The 80th Masters took a compelling twist on Friday and at the halfway stage the tournament is finally balanced and shaping up to a thrilling conclusion.
On the face of it we have a shootout between two of the best in the game but a tough golf course and tricky conditions are likely to be enough of a challenge to ensure nobody is out of the tournament as we enter the second half of it.
Second round review
At one stage on Friday afternoon, Jordan Spieth held a five shot lead but as the conditions worsened his patience ran thin and his lead has been eroded to just a solitary shot from Rory McIlroy. In fact had Spieth not holed a lengthy par putt on the 18th green the two would have been tied for the lead and we would have had our share of an 11/1 winner. It wasn’t to be.
McIlroy got himself into contention with a solid round of 71 which included an unfortunate double bogey early in the round but numerous birdies. I don’t think Rory is on top of his game so it is to his credit he is in second place on the leaderboard but as conditions threaten to get tougher it will be interesting to see if he can stay there.
The other big story on Friday was the play of the amateur Bryson DeChambeau. We all know about his quality. It has been talked up for a while and for 17 holes he was playing the round of his life. He was three under for the round and tied with McIlroy but two horrendous drives on 18 sent him back to level par.
That was still a much better day for the amateur than it was for the likes of Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, neither of whom will be teeing it up at the weekend while Bubba Watson only survived the cut courtesy of the 10 shot rule.
Heading into Saturday we have the big two out in the last group with Jason Day in position to stalk them if he can start well while other potential champions lie in wait on what should be a sumptuous Saturday of golf.
Latest odds
Spieth 23/10
McIlroy 5/2
Day 15/1
D Johnson 16/1
Matsuyama 20/1
Snedeker 25/1
Bar 40/1
Outright update
Although we lost Phil Mickelson on Friday and Bubba Watson needs snookers over the last 36 holes we are nicely placed with Daniel Berger who is at level par for the opening 36 holes, four back from Spieth and only two shots off third place, and Angel Cabrera who is only a couple of shots worse which when you think he took nine on the par 5 15th on Thursday isn’t a bad position at all. Hopefully both can launch a huge title bid on ‘Moving Day’.
Matt Kuchar also survived the cut and begins Saturday on +4 so he’s not out of it at eight back and only six back from a placed payout. A couple of good rounds could very well get him into the picture for us too.
Of the side bets we took before a ball was hit Bernhard Langer enjoys a tidy lead on Martin Kaymer while Bernd Wiesberger is right in the mix in the Continental European field so there is plenty of potential over the last 36 holes.
I’m going to add to that potential though by taking one more outright. Conditions are expected to be quite windy at Augusta on Saturday so the men and the boys may well be separated during the course of a potentially frantic 18 holes so I’m expecting those with a calm head and plenty of patience to improve their positions and one man in particular, who isn’t far away starting out, fills that particular slot.
Chris Wood is renowned for being a good player in the wind. He will be competent no matter how hard it blows and that is a huge thing around here. He is long enough to get around this course and generally finishes tournaments a whole lot better than he starts them.
Wood is only +1 going into Saturday so he is only five back and a solid round on Saturday where anything around level par should be good and he could be right into contention going into Sunday. Wood’s tee to green game is in good order and he’s putted well this week. At 300/1 we’ll pay to see how he begins before reassessing things ahead of the final 18 holes.
Saturday 2 balls
Players go out in pairs from here on in which is a good thing from a betting point of view and there are a couple of pairings which have caught my eye. Obviously all eyes will be on the Spieth and McIlroy group that set out at 7.50pm UK time but it is earlier in the day where my betting lies.
Martin Kaymer did well to make the cut here but I don’t see him prospering too much from it. He is a religious fader of the ball and you have to draw it here hence why the German has never done anything of note around here.
He is out with the Indian player Anirban Lahiri who shot a wonderful round of 73 on Friday which was actually a decent score when you think he played the par 5s in two over par. If he can tidy himself up on the par 5s then he could threaten a low one.
Lahiri will be fine in the conditions and has all the motivation to perform well given his status in the game and the fact he is trying to launch his career to the next level. He’s a big price as an outsider to the German.
Another man who is a big price as an outsider is Daniel Berger who is a crazy 2/1 to beat Dustin Johnson. Johnson is already being hyped up as a challenger this weekend but no sooner was he hyped up did he miss from five feet on the 18th on Friday.
We’ve seen historically when the going gets tough Dustin legs it quicker than a Russian 800m runner on a bit of the good stuff. We don’t know how Berger will handle tricky conditions but while Spieth was falling apart on Friday, Berger was improving all the time which gives us some indication.
We also saw at The Honda Classic last year that Berger can deal with inclement weather when he was runner up to Padraig Harrington. I fancy him to hang tough a little better than Dustin in this one.
Tips
Back C.Wood to win The Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 301.00 with BetVictor
WON – Back A.Lahiri to beat M.Kaymer for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with BetVictor
Back D.Berger to beat D.Johnson for a 3/10 stake at 3.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
