Noted golf enthusiast Tiger Woods may be a bit of an enigma off the tees right now, spraying drives right and left since his return from his self-imposed post-Thanksgiving crash exile, but Vegas has still installed him as the favorite to take home the 2010 U.S. Open, according to Golf.com.
Woods leads the field with 4-1 odds to win the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, with the preferred choice of most experts, Phil Mickelson, coming in at 5-1, and Woods' opening round playing partner Lee Westwood the third choice at 10-1.
Woods was also a 4-1 favorite at the Masters this past April, in his first tournament back. While those odds may seem high for someone who's played so little golf -- and been so erratic in his limited appearances -- the past few months, they are much lower odds than Woods would typically get in a major. Indeed, prior to his Thanksgiving Day crash, Woods was regularly nearly even money in the majors, meaning that Vegas thought he was roughly two-and-a-half times more likely to win than they do now.
Although that's not entirely accurate: Vegas doesn't necessarily think that Woods really is the best bet to win at Pebble Beach this weekend, but rather that he'll get too much betting action if they give him worse than 4-1 odds (Vegas generally likes there to be equal action on both sides of a bet).
So is Tiger really the smart money at the U.S. Open? I'm not sure I'd bet on it.