The second round of the BMW PGA Championship takes place on the West Course at Wentworth on Friday with the players who got off to a fast start looking to consolidate their position and those who didn’t quite get going as quickly as they wanted looking for a big day either to make the cut or get into contention.
With the big names back out on the course throughout the day we are set for a good day of golf, especially with the rain disappearing and the sunshine returning to make the course play a bit tougher.
First Round Recap
It was a low scoring opening day of the tournament as the rain hung around the Surrey track throughout the duration and at the end of it Lucas Bjerregaard holds a one shot lead on seven under par. He leads from a pair of South Africans in Dean Burmester and Darren Fichardt with another group a shot behind them. That group includes Rory McIlroy and Matthew Fitzpatrick.
There are some decent names gathered in the groups on three under and four under going into Friday with Alex Noren, Branden Grace, Shane Lowry, Chris Paisley and Thorbjorn Olesen among those looking to get themselves a late tee time on Saturday.
It was a rotten opening day for us betting wise with all three three ball bets being beaten and our first round leader punt, despite making a good start on the front nine had a disappointing back nine so we’ve work to do going forward.
Friday Betting
A couple of firms have priced up a market for the second round leader but the problem with it is it is so tough to bet on for a couple of reasons. The first of those is that the appearance of Rory McIlroy on the leaderboard makes it all about him and I’m of the opinion that I still don’t really want to take him but I wouldn’t want to oppose him either. The other issue is that the leaderboard is so bunched that there is a case that could be made for probably 20 players which doesn’t really get my juices going. With that in mind I’ll head to the three balls for Friday bets.
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Friday 3 balls
The groups are the same as they were on Thursday for the second round on Friday which means that in the morning all eyes will be on Rory McIlroy and Alex Noren when they go out with Lee Westwood while in the afternoon, Tommy Fleetwood, Ian Poulter and Matt Wallace are the star attraction. We saw on Thursday though that there are a number of decent groups for interest both for those on the course and those of us watching at home. I’m going with two bets.
Thomas Bjorn/Graeme McDowell/Shane Lowry
Match tees off at 08.35 BST
The first group I’m interested in is the one that involves my outright bet Shane Lowry. He goes out with the Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn and one of the Dane’s vice captains Graeme McDowell once again. Lowry shot three under on Thursday to beat McDowell by two and Bjorn by six.
I think he will maintain that advantage throughout the course of Friday too because I don’t think the other two are striking the ball well enough to score particularly well. The other reason why I like Lowry here is the fact that he should be a couple of shots better off having double bogeyed the last on Thursday. If he has had no bad reaction to that then I think he’ll go low on Friday and outscore his playing partners.
Robert Karlsson/Chris Paisley/Joost Luiten
Match tees off at 13.15 BST
The other group I’m interested in from a betting point of view on Friday is one of the early afternoon groups which has the classy trio of Robert Karlsson, Joost Luiten and Chris Paisley. Paisley went round in four under par on Thursday which was five better than his playing partners.
I see no reason why he won’t confirm that dominance on Friday. I think it is fair to say that Karlsson’s best days at this level are behind him while Luiten is not giving me the impression that he is fully fit nor firing completely with his game. I nearly took Paisley on Thursday but I wanted to see how he would adjust to British conditions having been campaigning in America recently. He looked fine so I’ll take him on Friday.
Tips
Back S.Lowry to beat T.Bjorn & G.McDowell for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetBright
Back him here:
Back C.Paisley to beat R.Karlsson & J.Luiten for a 3/10 stake at 2.70 with Betfair
Back him here:
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