Karlsson is a major factor

Golf Betting Lines

08/07/2008 - Bloomfield Hills Township, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Who is the only player to register a top-10 finish in each of the season's first three major championship?

That would be the tall Swede, Robert Karlsson.

He tied for eighth at the Masters, shared fourth at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and last month, Karlsson used a final-round 69 to get into a tie for seventh at the British Open Championship.

Karlsson shot a two-under 68 on Thursday and shares the early lead at the PGA Championship.

So it must have been all of the success he's accumulated all year that propelled him to the top of the leaderboard, correct? That had to be the thought process, right?

"To forget about those three top eights, that's the most important thing," he said.

What?

"This has nothing to do with the other three," Karlsson explained. "If you look at the other three, obviously I'm really, really ecstatic about the way I played at the U.S. Open and Masters, and the British Open just sort of happened when the weather came up on the last day. I don't think I've ever been so good in the lounge at the airport before."

Fair enough.

Karlsson is 22nd in the world rankings and played on the last European Ryder Cup team. He owns seven victories on the European Tour, and although he might not be a household name in the U.S., Karlsson's a big-time player in the world of golf.

The 6-foot-4 Swede has not missed a cut anywhere in the world this year. He hasn't finished outside the top 20 since a tie for 30th at the WGC-CA Championship in mid-March.

Karlsson is almost assured to be part of Nick Faldo's Ryder Cup team next month and now, at Oakland Hills, Karlsson can earn major championship win No. 1.

Karlsson did not get off to the kind of start one expects from a leader. He double-bogeyed the first, but then rattled off three consecutive birdies from the second. He added birdies at six and eight and found himself three-under par.

When Karlsson birdied No. 11, he was the only competitor at four-under par. Unfortunately, an errant lob-wedge at 14 and a couple of trips to bunkers at 15 both led to bogeys.

He parred out to get in at minus-two.

While Karlsson's in the hunt for his first major, it's still early. Just don't ask him to think too highly of his 2008 major year.

"Well, Tiger's not playing all of them, is he?"

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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- New York Mets pitcher Orlando Hernandez, sidelined at spring training because of arthritis in his neck, is expected to resume throwing on Tuesday.

Hernandez received a cortisone shot Thursday after leaving camp and returning to New York to have his neck examined. The 41-year-old right-hander is penciled in as the team's No. 2 starter behind Tom Glavine.

El Duque's health is a major issue for the Mets, who won the NL East in 2007 and came within one victory of the World Series. Their aging and unsettled rotation is a big question mark this year.

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Hernandez went 11-11 with a 4.66 ERA last season, including 9-7 with a 4.09 ERA in 20 starts after the Mets acquired him from Arizona in late May. But he missed the playoffs because of a torn calf muscle.

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