said "to the AP last Thursday. "And I get asked the question all the time about Tiger. I wanted to talk about it and I wanted to share it with people. That's the bottom line."

Haney has been clear that there won't be any stories of tawdriness. Haney said when Woods' 2009 car accident revealed about 10 inappropriate transgressions, he had no knowledge of the behavior.

What is Woods so afraid of then? Haney isn't a terribly controversial guy. After following him on twitter for a year, the most controversial stance I've witnessed is he advocates Five Guys burgers over others.

What if this book just lauds Woods' work ethic and ability? Tiger hasn't even read the thing yet and he's condemning, which, by the way, will boost sales more than any Haney appearance on "The Daily Show."

"I'm not sure I understand the unprofessionalism part," Haney told the AP. "He hasn't read the book. There's a lot of positives in there. I think he's the greatest golfer who ever lived.

"I was just in a position to observe greatness and anyone who observes greatness likes to share it. I feel like I wrote a book that was fair and honest. It's golf history."

Woods has no interest in people around him writing or saying anything about him. That's a tad naive, although, when I interviewed Jimmy Roberts a few years back about a book he was doing, he said that he approached Woods, who turned Roberts down because he had his own book deal going he had yet to complete.

So maybe Woods doesn't want anyone spilling beans before he does.

The fact is this: Woods has no standing to complain about someone writing an accurate depiction of him. If he felt that strongly, maybe he should've had a confidentiality arrangement in his deal with Haney that prevented this in the event their relationship ended.

Haney will come off poorly if he tells tales of witnessing a woman sneak in Tiger's mansion through a side door. However, if Woods didn't want people writing books about his behavior, he should've considered not behaving that way.

Woods has much more important things to worry about, like his golf game. He starts his year in Abu Dhabi this week, then Pebble a little later where the possibility exists his amateur partner, Tony Romo, might shoot lower than him.

Instead, he sounds like a bitter guy with something to hide.

Yes, Haney is trying to make money. He doesn't make royalties on those Five Guys tweets. That's the American way. Hank should thank Tiger for the stories, the years of service, the talk show, the notoriety and now 50,000 more copies of "The Big Miss."

RANDOM THOUGHTS

- If you're a tournament official and your event is struggling, bring in a former President of the United States. President Clinton helped make the Humana Challenge, formerly the Bob Hope, somewhat relevant again. Any Democrat President who can get male, professional golfers to play in an event he's running is a masters salesman. PGA Tour golfers would rather vote for a water buffalo than a Democrat.

- Mark Wilson is underrated, yes. Five tour wins is a decent number in the Tiger Woods era, but winning after the Masters would help. All five of his wins came early on in seasons.

- Imagine playing two of your idols in a playoff, then beating them. That's what happened to Branden Grace when he knocked off Ernie Els and Retief Goosen at the Volvo Golf Champions event. It was his second win in a row and with two wins in three events, I'd vote for him right now for European Tour Player of the Year.

- Movie moment - "50 First Dates" is where Drew Barrymore has some rare form of amnesia where she re-lives the same day over and over. She marries Adam Sandler and they have a baby while he does science on a boat near Alaska. What doctor lets her have a baby? She doesn't know she's pregnant every morning, so what if she wakes up and feels like having a Bloody Mary? She doesn't know. Bad fake medical work.

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How to bet pro football

There is little doubt that the NFL is where the sportsbooks see the most action and also make the most loot. The NFL possesses betting friendly attributes that are unlike any of the other major sports. First off, there are relatively few teams to keep track of in comparison to college football betting or college basketball. And second, these teams play only once a week which makes staying on top of the results much easier than it is in the daily leagues such as the NBA, NHL, and MLB.

These dynamics, along with the sheer excitement of watching and wagering on football, brings more square action to the table than any of the other sports. Almost every Tom, Dick and Harry in America is an NFL expert in their own mind and that is precisely what the oddsmakers prey upon.

Understanding who bets the games is just as important as understanding which teams are playing the games. The market at times will dictate price, which in the betting world means the oddsmakers cater to the public rather than reality.

Knowing the market inside and out is the basis of our NFL handicapping model. That is, our approach to NFL handicapping is of the contrarian or value seeking variety. We will at times place a higher premium on public sentiment than on the fundamentals. This strategy dictates playing dogs and/or lesser competent teams, or teams the public wants nothing to do with. Or better yet, fading the teams the oddsmakers want you to bet on.

Along these same lines, we carry a similar notion that the first week of the NFL season presents one of the ripest opportunities for the astute gambler. This conflicts with conventional wisdom and/or handicapping lore, as most would say it is better to watch a few games and assess each team before jumping in with both feet. That’s all fine and dandy, but there are some interesting trends to exploit in Week 1 and we’d be remiss to ignore them. Let us quickly explain.

Gone are the days of dynasties, where the same core players stay intact and dominate the league year after year. Free agency and player movements can completely transform teams from one season to the next. In today’s parity-driven NFL, poor teams typically don’t stay poor for all that long and excellent teams must constantly reinvent themselves to stay on top.

The temptation might be to assume prior year results are the best indicator of who is going to cover in Week 1. To Joe Public, playoff teams from the prior season, home teams, favorites, and so one, look even more enticing than usual since there is no current season performance to judge them against. But the question begs: are the oddsmakers setting a trap?

To find the answer, we culled five years worth of Week 1 NFL data. As always, all of our analysis is done from an ATS perspective. The purpose here is to share the most important angles we unearthed and try to explain the logic behind them. So strap on your helmet, throw on your shoulder pads, and follow our lead as we expose some rare holes in the oddsmakers’ line of defense.

Home vs. Away Teams

Over the past five seasons, NFL home teams in Week 1 are just 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent). This of course implies that roadies are a 58 percent winning proposition during this time. The public at large has a tendency to overvalue home teams and this is especially true in Week 1 when there is no current season data to make predictions from. Consequently, the oddsmakers almost surely shade the home teams, by and large making road teams the choice for the value player.

Conclusion: Look long and hard at road teams first when handicapping the opening week.

Price ranges

Favorites are just 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent) in the opening week over the past five NFL seasons (Coincidentally, home teams hold the same ATS record as noted above). This means that underdogs bark at a 58 percent clip. Mid-range favorites performed the worst among our specified price ranges. In particular, favorites priced between –3 1/2 and –6 1/2 are only 8-15 ATS (35 percent) during this time.

The same basic pattern holds true when looking at home favorites (road favorites gravitate towards a 50 percent mean). Home favorites indeed are just 21-32-3 ATS (40 percent) in the first week of NFL action since 1999. Again, mid-range favorites are similarly the poorest performers when we look at home teams. Consider that home teams priced between –3 1/2 and –6 1/2 have stumbled to a 6-13 ATS (32 percent) mark in Week 1 games the past five seasons.

Conclusion: Like home teams, favorites and particularly mid-range favorites are generally overvalued in Week 1.

Playoff teams

It might surprise you to learn that playoff teams from the prior year versus non-playoff teams from the prior year are a mere 16-23-3 (41 percent) ATS in NFL Week 1 games over the past five seasons. Home teams which made the playoffs versus teams which did not make the playoffs from the prior season drop to a meager 7-14-1 ATS (33 percent) during this time.

Why are playoff teams, and in particular those at home, such bad bets the past five openers? Just as the case with home teams and with favorites, oddsmakers intentionally overprice playoff teams in the opening week to compensate for the public’s propensity to over bet them.

This theory holds true just looking at straight-up records from the past season as well. That is, home teams with winning records from the prior season vs. road teams with losing records from the prior season are just 8-13 ATS in Week 1 NFL games since 1999.

Conclusion: Playoff teams from the prior year and in particular, home playoff teams, are overvalued in Week 1 NFL games.

Scoring defense and scoring offense

Do good defenses and for that matter good offenses from the prior season fare better against the number the following year in Week 1 games? Well, sort of. Generally speaking, teams with a solid offense or defense from the prior season tend to do well in the opening week so long as they are on the road. As a host, however, the best offenses and best defenses from the prior year tend to be overvalued in Week 1.

Consider that the top five scoring defenses (i.e. points allowed) from the prior season are a nice 8-4 ATS (66 percent) on the road in NFL openers the past five seasons. Meanwhile, the top five scoring defenses from the prior season are just 3-8-2 ATS (27 percent) as a host in Week 1 during the same time period.

There is no discernable advantage or disadvantage for teams with a top five scoring offense (i.e. points scored) in Week 1 games. However, when we look at scoring offenses from the bottom up (isolating the five worst offenses from the prior season), the results are rather interesting. In particular, teams ranked in the bottom five in scoring offense from the prior season are 9-4-1 ATS (69 percent) when on the road in Week 1.

The logic is simply that the public perception is a poor scoring offensive unit from the year prior will have little chance of winning on the road in Week 1. In turn, the oddsmakers compensate for this perception and these poor offensive teams from the year prior carry extra line value on the Week 1 trail.

Conclusion: Teams with top-ranked defenses from the previous season are good bets when playing on the road, but poor bets when playing at home. Also, teams ranked among the bottom five in scoring offense from the prior season are generally a good value in their Week 1 openers, provided they are playing on the road.

Scoring margin

An exceedingly straightforward way of measuring scoring offense and scoring defense together as a whole is to look at a team's “margin." Margin is simply scoring offense minus scoring defense, which is a fairly clear-cut measure of how a team does on both sides of the ball. Typically, the higher the margin, the better the team.

In this regard, it might seem counterintuitive that teams carrying the higher margin from the prior season in week one matchups are merely 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent). Furthermore, road teams with the higher margin are 14-20-6 ATS (41 percent), while home teams with the higher margin are 17-22-1 ATS (44 percent). Once again, these results line up with the theory that better teams from the prior year are overvalued come opening day of the following season.

Conclusion: “Better” teams, which often boast a higher margin than their opponent, are overvalued the following season in NFL openers.

In sum

Oddsmakers cater NFL betting lines to match public perception and also to bait the public into poor bets. The temptation to use the prior year’s success as a buy sign for how a team will perform against the spread in Week 1 of the following season is an enormous trap.

The fact is, isolating road teams, road dogs, non-playoff teams vs. playoff teams, teams with a losing record or low margin vs. playoff teams or ones with a high margin from the previous year is where the line value resides. Quite simply, taking the road less traveled is your surest path to NFL betting profits.

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