The Scottish Open has reached the halfway mark which means that there are two rounds of the tournament left. Just over half the field made the cut and only nine shots separate first from last so we’re in for quite some weekend at The Renaissance Club.
It has been a low scoring first couple of days and with rain set to soak the course before play in this third round we should be expecting much more of the same over the course of ‘Moving Day’ on Saturday.
Round 2 Recap
On an even lower scoring day than the first day of the tournament, which scarcely seemed possible, we have a trio of leaders on 14 under par. They are Erik van Rooyen, Lee Slattery and the winner of the Made in Denmark tournament in Bernd Wiesberger. They lead by a couple of strokes from Henrik Stenson and Nino Bertasio with Adrian Otaegui another shot further back on 11 under alongside Guido Migliozzi and Justin Thomas. Another huge group sits on 10 under and they include our pre-tournament pick Edoardo Molinari.
It was a fair day for us betting wise on Friday as we landed one of our two three ball bets for a little bit of profit on the day. Henrik Stenson was the man who delivered the goods for us with Andy Sullivan touched off by one shot earlier in the day. That gives us something to build on over the remainder of the weekend.
Saturday Betting
We do have a third round leader market to get stuck into but as with Friday I think it is a market you touch at your peril. There are just too many players within shooting distance of the lead to call with any assurance who will lead. One possible angle into this market is to play someone with an early enough tee time who will get the soft course and the better of the benign conditions before the wind kicks up in the afternoon which might make things tougher for the leaders. Rory McIlroy at 50/1 would be the obvious pick from six back but in truth this isn’t a market that I’ve got much interest in at all.
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Saturday 2 Balls
The field are out in pairs for the rest of the tournament and one of the better things about this tournament is how late the leaders tee off. The last pair of Lee Slattery and Erik van Rooyen go off the first tee at 15.50 BST while the pair out before them, Bernd Wiesberger and Nino Bertasio are out 10 minutes previously. There are plenty of decent groups out on the course before the leaders go off. Rory McIlroy is out alongside Thomas Detry at 13.05 with Tyrrell Hatton and Victor Perez an appealing group in the morning. They set off at 10.35. I’m going with two bets throughout the day.
Jamie Donaldson vs Darren Fichardt
Match tees off at 13.35 BST
One of the middle groups out onto the golf course sees Jamie Donaldson out alongside the South African player Darren Fichardt with both men going to need to do some moving from nine under if they are going to land the title on Sunday.
If one of them is going to make that move it may very well be Donaldson who is actually yet to drop a shot this week yet. One of the reasons for that is because he has been one of the best putters in the field to date and I expect that to be a key factor on Saturday. Fichardt has hit a lot of fairways in this tournament but hasn’t capitalised on his good positioning off the tee as much as he might have done. If conditions get a bit tricky later on here I think that will favour Donaldson so I’m happy to play him at the prices.
Lee Slattery vs Erik van Rooyen
Match tees off at 15.50 BST
The final group out onto the golf course interests me from a betting point of view as Lee Slattery and Erik van Rooyen look to power clear of those chasing in behind when they play out their third round on Saturday.
I like the Englishman here. Van Rooyen has a bit of an issue over the weekend, or has done in recent times and it could be that he fades away a little over the course of the afternoon. Slattery was on my shortlist for this tournament when I put it together so I can’t say I’m massively surprised by where he sits on the leaderboard currently. He hasn’t had a weak part of his game all week yet and looks to be building on the form of last week. With that in mind he looks overpriced for this final pairing.
Tips
WON – Back J.Donaldson to beat D.Fichardt for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with 888sport
Back him here:
Back L.Slattery to beat E.van Rooyen for a 3/10 stake at 2.88 with Betway
Back him here:
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