It is ‘Moving Day’ at The Open on Saturday as those who have made the halfway cut will look to get themselves into position for a shot at winning the final major of the season on Sunday and we are all set up for a cracking day on the Royal Liverpool links.
We have a clear leader but just eight shots separates second to last so those who can shoot a low round could really enhance their position ready for a shot at the Claret Jug on Sunday. With tough conditions forecast we could be in for quite some day.
Round 2 Recap
We had a congested leaderboard heading into the second round but Brian Harman has spread-eagled the field and will begin the third round with a five shot lead on 10 under par. Tommy Fleetwood is his nearest challenger with recent John Deere Classic winner Sepp Straka another shot back. There is a trio of players on three under par that includes Min Woo Lee and Jason Day while former champion Jordan Spieth is in a larger group on two under. We won’t be seeing the likes of Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose or Justin Thomas anymore this weekend with those amount a group of big names who missed the cut.
It was a day to forget for us betting wise sadly with neither three ball bet ever really getting going. Adrian Otaegui hung in on the front nine but couldn’t find fairways at the key time and lost his three ball while David Lingmerth had a bad turn as well and while he hung on well enough to make the cut and give us something to play with from an outright point of view he wasn’t good enough to deliver on his three ball so we’ve work to do in that regard over the weekend.
Saturday Betting
We have a third round leader market that has been priced up and as you could imagine Brian Harman is a very short favourite. You would think if he doesn’t come back to the field then he is going to keep hold of the lead because conditions on Saturday are going to be tough so going in pursuit of him isn’t going to be easy for the field, especially if Harman decides to play par golf thinking that he is on the winning number, which he might very well be. If the conditions do catch him out then anyone of about 30 runners could be in with a chance of leading. This looks to be a day where someone can go out early and post a score and watch the runners whizz past them but the question is how deep to go for that person. There are too many in contention for me to get involved.
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Saturday 2 Balls
Unlike in the opening two rounds of the tournament the field are out in twos throughout Saturday with the last group out at 15.30 BST which sees Brian Harman alongside Tommy Fleetwood. Min Woo Lee and Sepp Straka form the penultimate group 10 minutes prior to that and Jason Day goes out with Shaubhankar Sharma in the 15.10 BST tee time. The TV coverage begins for the first shot of the day and it might be wise to be in front of the TV with the first three groups out onto the course being Robert MacIntyre and Rickie Fowler at 08.55 BST, Scottie Scheffler and Adam Scott at 09.05 and Brooks Koepka and Patrick Cantlay at 09.15. Plenty of other groups have appeal such as Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele at 10.20 and two major winners of last season in Cameron Smith and Matthew Fitzpatrick 10 minutes later. I’ll go with one bet.
Stewart Cink vs Matthew Jordan
Match tees off at 14.05 BST
Two men who begin the third round under par go out towards the end of the tee times when the former champion Stewart Cink is paired with the home man Matthew Jordan who really is living the dream this week.
Jordan is the member here and has hit the opening tee shot this week and now made the cut to see if he can make full use of the knowledge he has of this course. It is no surprise to see Cink doing well here. This is a driver golf course and he drives it well and usually hits his approaches well too and has regularly spoken about how he enjoys the challenge of links golf. I do think Cink is going to be vulnerable here though. The rain is likely to soften the course up and he isn’t the longest hitter going around and the wind is going to be pretty fresh as well which might also catch him out a touch. Jordan will have played this course in tough conditions more times than he would want to remember and he’ll know how to play it when it gets tough on Saturday. But for a bad break on 17 on Friday, Jordan would be much higher up the leaderboard but I think he can climb it on Saturday leaving Cink in his wake as he does so.
Tips
Back M.Jordan to beat S.Cink for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betway
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