Linkbutton in ASP.NET MasterPage and child Webform data control creating extra href="" - asp.net

Question

EDIT Final: Just in case someone else sees this behavior, I wanted to explain my work around. I was using a placeholder on my Master page for the webform described below. I added a server control to the placeholder in the Master page OnInit event. Through a process of elimination, I figured out that the behavior described below only happens when I add this server control to the Master page.
titlebarPlaceHolder.Controls.Add(sctitlebar)
I re-wrote the Master Page to not need the server control added and the behavior described below went away. I have no idea what caused it. It was a simple server control, but this is my work around.
EDIT 2: The same behavior happens when the container is a table in the repeater control:
<asp:Repeater ID="rptAuditList" runat="server">
<ItemTemplate>
<tr class="odd">
<td><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkOpenAudit" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("auditname") %>'></asp:LinkButton> </td>
</tr>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>
Here is the HTML output:
<td>Demo PreClose July 2012 </td>
EDIT: In my testing I just noticed that if I run the extact same control OUTSIDE of a MasterPage, it worked correctly, but if I run it inside a MasterPage, it behaves in the way described below.
I have tried this with a Repeater, DataList and Listview and the results are always the same.
Here is the HTML:
<asp:ListView ID="lvwAuditList" runat="server" >
<LayoutTemplate>
<ul><li runat="server" id="itemPlaceholder"></li></ul>
</LayoutTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
<li><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkAudit" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("auditname") %>' >
</asp:LinkButton></li>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:ListView>
Here is the output:
<ul>
<li>Demo PreClose July 2012</li>
<li><a id="contentMain_lvwAuditList_lnkAudit_1" href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$contentMain$lvwAuditList$ctrl1$lnkAudit','')">Demo PostClose Audit June 2012</a></li>
</ul>
The first row always has an extra href="" added. I have never seen this behavior before. I have stripped down the html and code behind to its most basic, yet I still get this extra href="". The code behind just sets the datasource and binds it, nothing else.
Thank you.

Answer 1

If you are using the first list tag as a placeholder and replacing the content in the code behind I would use a slightly different approach adding an ASP.NET PlaceHolder inside the list tag as follows:
<ul><li><asp:PlaceHolder runat="server" ID="itemPlaceholder" /></li></ul>
I have experienced some unusual artefacts appearing in Response code when using ASP.NET tags in a manner for which they were not particularly intended. This may well be causing your problem as well!