The second round of the US Open will take place at Los Angeles Country Club on Friday where at the end of the day the halfway cut will be made. That always makes for some exciting golf and given the state of the leaderboard we should get plenty of that throughout the day.
Those who have made good starts to their tournament will be looking to consolidate of enhance their position over the course of Friday while for the others they will be focusing on ensuring they are here for the weekend first and foremost.
Round 1 Recap
At the end of the opening day we have joint leaders on eight under par with Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele setting that number. Dustin Johnson and Wyndham Clark were the ones to get closest to them but they will begin the second round two back. Rory McIlroy and Brian Harman are the only other players within five of the lead. They sit on five under with the world number one Scottie Scheffler and former champion Bryson DeChambeau among the group on three under.
It was a mixed but good opening day for us. We had profit secured fairly early on when first round leader Rickie Fowler carded a 62 which usually would be more than enough to land the money in full but we had to settle for a half of the 50/1 shot as Schauffele matched it. Even so that pretty much covers us for the week. Unfortunately some of the profits were eaten into when neither of the three ball bets landed so there is work to do for us there.
Friday Betting
We do have a second round leader market to get stuck into on Friday but I’m a little reluctant to get involved in it for a couple of reasons. If we see similar to Thursday then the early morning moisture will soften the course up for the likes of Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy to take advantage but even if they post an acceptable round they need to be three or four under for their round respectively to overtake Fowler and Schauffele and then you’d need to sit there and hope neither break par. The other reason why I don’t want to get involved is I expect the setup of the course to be a lot tougher on Friday after the good scoring of the opening day, especially where the pins concerned, so the ability to sit back and watch how it is playing could play into the advantage of a Fowler or a Schauffele. I’ve got four players in the top 25 in terms of outright bets so I’ll just hope they can improve their positions over Friday rather than anything else.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for this tournament! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Friday 3 Balls
As ever in a golf tournament with a full field the players go out in the same groups that they were in on Thursday but with the waves switched around. Those who were out in the morning on Thursday will have an afternoon tee time on Friday and vice versa. That means that the pick of the groups out in the morning session are the ones which have Tony Finau, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay which tees off on the first tee at 16.13 BST and Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama and Rory McIlroy who got off the tenth tee at 16.24 BST. Much later in the day all eyes will be on the Collin Morikawa, Max Homa and Scottie Scheffler group at 21.43 BST and the Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland and Jon Rahm one which enters the first tee at 21.54 BST. Those groups should all be good to watch but my bets come in two other groups.
Billy Horschel/Chris Kirk/Brian Harman
Match tees off at 16.13 BST
Towards the end of the morning wave of the tee times we have three American players going out off the tenth tee when the BMW PGA Championship winner Billy Horschel goes out alongside The Honda Classic winner and Brian Harman.
I like this group from a betting point of view because Horschel is really struggling with his game at the minute. He hasn’t cracked the top 30 of a full field stroke play singles event since the CJ Cup right back at the beginning of the season and after an opening 73 he is going to need to push it just to make the cut. I think this group is between Brian Harman and Chris Kirk and as I mentioned in my outright preview I thought all along that this test could suit Harman. To be fair, it isn’t necessarily against Kirk in terms of him being an excellent putter but a lack of length leaves his long game vulnerable and that kind of showed with his 71 in the opening round. Harman shot 65 on Thursday and might have felt he left a couple of shots out there too. He ranked sixth in the field in strokes gained on approach in the opening round and with the pins likely to be more tucked away that could well be the difference here. I think Harman beats Kirk and with no signs of Horschel coming back to form the left-hander can take this group down.
Martin Kaymer/Stewart Cink/Michael Thorbjornsen
Match tees off at 22.05 BST
The other group which interests me from a betting point of view on Friday is the third to last one off the first tee when former major winners Martin Kaymer and Stewart Cink are out alongside the amateur Michael Thorbjornsen.
Thorbjornsen ran hot at the Travelers Championship last season but that is looking more and more of an anomaly at this level with him missing the cut in the other PGA Tour events he has played around then. He shot 74 on Thursday and has his work cut out to be here for the weekend. I wouldn’t want a professional pushing it around here let alone an amateur so I have this between the other two and I think this test suits Cink a lot more than Kaymer. Cink is something of an Open specialist and there is a lot of an Open feel about this place with a number of approach shots needing to be run onto the green. His short game is so much better than Kaymer as well. The German looked like a player who was short of a decent gallop on the opening day and with the course only likely to play tougher by the time these guys hit the course I think the better all-round and more creative game of Cink will get the job done.
Tips
Back B.Harman to beat B.Horschel & C.Kirk for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back S.Cink to beat M.Kaymer & M.Thorbjornsen for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Sky Bet
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
