It is the final day of major championship golf of the year on Sunday when the last round of The Open takes place at Royal Portrush on what could be a famous day on the County Antrim track as the 148th running of the event comes to an end.
The final round looks like being a victory lap for one of Ireland’s best but with a horrible forecast and the pressure of winning a major title there could yet be more drama in this one before the final putt is holed.
Round 3 Recap
It was a compelling day of golf on Saturday and at the end of it our pre-tournament pick Shane Lowry will take a four shot lead into the final round of the event as he looks to secure his first major title. He is on 16 under par, four ahead of Tommy Fleetwood who is another two ahead of JB Holmes. Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose are on nine under and nobody else is within eight of Lowry’s lead. It really is his to lose after a flawless 63.
It wasn’t such a good day for our match bet though as Lucas Bjerregaard found a fairway bunker with his opening tee shot and the day never really got any better from that point on. That made it successive poor days with the match betting and while Lowry looks like he’ll recover those losses for us, there is still one more day to attempt to do some damage in them.
Sunday Betting
There are a few bigger markets to go at on Sunday. Firstly there is the outright market but sat on the man in front with a four shot lead at 70/1 I don’t need to visit that one again and I’m in no rush to get involved in the without Lowry betting because in truth I couldn’t care less who comes in behind him as long as the field are behind him at the end of the day! There is one market which has caught my eye though.
Sunday’s forecast is for truly horrible weather. Driving rain and strong winds are forecast so the round is going to be a real grind. It looks like it picks up around 1pm which is just before the leaders go out and is at its worst at 4pm so there could be value to be had in the top 10 market in the hope that someone out before 1pm takes advantage of the easier holes while they play nice and then grind it out over the back nine. The person to do that could be Graeme McDowell and he’s 28/1 for a top 10 finish now. He currently sits T29 and five back from tenth but if he can break par and get his -2 score up to -4 or -5 he would have every chance. His -3 round on Saturday was in the tougher conditions and he’ll have played this track in all kinds of weather. While some players in the -3 to -5 range might not get up for this final round we know McDowell will be giving every shot due care and attention. We saw Eddie Pepperell do something like this at Carnoustie last year when we was on him in the final day and at the price I think we can afford a bash at Gmac to see what he delivers.
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Sunday 2 Balls
The field are back out in two balls on Sunday and with the inclement forecast the tee times have been brought forward so the last pair out of Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood go off at 13.47 BST with JB Holmes and Brooks Koepka out 10 minutes earlier. The 13.27 group of Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler is sure to be a popular one while earlier in the piece, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed go off at 12.07 which should be worth a watch until the leaders tee off. I like one bet from the Sunday two balls.
Justin Rose vs Rickie Fowler
Match tees of at 13.27 BST
The third to last group onto the golf course is the one which catches my eye on Sunday as former US Open winner Justin Rose takes on the major bridesmaid Rickie Fowler over the final 18 holes with both men hoping Shane Lowry collapses in order to have a chance at catching him.
Rose is having a rare good run on a links course but to be fair to him much of his scoring has come in the better of the conditions and I would be very surprised if he doesn’t struggle in the tougher weather on Sunday. Rickie Fowler is a rare American in that he relishes links golf in the tougher conditions and has shown at Hoylake that he can thrive in them. Fowler looked happy with his game on Saturday whereas even in sublime conditions Rose was average for a dozen holes. In these expected conditions I fancy Fowler for the better final round.
Tips
Back G.McDowell Top 10 Finish for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
WON – Back R.Fowler to beat J.Rose for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Sky Bet
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