As always with the first round of a major championship the players are heading out in groups of three but unlike the other three majors the groups for this one are hand chosen so we’re sure to get some real good matches to watch.
Another thing which hasn’t changed is all of the groups have been priced up and with former champions exempt for this as well a number of PGA professionals in the field there are a lot of groups which you can effectively eliminate to a two ball and still get good value.
Players go out in two sessions in this tournament across both tees with marquee groups out in both sessions and starting at the first and the tenth. The main group goes out in the afternoon session and sees Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson out together – the three holders of major championships.
Other groups on the opening day include Rickie Fowler, Jason Day and Dustin Johnson paired up while Martin Kaymer is out with Tiger Woods and Keegan Bradley. Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Bill Haas is another high profile group. They’re all out in the earlier session with Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott and Brooks Koepka among the afternoon starters.
The first group which takes my fancy from a betting point of view is the first group out on the course from the first tee and sees Rory Sabbatini playing with Chesson Hadley and the PGA professional Ryan Helminen. Clearly Helminen is in esteemed company here but we won’t see many of the professionals going all that well around this course so I’ll leave him out of the equation and turn this into a two ball.
Chesson Hadley’s form in recent times has disappeared. He has either missed the cut or finished way down the field in the last couple of months and that has to be a concern. Sabbatini has been playing some nice golf on occasions this year and has occupied places on leaderboards at the Players Championship, Colonial and Canada so he’s definitely the more confident of the two and even money looks very good there.
In the afternoon starters another group with a PGA professional with them is Sean O’Hair and Chris Wood. Brett Jones, brother of Matt goes out with them. Again I’m going to leave him out of things as I don’t see these PGA players featuring especially in the afternoon when the wind gets up.
Therefore I have this between O’Hair and Wood and I’m siding with the latter. O’Hair has missed six of his last eight cuts and that resurgence he threatened earlier in the year seems to have subsided and I’ve got to take him on. Chris Wood won in Austria recently and went well in the Matchplay a couple of weeks ago so he’s swinging it well and any wind there is won’t influence his game negatively. In what I see as a match he’s a big price at odds against.
Back R.Sabbatini to beat C.Hadley & R.Helminen for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
Back C.Wood to beat B.Jones & S.O’Hair for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
