PGA Championship: Third-round two-balls preview and tips from Ben Coley

Recommended bets

2pts Harris English to win his two-ball at evens

All doubt may now be removed: power is a huge advantage at Harding Park. A course that saw John Daly take Tiger Woods the distance before Rory McIlroy beat Gary Woodland in the match play always looked likely to favour the longest hitters in the sport, and so it is proving in the PGA Championship, where eight of the top 10 on the halfway leaderboard are powerful, and a handful are beasts.

Quite how Mike Lorenzo Vera is competing with them on his first start since a missed cut in the Qatar Masters some five months ago, I'm not sure. Except to say that the Frenchman is ranked second in putting, and has always had a flair for the unpredictable. In fact those putting stats reveal plenty, because the other short-hitter in the top-10 - defiant Brendon Todd - is ranked third. They'll have to keep it up if they want to be concerning themselves with the Wanamaker Trophy come Sunday night.

More likely is that this goes the way of a regular major contender who whacks it. Nothing unpredictable there. And it may well go the way of the downright obvious, after Brooks Koepka birdied the finally hole of a challenging second round to move within two of the leader. Koepka struggled with a hip complaint throughout Friday, one which needed physio attention, but insists he has no concerns as to his fitness ahead of the weekend.

On the face of it, 4/1 about the four-time major champion looks generous, even on a busy leaderboard. I'm certainly more drawn to his chances now than on Monday, but one of the nagging doubts I had then does remain. He just looks like he has a really bad shot in him at the moment, and I'm not sure that was true in 2018 or 2019, when he won this title. So far those bad shots have gone unpunished, but it only takes one. And then there's the hip. I can't imagine Koepka would ever dream of admitting, midway through a major, to a weakness. It may well be worse than he lets on.

It's possible the latter is factored into the price, and I'm in no rush to take him on as such. There's just no real urge to add him to the pre-tournament staking plan which featured Tommy Fleetwood (50/1, T2), Jason Day (40/1, T2), and Xander Schauffele (22/1, T11).

All three remain contenders here but perhaps the latter has enough to do, trailing Hao-tong Li by four and having given Koepka, Day, Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Daniel Berger and the rest a couple of shots. Like Day he had his chances in the second round but they came and went as conditions toughened, evening out a draw some had worried would be tilted, and he'll need to be close to flawless from here.

Two-ball betting doesn't always appeal but I do like the evens quoted about HARRIS ENGLISH to beat Byeong Hun An.

The latter contended in Memphis last week before a disappointing final round and, having ridden a red-hot short-game so far - yes, including the putter - I worry he might struggle to make progress over the weekend.

English on the other hand is gaining strokes throughout the bag and continues to hint that he's going to put four rounds together and either win or go close soon. Indeed he's one to keep a very close eye on for next week's Wyndham Championship.

From a ball-striking perspective he's so much more in control than An, for whom Memphis came out of the blue. And, while the Korean is working with Brad Faxon and entitled to showcase an improved short-game, that was the case for a while last week before it unravelled.

He's far enough away from the lead for pressure not to be a factor this time, but this is a major championship, and you don't tend to get far relying on chipping and putting. It can get you a weekend tee-time, but from there you'll need to hit some quality shots. English has hit many more than his partner here and is the best bet on the card.

That will do for the third round but you might want to consider taking on Lorenzo Vera in the top Frenchman market. It's easy to envisage him fading away today, perhaps as shockingly as Martin Kaymer and Zach Johnson did in the second round, and Victor Perez may only need something like a level-par weekend to land the money at 11/4.

The only reason I'm not taking that chance is that Perez himself has been out of sorts this summer, and isn't striking the ball as he was in the early part of 2020. Still, at the odds he was certainly tempting.

Posted at 0845 BST on 08/08/20

Click here for Ben Coley's tipping record

Responsible gambling

We are committed in our support of responsible gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, or visit begambleaware.org.

Further support and information can be found at GamCare and gamblingtherapy.org.