We reach the halfway mark in the flagship event of the European Tour season on Friday when the second round of the BMW PGA Championship is played out at what is a wonderful setup at Wentworth in Surrey.
There is so much on this event it is untrue so all those who started well on Thursday will be eager to go well again on Friday while those who had a day opening round will need a good second one to ensure they are here for the weekend.
Round 1 Recap
It was a decent day of scoring on Thursday and the two men who took most advantage of that were a duo who both won their PGA Tour card for next season last week in Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Christiaan Bezuidenhout. They carded rounds of eight under while Adam Scott was a shot further back on seven under. A trio of players are on five under and they include Justin Rose while the veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez is another shot back on four under on a day where a number of big names looked a little flat and left themselves with a lot to do to get back into contention on Friday.
It was a level day for us betting wise but for much of it we thought we would come out of it in profit. That is because Dean Burmester led his three ball from the fourth hole right through to the last where he had a two shot lead only to find the water and make double bogey and end up in a dead heat with Thorbjorn Olesen which was disappointing to say the least. Shane Lowry wasn’t ever a factor in the first round leader market.
Friday Betting
The first round wasn’t able to finish because of a mid-round delay of about 25 minutes due to a medical emergency on the first hole. Around 10 players were left out on the golf course so there isn’t a second round leader market or anything to go at. There are a couple of fancy markets priced up involving selected groups of players but they are all of a top level and that’s like trying to single out one sweet at the Pick n Mix. It ain’t happening. We have a couple of players who are on the fringes of something good in the outright market courtesy of their positions on the leaderboard so there isn’t a need to get too stuck in again.
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Friday 3 Balls
The field will go out in the same groups as they were out in on Thursday but the order will be reversed so if you had a late tee time on Thursday it will be an early one on Friday and vice versa. The conditions aren’t expected to change too dramatically throughout the course of the day though so nobody should be inconvenienced too much. The morning attention will be on the Shane Lowry, Lee Westwood, Tommy Fleetwood group which goes out at 08.45 BST while the afternoon will largely be about the Justin Rose, Adam Scott and Matt Fitzpatrick which heads off at 12.40 BST. I like the group which goes out one ahead of that marquee morning group.
Luke Donald/Rasmus Hojgaard/Henrik Stenson
Match tees off at 08.55 BST
One of the better morning groups out onto the golf course sees the former winner of The Open in Henrik Stenson out alongside the man who won in Switzerland a couple of weeks ago in Rasmus Hojgaard and the former European number one Luke Donald.
Hojgaard can play with a bit of freedom on Friday because having shot nine over par on Thursday. I suspect that was the amount of golf he has played recently catching up with him but it will be hard for him to motivate himself for this round. This course has got too long for Donald now as evidenced by his form here since he last won in 2012 being MC-3-38-27-65-MC. The last two of those have been since the recent modifications were made. That leaves us with Stenson who after a 69 on Thursday won this group by six and 12 shots on Thursday. This is becoming a second shot golf course and Stenson was ranked 17 for strokes gained on approach on Thursday with Donald at 110 and Hojgaard 120 of the 144 on show. Experience, course fit and first round play all points to Stenson being able to win this group again.
Tips
Back H.Stenson to beat L.Donald & R.Hojgaard for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
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