The third major championship of the year will be won on Sunday when the US Open concludes with the final round at Torrey Pines in San Diego on what should be a wonderful evening of golf based on the current leaderboard.
We have major champions throughout the leaderboard and players who are major winners in waiting so the quality of player is there as is a wonderful golf course for the tournament to be decided on so everything is nicely poised.
Round 3 Recap
It was a moving day where most of the moves came early in the day but at the end of it we have three men tied for the lead with Russell Henley, Louis Oosthuizen and Mackenzie Hughes all sat on five under par heading into the final 18 holes. They are two ahead of a pair of former champions in Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau while the pre-tournament favourite Jon Rahm is alongside the runner up last year Matthew Wolff and our pre-tournament pick Scottie Scheffler on two under, three behind the leader. Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa are among the group on one under who will still fancy their chances of winning the title.
It was a good day for us betting wise on Saturday with Louis Oosthuizen seeing off Matthew Wolff as we expected him to do. It looked like being a frustrating day for us with the South African trading bogeys with the American for the first 15 holes but he finished well and in the end proved three shots too good for his playing partner to earn us a first full winner of the tournament.
Sunday Betting
There are a few markets in play for the action on Sunday, not least the outright market where Louis Oosthuizen is now the favourite to win the tournament with Bryson DeChambeau the second favourite. I’m not convinced about any of the three leaders in this situation so I wouldn’t be surprised if this tournament is won from behind in which case our pre-tournament pick Scottie Scheffler is right in the hunt on two under, one back from anyone else other than the top three. That is enough to justify my interest in this market and with conditions not really expected to change throughout the day there isn’t really a point in playing guesswork at who might or might not launch a charge from deep.
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Sunday 2 Balls
The field will go out in pairs for this final round with the tees times moved forward a little from Saturday in case a play-off is needed to determine the winner of the event. Louis Oosthuizen and Mackenzie Hughes will be the last pair onto the course at 20.55 BST with Rory McIlroy and Russell Henley in the penultimate group at 20.44 BST. As ever the TV coverage is lengthy on Sunday so we’ll get to follow the early groups, the pick of which are the ones featuring Patrick Reed and Tommy Fleetwood as well as the Adam Scott and Patrick Cantlay pairing. I’ll take a punt from that final group.
Louis Oosthuizen vs Mackenzie Hughes
Match tees off at 20.55 BST
The final pairing out onto the golf course on Sunday sees the former winner of The Open, Louis Oosthuizen, who is at the business end in the second major in a row, going out alongside Mackenzie Hughes who is something of a newcomer to all this.
Oosthuizen made it into this final round courtesy of an eagle on the final hole but he did not look good for the first 15 holes where he was two over par and not really getting anything going. Hughes in contrast was very good on Saturday, hitting nine of the 14 fairways and 12 of the greens which around here is very good. The interesting thing between these two is their tournament stories have gone in opposite directions. Hughes began slowly whereas Oosthuizen was the 18 hole leader but the South African has only played the next 36 holes in -1 so he was +1 for 35 holes stepping onto the final tee on Saturday. Hughes has played the middle 36 holes of the event in -7 and that is all shown in the strokes gained from tee to green statistic. In the second and third rounds Oosthuizen has a ranking of 48-32 while Hughes is 5-5 gaining more than seven shots on the field. Hughes is a competent putter so when he is striking it well he is tough to beat. We have the mental factor here which is probably why Hughes is a favourite but for large periods of the final round of the USPGA Championship it is fair to say Oosthuizen didn’t really go anywhere so I think Hughes has a better chance than the 15/8 quotes suggest.
Tips
Back M.Hughes to beat L.Oosthuizen for a 3/10 stake at 2.88 with Betfair
Back him here:
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