British Open Betting
by Mike Boozer

Planet earth's finest golfers voyage to Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, this week for the 2006 super lotto they call the British Open Championship.

OK, with all due respect, England is the birthplace of golf, and golf fans on this planet do appreciate the Brits' contribution to the sporting world. However, I'm more than just a fan. I'm a golf handicapper whose main objective is to eliminate chance. My articles focus on "cause and effect" as the foundation of successful sports betting. So, after years of frustrating losses, I'm here to tell you that none of the above works when handicapping The Open Championship.

I can only speculate as to the reasons why I got my "REAR END" handed to me every year I bet this event. I played every possible angle trying to make sense of golf's oldest major. And year after year it was the same old story. My wallet was a little lighter at the end of the week. However, in 2003 a Kenny Perry quote summed up my years of handicapping frustration, and also founded the winning strategy I use today.

You ready? After a practice round before the 2003 Open, Perry was asked his thoughts on playing links style golf. Perry said, "This is my first time over here, so I really didn't know what to expect. But it felt like I was playing golf on the moon."

That quote changed everything.

As a handicapper, always translating information, I interpreted Perry's analogy of moon golf to the equivalent of dumb luck. And since 2003 I have shown a profit using what I now call my Dumb Luck handicapping method. Before I share my Dumb Luck secret, understand that this is not for everyone, and this is the only golf tournament in which I use this method.

Call it super lotto, moon golf or dumb luck. The Open Championship is very vulnerable to chance. Thus, the Dumb Luck method takes the guess work out of handicapping. Your best bet is to ALWAYS take the odds. The Vegas oddsmakers don't account for the variable of luck. So, the chalk at this tournament is always overpriced.

Thus, betting favorites at The Open makes about as much sense as teeing it up on the moon. Good gambles!