The second half of the Abu Dhabi Championship begins on Saturday when the opening Rolex Series event of the season sees the third round played out on what should be another compelling day of action in the lucrative tournament.
The halfway cut has been made and just nine shots separate the entire field, so everyone goes into ‘Moving Day’ with a chance of winning the title still. There are plenty of big names circling towards the business end of the leaderboard so we’re set for a great third round.
Round 2 Recap
At the end of the second round it is the Italian rookie Francesco Laporta who leads the way on 10 under par, one ahead of European Tour stars Matthew Fitzpatrick and Rafa Cabrera Bello with Sergio Garcia, Renato Paratore and Haotong Li next on eight under. A group of five on seven under include Patrick Cantlay, Lee Westwood and Kurt Kitayama. Louis Oosthuizen and Adri Arnaus complete that quintet. Our pre-tournament picks Joost Luiten and Thomas Pieters are on six under and in with a shout if they find a low score.
It was another annoying day on the betting front for us on Friday when Mike Lorenzo-Vera couldn’t win his three ball despite nobody in it shooting under par. Brandon Stone shot level par but a double bogey at the last hole sent Lorenzo-Vera to card a one over par round and turn a winner into a loser in an instant. Therefore we have work to do in the match betting over the remainder of the week.
Saturday Betting
We have a third round leader market in which Matthew Fitzpatrick is a favourite to come through and take the lead into the final round. He is yet to drop a shot in the tournament which is no mean effort it has to be said. He is probably the rightful favourite in this market but there is a lot of quality around him and they are all close enough to make an impression on the lead.
Rafa Cabrera Bello, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Patrick Cantlay and Kurt Kitayama are all players who could go low and come through and claim the lead to go into the final round and that is without mentioning any of the 12 players that are on six and five under par, of which we hope two such players – Pieters and Luiten – have low rounds in them. Nothing really stands out as a bet here though so I’ll go to the three balls.
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Saturday 3 Balls
Those who made the cut will be out in three balls on Saturday as the tournament heads towards the final round. The last group out onto the golf course are Francesco Laporta, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Matthew Fitzpatrick and they head out onto the golf course at 08.10 GMT while the group before them with Sergio Garcia, Haotong Li and Renato Paratore are out 11 minutes prior to that. It is that group which takes my fancy in terms of a bet where I like the outsider.
Renato Paratore/Sergio Garcia/Haotong Li
Match tees off at 07.59 GMT
The penultimate group out onto the golf course on Saturday sees the star name Sergio Garcia out alongside two other men who have won European Tour events in the past in Renato Paratore and Haotong Li, with all three teeing off two shots off the lead.
The Chinese star has been out of form for a while so it remains to be seen whether his strong two days are a changing of the guard in that regard or just a rare two good days. He could well make progress from here but I don’t really want to put any hard cash down on it happening. I always worry about Garcia in these kind of events in that I don’t really trust his putter, but he’s comfortable in the wind and has gone well so far, so it is no surprise he’s the favourite here.
I’m going to plump for Paratore though. He led after the first round having carded a 64 and it is always hard to back up a good round with another so maybe his 72 on Friday wasn’t too bad. He was in great form coming in here and has been one of the better putters this season so far. We know he is competent in the wind because his only European Tour success to date came in the Nordea Masters. You can get 3/1 on the Italian winning this three ball and with doubts over his playing partners, that is a price worth taking.
Tips
Back R.Paratore to beat S.Garcia & H.Li for a 3/10 stake at 4.00 with Coral
Back him here:
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