Blumenherst, Munoz to battle for U.S. Women's Amateur crown

Golf Betting Lines

08/09/2008 - Eugene, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Amanda Blumenherst didn't lead until the back nine on Saturday, but she managed to knock off Erynne Lee 3 & 2 to advance to the finals at the 108th U.S. Women's Amateur at Eugene Country Club.

Azahara Munoz cruised to a 4 & 3 win over fellow Spaniard Belen Mozo in the other semifinal match.

Lee, a high school sophomore, grabbed an early 1-up lead as Blumenherst bogeyed the third. Blumenherst rebounded with a win on the fifth, where she made bogey on the par-three to even the match. Lee parred the next and again was 1-up.

Blumenherst, the co-stroke play medalist and last year's runner-up, squared the match again with a par on the ninth. Around the turn, it was all Blumenherst.

The three-time All-American from Duke grabbed her first lead with a par on the par-four 11th. Blumenherst made another par on 15 to extend her lead to 2-up with three holes to go.

The 21-year-old Blumenherst closed out the match in style with a birdie on the par-five 16th.

In the other semifinal, Munoz parred the first for a 1-up edge and never gave up that lead. Mozo made bogey on the second to drop 2-down, but birdied the third to cut the deficit back to 1-down.

Munoz, the 2008 NCAA Individual champion, parred the fifth and sixth to extend her lead to 3-up. Mozo fought right back to win the seventh and eighth to again pull within 1-down. That was as close as she'd get.

The 20-year-old Munoz parred the ninth, then birdied the 11th to again move 3- up. Mozo birdied the 12th to get within 2-down, but Munoz parred 14 and 15 to close out the 4 & 3 win.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.