The first round of the Tour Championship has been played out which means there are just three more rounds of the PGA Tour season left to run. We have a bunched up leaderboard which is already packed with quality to take us into the second 18 holes on Friday too.
There is no cut this week so there is no pressure for the stragglers to go low to make it through to the weekend but with the sort of prize pool being played for this week everyone in the field will want a good second round.
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Round 1 Recap
At the end of the opening round it is the USA Ryder Cup stars Rickie Fowler and Tiger Woods who lead the way on five under. Fowler was in excellent form in the opening 18 holes while Woods eagled the last to join him. Gary Woodland and Justin Rose are a shot back on four under with Rory McIlroy alongside Justin Thomas and Tony Finau on three under. There is a decent group on two under as well which includes the defending champion Xander Schauffele and Jason Day.
Sadly it was a poor evening for our bets with Billy Horschel never really getting going and while Keegan Bradley and Patrick Reed both led their playing partners by two shots early in the round neither of them could force home their advantage and both fell to annoyingly tame defeats so there is work to do there.
Friday Betting
There is an early sign of a second round leader market forming but in truth given the quality that is on the leaderboard it is hard to find any value in it. The likely contenders are all a short price so you will need to pick the player who will actually lead and given how many good players there are to choose from it is almost like picking a winning lottery ticket.
I’m tempted to throw a few coins at Gary Woodland at a double figure price considering he is only one off the lead and is largely free rolling without much expectation on him but there is the chance he is a sitting duck with great players ahead of him and many within a couple of shots behind him too.
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Friday 2 Balls
Once again the field are heading out in two balls with the first group out at 16.40 BST but unlike on Thursday, the players are out in leaderboard order on Friday so already there is a Sunday feel to the whole thing. Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler are the final pairing out onto the golf course. They go out at 19.00 BST.
Before then though, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas form the pick of the pairings at 18.40. They could well be seeing plenty of each other next week. The first group out sees Phil Mickelson out alongside Keegan Bradley in a clash of styles. There is one other bet I like the look of though.
Tony Finau vs Paul Casey
Match tees off at 18.30 BST
Two men who could be opposing each other a lot next week go out in the fourth to last group when Tony Finau and Paul Casey head off on their second round. Finau beat Casey by one on Thursday and he is the favourite to repeat that on Friday.
I think he is a worthy favourite as well. Casey couldn’t buy a putt on Thursday and we saw him have issues on these greens in the final round last year so there could be a mental thing going on there. There wasn’t really a weakness in the game of Finau in the opening round, as there hasn’t been for the past three or four weeks. He drove the ball well, found a number of greens and putted about as well as most in the field. Unless Casey can find some putts I think Finau will run out a fairly comfortable winner of this two ball.
Tips
Back T.Finau to beat P.Casey for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with LeoVegas
Back him here:
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