There are 36 holes left in the PGA Tour season and the first 18 of those will be played on Saturday when the 30 men competing in the Tour Championship will play out the third round of the final event of the campaign.
There is huge money on the line on Sunday so the aim for everyone is to have a good day on Saturday to set themselves up for a potential life changing amount of cash and the season ending title.
Round 2 Recap
At the end of the second round two men have pulled away from the field and look like they will battle each other over the final 36 holes for the $15m bonus and the FedExCup title. Patrick Cantlay arrived in front this week and he is still in front on 17 under par but he only leads Jon Rahm by a shot. Bryson DeChambeau is the next man on the leaderboard but he is way back on 11 under with Justin Thomas another shot back. There is a quintet of players on nine under which includes the winner of the first play-off event Tony Finau.
We didn’t do a preview for the second round but we did have a couple of first round bets and came out level for them with a winner and a loser. Sergio Garcia got off to a wonderful start in his two ball with Erik van Rooyen and just about held on to win by a shot. Unfortunately Tony Finau couldn’t follow suit in his two ball with Patrick Cantlay. Finau wasn’t at the races on Thursday but it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway as Cantlay played well.
Saturday Betting
We have a third round leader market for the play on Saturday but whether there is any value in it is a different question. Something very strange is going to have to happen for the leader at the end of the day not to be names Patrick Cantlay or Jon Rahm given how far clear of the field they both are. Although both are going well this week it may not be a huge surprise if one is a little flat under the intense pressure on Saturday but to expect them both to be might be pushing it somewhat.
I guess the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas have the tools to close in on the front two is they both stall but they are going to have to push some boundaries and this isn’t a course to be doing that on and even then they are going to need help from the front pair and I’m not sure they’ll get it. I guess with a shot lead going into the round Cantlay is the value in a market which is 10/11 each of two but you’re almost better taking a chance on him in the two ball at a bigger price if you like him to extend his advantage. This market isn’t for me.
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Saturday 2 Balls
The field are back out in two balls on Saturday and unlike the opening day when they were out in FedExCup ranking order they go out in leaderboard order on Saturday. That means the last group out onto the golf course will be Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm. They go out at 20.05 BST with Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas out 10 minutes earlier. The coverage will show all the third round so the Dustin Johnson vs Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth vs Louis Oosthuizen groups should get plenty of coverage. I like one bet here.
Viktor Hovland vs Cameron Smith
Match tees off at 19.35 BST
The fourth to last group out onto the golf course sees the man who is in line to make his Ryder Cup debut at the end of the month in Viktor Hovland out alongside the player who probably should have won The Northern Trust after shooting 60 in one of the rounds that week in Cameron Smith.
These two are both locked together at nine under par and will be playing alongside each other for the second round in succession after they partnered each other on Friday too. On that occasion they both shot 68 but Hovland lost strokes on the field from tee to green in that round. Even having done that he is still third in strokes gained tee to green for the week and that is usually the stable diet of his game. What was encouraging for Hovland is that he was the fourth best with the putter on Friday and if the long game joins that level of putting he’ll be tough to beat here. Smith is in the middle of the field from tee to green this week and his putting numbers aren’t what we would expect. I always think there is a wayward mistake too many in Smith and around here if it comes at the wrong time it can be very costly. That makes me think Hovland can come out on top in this two ball.
Tips
Back V.Hovland to beat C.Smith for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
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