It is the second round of the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday as the first Rolex Series event of the season reaches the halfway mark, and it is likely to do so with a bunch of leading lights positioning themselves for a big challenge over the weekend.
Those who started the tournament well on Thursday will be keen to follow up their opening round with another solid offering, while for those who weren’t so good on Thursday it is a big 18 holes to get back into the mix.
Round 1 Recap
It was a low scoring first round and at the end of it we have joint leaders in the form of Shaun Norris and Renato Paratore. They shot eight under and will lead by two from the world number one Brooks Koepka and Jason Scrivener who carded six under rounds of 66. There is a massive group on five under par packed with quality with Sergio Garcia heading it. Rafa Cabrera Bello, Kurt Kitayama and Haotong Li are also in there. Our pre-tournament pick Thomas Pieters is another shot back on four under.
It was an annoying day for us betting wise on Thursday with Andy Sullivan shooting three under par but that being nowhere near enough to get anything from our first round leader bet and then Branden Grace could only tie with Matt Fitzpatrick so we only got a dead heat payment from our three ball bet. Hopefully a bit of better luck comes around on Friday.
Friday Betting
We have a second round leader market to have a look at but I’m not sure it is one to bet on because Brooks Koepka is looming too large on the leaderboard and even though he is two off the lead he is the favour to be in front at the end of the second round. You probably couldn’t argue against that either but I am a little wary that he hasn’t played competitively for a while and might end up feeling it a little bit here.
The group on five under has some decent names in it which should in theory offer up a value bet but even then they are three behind the leaders and a shot behind Koepka so it could be that they are playing for place money. One way of looking at it is that Shaun Norris is the only man out early on Friday so he could have an advantage because of that. He is no real price though in fairness. That leaves me with the Friday three balls.
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Friday 3 Balls
The players are out in the same groups they were in on Thursday on Friday, but those out in the morning go out in the afternoon on Friday and those who had the afternoon slot on Thursday will get the morning start on Friday. That means that the headline group in the morning is the one featuring Bryson DeChambeau, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Branden Grace. They go off at 03.40 GMT while in the afternoon it is Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry and they’re out at 08.05 GMT. There is one bet I like from one of the other groups.
Mike Lorenzo-Vera/Paul Lawrie/Brandon Stone
Match tees off at 08.45 GMT
The group in question is actually one of the last out onto the golf course as the French star Mike Lorenzo-Vera takes on the former Open champion Paul Lawrie and South African ace Brandon Stone deep into the later session of the day.
I’ve no intention to be mean to Paul Lawrie but at this stage of his career I’ve got to think this is a two ball in all but name. Lawrie was six over for his round on Thursday and his tournament isn’t going beyond this round. That leaves the other two and I like ML-V more here. Not only did he win the first round by three shots but he was more accurate than anyone off the tee and light years better than Stone with the putter in hand and I’m not convinced that is changing so quickly. Lorenzo-Vera is making big strides at the minute and he can win this group and is good value to do so at 5/6.
Tips
Back M.Lorenzo-Vera to beat B.Stone & P.Lawrie for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back him here:
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