The first half of the BMW PGA Championship has been played and we get ready for the business stage of the flagship event on Saturday when those who made the cut will look to make their move on a Wentworth track that is playing quite tricky and presenting a real challenge.
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Friday Recap
It was another bad day for our bets on Friday with no joy in any of the three balls but Luke Donald got himself the right side of the cut line to offer up some hope of an outright return over the weekend.
We have three men tied at the top on seven under heading into the second half of the tournament. Thomas Pieters, Scott Jamieson and Francesco Molinari will share the lead heading into the third round with Maximillian Kieffer a shot further back on six under.
The group of five men on five under, two off the lead, is a strong one with Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Branden Grace and former champion Byeong-Hun An in that. A number of talented players are bunched up within five of the lead so we are set for a wonderful weekend.
Saturday 2 balls
The only markets that are up for Saturday’s third round is the two ball pairings with the majority of the groups priced up especially the ones that really matter. I’m going to take my chances on three of them.
Joost Luiten vs Shane Lowry
Match tees off at 11.35 BST
I mentioned on Friday how Shane Lowry hadn’t holed anything and that was going to have pressure on his long game and that rang true. He continued to hole nothing and in the end his long game cracked as we saw with that tee shot on 12 which went miles to the right. He eventually shot two over par.
Joost Luiten hasn’t pulled trees up this week but he is quietly going about his business and I fancy the Dutchman to take advantage of Lowry’s putting woes. It isn’t as though Lowry’s putter has suddenly gone cold. It has been that way for a while. Luiten is holing more and having shot two under par rounds he should be ready to kick on during Saturday.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat vs Soren Kjeldsen
Match tees off at 11.50 BST
At one stage in this tournament Kiradech Aphibarnrat was six under par but a poor finish to his second round has sent him back to two under and it will be interesting to see how he goes on Saturday having finished Friday with four straight fives. The Thai has really struggled when he hasn’t found the fairway, as most are.
Soren Kjeldsen has no worries like that because he rarely misses the fairways. He ranks third for fairways hit this week so far and with them firming up he should get some extra distance to go into the greens with which will be nice. These conditions suit Kjeldsen perfectly and with the confidence of having recovered from three over early on Thursday I think he’ll outscore Aphibarnrat on Saturday.
Andrew Dodt vs Jaco van Zyl
Match tees off at 12.30 BST
The overseas pairing of Andrew Dodt and Jaco van Zyl is a clash of styles in many ways. Both go into the third round on four under par but I like the look of the South African to come through this pairing in front.
Van Zyl has hit more fairways than Dodt this week so far which is very much where you need to be especially the longer this event goes on. As a result van Zyl sits third in the greens hit and he is high up on the putting stats too. Dodt is finding greens but without being on many fairways he isn’t getting close to the pins. If that trend continues on Saturday van Zyl will score better and that is even more likely to be the case when you factor in he has that extra experience in these bigger events.
Tips
Back J.Luiten to beat S.Lowry for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with 888sport
Back him here:
Back S.Kjeldsen to beat K.Aphibarnrat for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back J.van Zyl to beat A.Dodt for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
Back him here:
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