The first round of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth is in the books and the second round of the tournament will be played out on Friday. The opening day was performed under blue skies on a gorgeous hot day just outside London and we are set for much more of the same on day two of the event.
With the first round completed the entire field have had the chance to see the changes to the golf course and strategize and us as punters have had the same opportunity ahead of betting on the rest of the tournament.
Thursday Recap
What could have gone wrong for us on Thursday did go wrong. Ross Fisher looked good to claim the first round lead only to bogey the easiest two holes on the golf course and finish two shots shy. He did claim a place but it was shared with so many people the returns were minimal. All three three-ball bets lost despite all three being in touch at certain points on the back nine so I’m looking for better on Friday.
Johan Carlsson was the man who took the early control of the tournament. He leads on six under par with a group of three players a shot back on five under. They include Francesco Molinari and Kiradech Aphibarnrat. As well as Fisher, the likes of Alex Noren, Thomas Pieters, Henrik Stenson and Shane Lowry sit on four under, two off the lead. Elsewhere the likes of Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Luke Donald and Martin Kaymer need big second rounds to be here for the weekend.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Friday 3 balls
With the leaderboard so bunched and full of quality I don’t see much value in betting on who will lead at the end of the day but there are prices up on most of the groups on the golf course on Friday and I’m going to get stuck into three of them.
Andy Sullivan/Andrew Johnston/Alex Noren
Match tees off at 08.35 BST
One of the marquee groups out early on Friday is the group of Andy Sullivan, Andrew Johnston and Alex Noren. Noren won this match by three shots from Sullivan with Johnston two shots further back on Thursday and I fancy him to win it again.
Beef is in the middle of a tricky period. He has this huge cult status but the chopping and changing tours hasn’t had the effect on his game that he would have liked so I’m not surprised he struggled on Thursday while Sullivan seemed unsure how to approach the course during an on-course interview on Thursday. He was talking about being aggressive but never really got on top of the course.
Noren doesn’t need to worry about that. The course is perfect for him. He finds most fairways and he is so good at strategizing and hitting greens and from there he is one of the best in Europe. He won on a similar test at The Grove at the end of last year and I expect him to kick on against a couple of confused opponents on Friday.
Ross Fisher/Shane Lowry/Thorbjorn Olesen
Match tees off at 13.00 BST
Thursday saw Ross Fisher and Shane Lowry tie at four under with Thorbjorn Olesen out with the washing at six over par. He is out of the tournament now barring something which I think is beyond him and he doesn’t strike me as someone who is suddenly going to shoot a low one. He is too wayward off the tee and shelling six shots in the final three holes is going to mess with his mind.
I have this between Fisher and Lowry and I’m going to go with Fisher. He sounded very confident about his game after the first round and that confidence combined with local knowledge being a member at Wentworth has him in good shape. Lowry couldn’t hole a thing on Thursday and eventually that is going to put pressure on his long game which isn’t good. Fisher would have won this three ball on Thursday but for crazy bogeys at the par 5s. If he tidies them up he should come out on top on Friday.
Dean Burmester/Nicolas Colsaerts/Avaro Quiros
Match tees off at 14.05 BST
The big hitting trio of Dean Burmester, Nicolas Colsaerts and Alvaro Quiros are back out on the golf course in the afternoon on Friday and just like on Thursday I expect Burmester to come out on top.
I’m not convinced Quiros likes this course off the tee and that is the strength of his game whereas Colsaerts’ putting is always likely to let him down at the wrong moments and on these fast greens you just know he’ll face some testing hole outs which he will fail to convert.
Burmester made seven birdies on Thursday so if he can tidy up the scorecard on Friday I expect him to come out on top here. He may only need to go round in level par to claim this three ball so odds against on that looks juicy enough to me.
Tips
Back A.Noren to beat A.Sullivan & A.Johnston for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Skybet
Back him here:
Back R.Fisher to beat S.Lowry & T.Olesen for a 4/10 stake at 2.40 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
Back D.Burmester to beat N.Colsaerts & A.Quiros for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
