The penultimate round of the PGA Tour season takes place at East Lake in Atlanta on Saturday when the 29 players who made it through to the Tour Championship will look to either set themselves up for a shot at the FedExCup title or a decent pay day.
We’ve seen the players overwhelm a soft course over the opening two rounds which has bunched things up a touch but two men go into the third round with a distinct lead on the rest of the field and will be looking to make hay on Saturday.
Round 2 Recap
Scottie Scheffler took a five stroke lead into the second round with him but it was reduced to two at the end of it. He leads on 19 under with Xander Schauffele closing in on 17 under. You then have to go back to Jon Rahm at 13 under and two players in Patrick Cantlay and Sungjae Im on 12 under. Joaquin Niemann on 11 under is the only other player within eight shots of the lead heading into what is traditionally known as ‘moving day’.
It was another poor night for us betting wise with our plan of taking Tom Hoge on not being a profitable one for the second evening in a row. He carded another -4 round which while not spectacular on the day was more than good enough to overcome what has to be said was a disappointing JT Poston. Aaron Wise has at least hung tough and is currently placed in the leaderboard without the starting handicaps.
Saturday Betting
We have a third round leader market to take a look at but the only problem with it is we are in the same situation as we were for the second round, albeit there is more of a match feel about it this time around. Scottie Scheffler is the favourite to lead at the end of 54 holes but it isn’t as guaranteed as it felt on Friday because Xander Schauffele is only two behind and beat him by three on Friday. You would think it is between those two though with the next player six off the lead. If the course wasn’t as soft as it is they could both have gone back to the field but that is unlikely to happen here. I wouldn’t put anyone off Schauffele but it can be hard to back up a low round with another so I’m happy to leave this market alone.
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Saturday 2 Balls
As has been the case throughout the week so far, the players set off on their third round journey in two balls with the final group of Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele going out at the later time of 20.00 BST. Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay will be out immediately before them at 19.49 BST. The TV coverage is going to cover pretty much first shot to last and one of the better earlier groups onto the golf course are two of the four major winners in 2022 in Justin Thomas and Matt Fitzpatrick. They will be on the first tee at 18.54 BST.
Aaron Wise vs Sepp Straka
Match tees off at 19.05 BST
One of the later groups onto the golf course sees two players looking to build on their -8 overnight score and set themselves up for a decent bonus on Sunday when Aaron Wise plays alongside Sepp Straka for their third rounds.
The two men both tee off at eight under par but they have reached this position in very different ways with Straka starting the week on four under par and therefore is the same score for the two rounds he has played. Wise began the week on level par so his eight under total has all come on the golf course this week and having not birdied either of the par fives on Friday he might feel that he has left some shots out there. His score would have been in double figures had he not found the water on 15 on Friday too. Straka looks like a man who isn’t particularly confident in his surroundings here whereas Wise is embracing the challenge. A lot of this course is on the greens where Wise is performing so much better than Straka and I expect him to leave his Austrian opponent behind over the third 18 holes.
Tips
Back A.Wise to beat S.Straka for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
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