The second round of the Scottish Open takes place at Gullane on Friday and after a low scoring opening 18 holes we are almost certain of a very low cut mark so there will be plenty at stake for the field on the golf course.
Those who started well will want to keep their foot on the gas as if they stall they could get caught out. Players who did not go low on the opening day need to do so on Friday if their Open preparations are going to extend into the weekend.
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Round 1 Recap
After the opening 18 holes we were left with one leader on seven under par. That is Luke List and he leads from a large and strong group on six under. That includes the champion the last time the tournament was held here in Rickie Fowler as well as Lee Westwood and Robert Rock among others. There is another sizeable group sit on five under par including Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Reed, Matthew Southgate along with a number of others. Justin Rose sits on three under, four off the lead.
It was a decent opening day for us betting wise. Unfortunately our two first round leader bets never really got firing but two of our three ball bets won and the other annoyingly went down by one shot with Ryan Fox parring the final 12 holes to lose to a birdie on 18. Chris Paisley and George Coetzee came through with a bit in hand though.
Friday Betting
There is no properly formed market for the second round leader or anything like that but I’m probably happy with that as currently there are 44 players within four strokes of the leader so literally anyone could take the lead into the second half of the tournament given that. You have class acts like Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed stalking the leader while a number of seasoned links players who could have a good day in what is expected to be benign conditions once again.
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Friday 3 Balls
As ever in a golf tournament the field go out in the same groups as they were in on Thursday albeit those out in the afternoon will be out in the morning on Friday and vice versa. That means we have the same headline groups with the Patrick Reed, Ian Poulter, Russell Knox group stealing the show on Friday morning after their wonderful play on Thursday. Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama will be out together again in the afternoon and should make for good viewing. I like a couple of bets from other groups on the second day though.
Matthew Baldwin/Rafa Cabrera Bello/Tyrrell Hatton
Match tees off at 08.50 BST
One of the groups out in the morning sees potentially two Ryder Cup stars on show with the defending champion Rafa Cabrera Bello and Tyrrell Hatton out alongside Matthew Baldwin who must be enjoying being in the spotlight this week.
Baldwin will be enjoying being in the spotlight but he is clearly not used to it as evidenced by the fact he shot the worst round in the field on Thursday while Cabrera Bello wasn’t a great deal better and needs something monumental to make the cut. Hatton is forging quite a links record having won the Dunhill Links and shot five under despite barely hitting a fairway or a green in regulation. His long game will not stay poor so I’m expecting him to win this three ball again.
Chase Koepka/Lorenzo Gagli/Oliver Fisher
Match tees off at 14.50 BST
One of the later groups out onto the golf course on Friday afternoon sees the American player Chase Koepka out with the Italian golfer Lorenzo Gagli and Englishman Oliver Fisher grouped together for the second day in succession.
Koepka and Gagli shot one under and level par respectively but how they did it I’ve no idea because every significant statistic they rank awfully in particularly on the greens. To be fair Fisher barely found a fairway and while he hit more greens it was his putting which contributed to his score. I tend to find on these links greens you either take to them from the beginning or you don’t take to them at all and so given that Fisher is going well on them, and that his driving surely must improve, I think he’ll come through here once again.
Tips
WON – Back T.Hatton to beat M.Baldwin & R.Cabrera Bello for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back O.Fisher to beat C.Koepka & L.Gagli for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with LeoVegas
Back him here:
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