Golf Tips: McIlroy to shine in our 7/1 USPGA Championship acca

Golf Tips

Rory McIlroy to beat Shane Lowry
Adam Svensson to beat Min Woo Lee
Justin Rose to beat Michael Block
Brooks Koepka to beat Bryson Dechambeau

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We’ve reached the halfway stage of the PGA Championship and with Oak Hill providing a stern test a trio of players, Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland and Corey Conners share the lead on 5- under heading in to the final 36 holes.

All three have been dialled in from tee to green with Hovland currently leading the field in this department, however with them all currently ranked outside the top 100 on tour in putting, interestingly they have all been really strong on the greens over the first two days and whether this continues over the weekend will be key for them going forward.

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Of the three leaders all eyes are clearly on Scheffler and as a master of the kind of patient course management needed here he is clearly the man to beat.

With 15 players within five shots of the lead heading in to Saturday though, including our pre event picks Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose, as well as Rory McIlroy, it is certainly all to play for and it promises to be a fascinating ‘moving day’ ahead.

So, with a mouth-watering round three in prospect let’s see if we can pick out some value in today’s two ball pairings.

I will start things off by taking McIlroy to get the better of Shane Lowry when they head out at 1.40pm local time.

McIlroy who confessed to feeling under the weather after his first round has had nothing more than his C game on show so far this week and it is credit to him that he has ground out a couple of scores to put himself in the picture heading in to the weekend.

Having clearly struggled with the mental aspect of the game since the missed cut at Augusta though my hunch is that having avoided anything similar here he might relax a bit over the weekend and move further up the board.

Lowry had a great day on the greens yesterday as he made six birdies in eight holes however finishing with two bogeys could take the wind out of his sails and I’m happy to take McIlroy to get the better of what should be a comfortable pairing for them both.

Next up I will take Adam Svensson over Min Woo Lee when they tee off at 1.50pm.

Lee is certainly a star in the making however his performance this week has been very much down to his work on the greens as he leads the field in putting. If we take a look at his long game he has struggled with his approach play losing over three shots to the field.

Svensson meanwhile has been the polar opposite leading the field in Driving Accuracy and finding his share of greens and with the rain that has fallen making the rough even more of a challenge you would have to think if this pattern continues between the two Svensson will come out on top.

Teeing off at 2.10pm we then have the pair of Justin Rose and PGA club professional Michael Block.

For Block just making the cut is an absolutely superb achievement however this is now completely unchartered waters for him and with the greatest respect it would be a big surprise if he now did anything other than struggle over the weekend.

I have to be honest up against pretty much anyone else today despite being one of our pre event picks I would have been tempted to take Rose on as by his own admission he has been poor off the tee.

To be in the hunt come tomorrow then Rose needs to sharpen up hugely today from tee to green ,however with the huge gulf in class and experience here I’ll happily take him to boost our acca.

Finally in a day where I am struggling to see any big value in the outsiders in the later two balls, I will wrap things up by siding with Brooks Koepka over Bryson Dechambeau when they tee off at 2.30pm.

Koepka was patience personified over his front nine yesterday making a string of pars, however things clicked for him over the back nine as he made three birdies over his closing four holes to get right in to the hunt heading in to the weekend.

The four time Major Champion lead the field from tee to green on Friday and buoyed by the belief he took from challenging again at this level at Augusta recently I expect him to be a huge threat over the weekend.

Dechambeau it must be said also looks to have turned a corner however his game still looks fragile to me and I suspect this test is a fraction too soon in his comeback for him to sustain his challenge over the weekend.

Golf Tips

Rory McIlroy to beat Shane Lowry
Adam Svensson to beat Min Woo Lee
Justin Rose to beat Michael Block
Brooks Koepka to beat Bryson Dechambeau