We have reached the halfway stage of the British Masters and the tournament is brilliantly set up with a leaderboard packed with big names and no fewer than 16 men heading into the second half of the tournament within five shots of the lead.
After 36 holes it is England’s Richard Bland who leads the way on 11 under par but the chasers include event winners Alex Noren, Andrew Johnston, Anthony Wall, Tyrrell Hatton, Chris Wood and Alexander Levy. The event really is beautifully poised.
Outright Odds
Alex Noren heads into the weekend as the 9/2 favourite to win the tournament from here with Andrew Johnston 11/2 to add this title to the Open de Espana title he won earlier in the season. Richard Bland is still looking for his first European Tour title and he is 6/1 to claim it this weekend even with a one shot lead.
Tommy Fleetwood heads the group on nine under, two back from Bland, and he is 10/1 to win another tour title with Tyrrell Hatton 11/1 to win back to back tournaments. Bernd Wiesberger and Chris Wood are a shot further back and are both 12/1 to land another tournament win to their CV. It is 20/1 bar those named.
Saturday Betting
The 73 men who made it through to the weekend will go out in threes on Saturday and the later groups have all been priced up to give us something to bet on. Alex Noren, Andrew Johnston and Richard Bland go out in the final group at 12.05pm but it is a group that goes out three before that which interests me betting wise.
The group in question is the 11.35am group of Bernd Wiesberger, Lee Westwood and Peter Hanson. I was lucky enough to walk the course watching the Austrian on Friday and despite not being at his absolute best I was very impressed. His course management was excellent as were his irons shots and all that lacked was a few putts dropping but his patience was rewarded with an eagle on the final hole and he’ll head into Saturday very confident.
While walking alongside Wiesberger, Lee Westwood was in the group in front so on the holes at The Grove which run parallel to each other I was able to see a bit of the Englishman and you can see he isn’t completely comfortable on the golf course. Statistically he hit a lot of fairways but that drive on 15 that ended up between two houses miles from any golfing civilisation couldn’t be any more worrying. He holed nothing as per usual and only a remarkable chip in and birdieing a couple of the par 5s got his score moving. I don’t think that is enough to challenge Wiesberger.
I’ve not seen anything of Peter Hanson this week and he could be a spoiler at a big price but he lacks length and hasn’t holed an awful lot so far in the tournament either. I think as far as all-round games have gone Wiesberger’s has been in fine order. This course suits him with his monotonous ability to find the greens in the right number and he can win this group.
Tips
Back B.Wiesberger to beat L.Westwood & P.Hanson for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Skybet
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