There is an international feel to the leaderboard in the Barbasol Championship at the halfway stage with the two men tied for the lead coming from Australia and Korea and the chasing pack headed by an Argentine so there are plenty of chances of an overseas winner going into the weekend.
Whee Kim and Mark Hensby lead the event after two rounds on nine under par but with neither being prolific tournament winners or even regulars in contention the bunched up field behind them will really fancy their chances of landing a PGA Tour title.
Although Kim and Hensby lead bookmakers don’t have much faith in them converting their lead into the win as they are 12/1 and 40/1 in the outright market now. Anyone who has faith in Hensby finding two more solid rounds are getting rewarded with a big price but it looks unlikely.
Instead it is a man a shot behind the top two who is the favourite at the halfway stage. Emiliano Grillo almost won on a rare PGA Tour appearance earlier in the year and he’s challenging for another. He is 7/1 to win from here while Scott Piercy is 10/1 to win from two back. Charlie Beljan and Sam Saunders are 14/1 and 22/1 respectively.
This blog tipped up Andres Romero and David Toms as our main bets before the tournament began and I’m pleased to say both are in contention on seven under, two off the lead and hopefully they can push on over the weekend and deliver a payout. They are currently 14/1 and 16/1 to win.
Looking at the third round and there are a few groups priced up and one group takes my fancy. Although followers of this blog are already on David Toms outright I think he is worth backing to win his two ball tonight. He takes on Martin Piller with the pair out at 7.03pm BST.
Both men go into the day on seven under par but Piller is hitting less than 50% of the fairways this week and only just over 60% of greens and with the course firming up there is no advantage in playing this track from the rough over the weekend.
We know Toms is straight as a die and won’t be in the rough very often. He looked very good on Friday and could have been a shot or two lower than he is. He’s used to being around at this stage on a Saturday and I fancy him to outscore his playing partner today.
Back D.Toms to beat M.Piller for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
