Our golf expert has four selections for the second-round three-balls at Sawgrass, where the big two both started ominously well.
Golf betting tips: The PLAYERS round two
1pt Denny McCarthy and Emiliano Grillo to win their three-balls at 6/1 (General)
1pt Chris Kirk and Corey Conners to win their three-balls at 4/1 (General)
0.5pt four-fold McCarthy, Grillo, Kirk and Conners at 33/1 (BoyleSports)
It was a somewhat curious start to The PLAYERS Championship. From the outside looking in, conditions looked ideal for scoring early on Thursday yet several high-profile players struggled, as some decidedly ropey putters made hay with that club. Once the afternoon starters had finished, we had a two-shot bias in their favour, despite the breeze picking up.
Who knows exactly why and it could be as simple as the performances of the better players from each wave. Scottie Scheffler shot three-under without making much, Rory McIlroy was excellent in shooting five-under and the likes of Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay kept tabs on them, with the promising Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia both in there too.
In the circumstances then having three of four remaining outright selections under-par (Jason Day withdrew pre-tournament) isn't as encouraging as it might ordinarily appear and only Cantlay enhanced his chances, and only just. To be frank it wasn't a great start and we'll need him, Tommy Fleetwood or Justin Rose to play really well this morning to keep tabs on the star names.
From a neutral's perspective things are very nicely set and if the gap between waves widens, then 7/4 that either of the top two players in the world wins this tournament will probably look like good business.
This is Sawgrass though and there's a long way to go so it's onto the three-balls, with DENNY MCCARTHY and EMILIANO GRILLO forming a 6/1 double for the early starters.
McCarthy shot an excellent 68 to kick off his PLAYERS bid, gaining strokes through the back. His approach play in general has looked very good lately and as he's the best putter on the circuit, around a course like Sawgrass he can be deadly.
His sole Korn Ferry Tour win came in Florida, which for a long time has been home, and he should account for Charley Hoffman and Andrew Putnam. The latter didn't do much right and his course record is MC-MC-MC-MC-53, while Hoffman has played this event 16 times without bettering 17th place.
Hoffman was poor off the tee in an opening 74 and odds-against the best player to win again looks good.
As I've written before, expecting a repeat of Thursday's results isn't usually wise and fails to recognise the volatility of this game, but at the prices I can't help but hope for more of the same from Grillo.
He's struggled for a while but does have bits and pieces of course form from early on in his career, and in actual fact won at a different layout here at Sawgrass on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Thursday's 68 was a ball-striking clinic and it didn't come out of nowhere, as he'd struck the ball well in the Cognizant last time out.
At bigger than 2/1, he's well worth siding with against two players I'd be happy enough taking on around here. The class act is Ben An, but he drove the ball very poorly in a 73 and has some very big numbers to his name at Sawgrass, while Adam Schenk is never one to run scared of and his Sawgrass record is largely poor.
Si Woo Kim obliged as expected and evens that he does so again is perfectly fair but his short-game did the heavy lifting, while Sam Burns capitulated after an excellent start to cost us the double as Cam Young found a little something. Ultimately, siding with him was a mistake and of the two, only Kim earned a second look.
Into the evening and CHRIS KIRK looks good at odds-against to beat Adam Svensson and Luke List.
Kirk struck his ball superbly on Thursday morning and while he continues to struggle with the putter, in this three-ball it may not matter. Svensson has had spells of elite putting, like Kirk, but has struggled this season and seems unlikely to make as many as he did on his way to a three-over 75 in round one.
List is badly out of sorts at the moment despite still driving the ball to a high standard. His short-game isn't even the biggest issue, despite being a weakness, and unless his approach play improves to a level he's not reached since last summer, he'll continue to struggle.
I'd have been quite happy taking on Bud Cauley after an atypically hot putting day but his playing partners don't really appeal, while course-horse Nate Lashley just isn't playing well enough to chance against two powerhouses including Rico Hoey, whose run of good putting last year has come to a shuddering end.
The strength of Robert MacIntyre's tee-to-green game right now suggests he might win again versus Sungjae Im and Max Homa, the latter in a real mess at the moment, but I'm wary of the volatile Im's ability to go low around this course seemingly out of nowhere.
On balance the 5/4 about COREY CONNERS reversing form with Lucas Glover looks good value in the expectation that Patton Kizzire isn't a factor in this group.
This was on my shortlist for Thursday but I was wary of Glover producing one good round and it turns out rightly so, but we get a shade more on the price after he lit up the greens in a of 66 he surely won't repeat.
Glover shot 75-69 here last year and 69-74 the year prior, he went 75-69 in 2021, and in 2018 he missed the Saturday cut despite having been close to the lead after an opening 68. Back in 2011, he was third at halfway and finished 50th and everything about his profile suggests to me we can count on the putts sliding by today.
Conners was solid, we know he loves it here and that he arrived on the back of an excellent display at Bay Hill, so watch for him closing the gap and hopefully keeping our top Canadian bet in play.
Posted at 0940 GMT on 14/03/25
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