The opening round of the BMW PGA Championship sees a star-studded field tackling the West Course at Wentworth for the first time from a competitive standpoint on Thursday with everyone looking to get off to a fast start in the latest Rolex Series event.
There is coverage of this opening round pretty much right throughout the day and the forecast is good in this part of London so we should be in for a decent day of golf in what is the flagship event on the DP World Tour.
First Round Leader
Whenever I do round previews for a tournament the first market I look at is the first round leader and I like betting on the market in this event because everyone is off the first tee throughout the course of the day. With that in mind, we have to look at the forecast and that is fairly even throughout the day. It gets warmer into the afternoon but the wind remains consistent with occasional gusts from start to finish.
I always like someone out early here because I do think the greens scuff up later in the day especially at this time of year and given that he was the last one on my shortlist who wasn’t taken outright I guess I should cover Bernd Wiesberger in case he gets off to a flier. He has all the statistics to go well around here and he has twice begun this tournament with a 68 and he would probably only need to find one shot on that to be competitive in the opening 18 holes. He tees off at 8.10am which should be a good tee time to get through the tricky holes before the wind really gets up so the Austrian will do me for a first round leader bet.
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Thursday 3 Balls
The field go out in three balls over the opening 18 holes with everyone off the first tee. In order to balance out the TV coverage there are a couple of marquee groups in the morning and then shortly after lunch. The pick of the morning groups are the ones which include Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and the defending champion Ryan Fox who go off at 08.45 BST while 10 minutes later Robert MacIntyre is out with Jesper Svensson and Shane Lowry. In the afternoon the big group features Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Byeong-Hun An. They go off at 12.25 BST while 10 minutes after that Aaron Rai, Nicolai Hojgaard and the former champion Billy Horschel head off on their 72 hole journey. I’ve had a good look through the card and there is one three ball bet that I like.
Si Woo Kim/Thriston Lawrence/Francesco Molinari
Match tees off at 12.15 BST
The group which has my interest on Thursday is the one featuring the debutant Si Woo Kim. He is out alongside the South African player Thriston Lawrence and the experienced Francesco Molinari in the group immediately before the big afternoon pairings go out.
Kim is the favourite for this group, which if you went by the world rankings would be understandable but he hasn’t played in this tournament before so he might need 18 holes to get the hang of the nuances of this place. I’m prepared to take that line of thinking anyway and leave this between the other two. You have to respect the career that Molinari has had, especially as he has won around here, but his best days look to be well behind him and there has been little in his 2024 form to suggest that he is going to do anything special here so I’ve got this all about Lawrence. Lawrence is third on the Race to Dubai rankings so this is a big week for him and he has started his last three tournaments with a 68. You’ve got to think if he shoots that here he should win this first round three ball. He is very good into the greens and solid elsewhere and I think he’ll have too much for his playing partners.
Tips
Back B.Wiesberger First Round Leader (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Betfair (1/4 1-5)
Back T.Lawrence to beat S.Woo Kim & F.Molinari for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with William Hill
Back him here:
