The final major of the year reaches the halfway mark on Friday when the second round of The Open Championship is played out across the Royal St Georges links in Kent on a day where we whittle the field down to those who will compete over the weekend.
Those who made good starts on Thursday will be looking to consolidate their efforts on Friday while those who weren’t so fortunate will need to go low on Friday if they are going to be around for the weekend of this special tournament.
Round 1 Recap
Not for the first time this year, the round ended with Louis Oosthuizen on top of the leaderboard. He carded a six under 64 and leads by one from the American pair of Jordan Spieth and Brian Harman. Webb Simpson heads up a quintet of players on four under which includes our outright pick Stewart Cink while there is a big group on three under which consists of the runner up two years ago Tommy Fleetwood, Danny Willett, Justin Rose and Collin Morikawa. It wasn’t such a good day for the likes of Rory McIlroy who ended up level, or the defending champion Shane Lowry, Bryson DeChambeau and the US Open champion Jon Rahm. They are all one over and in need of a good round on Friday to make the cut.
It was a bit of a day to forget for us betting wise with the best the first round loser bets could do was the T19 of Christiaan Bezuidenhout while the three bets for the three balls all came up short. Gary Woodland annoyingly lost to Ernie Els on the final hole while Jason Day and Matt Jones were well beaten by Johannes Veerman and Marcel Siem respectively. That leaves us with plenty of work to do over the final three days.
Friday Betting
There is a second round leader market to look at, which if I had a decent day on Thursday I might have had a pot shot at but the fact I didn’t and the leaderboard is so tightly bunched I’m not going to get stuck into it. The problem with considering a bet on this market is the weather isn’t expected to change too much throughout the day. I guess the course could get firmer the longer the day goes on but that isn’t guaranteed. That means that the whole of the bunched leaderboard is in play in this market unlike if the weather was to change when we could get rid of half of them. Hopefully Cink gets the good end of the weather and he can kick on for us.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account to get up to £25 in free bets! Perfect offer for this tournament! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Friday 3 Balls
The field go out in threes again on Friday, the same threes as they were out in on Thursday except those who were off earlier for the first round will have a later start time for Friday and vice versa. That means that the early parts of the day will be centred round the group containing Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith. They go out at 10.20 BST and then there is the group featuring Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood and Adam Scott who go out 11 minutes before then. Later in the day the attention will be on the Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm and Louis Oosthuizen group at 14.59 BST as well as the Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau and Branden Grace who go out at 14.26 BST. My bets come in other groups throughout the day.
Padraig Harrington/Brad Kennedy/Sam Forgan
Match tees off at 07.41 BST
The first of the three bets for me on Friday comes fairly early on in the morning when the Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington goes out alongside Brad Kennedy and the qualifier Sam Horgan in a match you would have expected Harrington to win on Thursday but that wasn’t the case.
Kennedy actually won this group on Thursday when Harrington bogeyed the last hole but I’m not convinced that form will stand up. Harrington is something of a links specialist and now that he has got 18 holes under his belt I expect to see the true Harrington here and even if we don’t on a potentially tougher setup I’m not convinced that Kennedy will shoot one over and Horgan three over. I expect Harrington to shoot better than the 72 he shot on Thursday but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a repeat of that is enough and at 4/5 he looks the best bet on Thursday.
Chan Kim/Justin Harding/Haotong Li
Match tees off at 11.47 BST
The second bet that I like on Friday comes in one of the mid-morning groups which sees the American player Chan Kim out alongside the South African Justin Harding and the Chinese ace Haotong Li.
Without being too disrespectful I think we can leave Haotong out of the equation here. He came into the tournament in terrible form and shot +5 on the first day without barely hitting a fairway or a green. His game has fallen apart. This is a match between the other two. Kim shot level par on Thursday but hit less than half the fairways and never really putted that well. The three holes he birdied were the easier three holes on the course and if the pins are tucked away on Friday I expect him to struggle. Harding chucked in a double bogey at the par 5 seventh but still shot three under. That mistake at the par 5 aside he was in fine form with 65% of the fairways hit and 72% of the greens. That long game, a strength of his, should be more than enough to win what should be a match between the South African and Kim.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout/Sam Horsfield/Min Woo Lee
Match tees off at 12.31 BST
The final group I like contains another South African in the form of the man we backed to be the first round leader on Thursday in Christiaan Beziudenhout. He is out alongside Sam Horsfield and Min Woo Lee, the winner in Scotland last week.
Bezuidenhout didn’t end up as the first round leader but he did win this group and I’m prepared to back him to win it again on Friday. Bezuidenhout shot two under on Thursday to the level par of Horsfield while Lee was four over. Lee had a bit of a mare on the back nine coming home in five over and could well be tiring after a huge effort in Scotland last week. He isn’t a complete alsoran but I expect him to struggle again. Horsfield’s level par was a solid round on Thursday but he doesn’t strike me as the type who is going to excel around here if the course toughens up. That isn’t the case with Bezuidenhout. He has the ideal game for around here and I expect him to get stronger as the course gets tougher. I think he’s more in for the long haul than Horsfield who in his last major opened up with a 69 and then proceeded to shoot 80 in the next round. In Sweden he started with a 64 then posted 74 and in Germany recently his first round 64 was followed by a 77. He’s basically struggling to follow up a good round with another so I like Bezuidenhout here.
Tips
Back P.Harrington to beat B.Kennedy & S.Horgan for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back J.Harding to beat C.Kim & H.Li for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back C.Bezuidenhout to beat S.Horsfield & M-W.Lee for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
