Vegas can land the gamble at Firestone

Sky Sports Golf, 2.30pm

Play has been brought forward again at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational to counteract the effect of any potential late thunderstorms in Ohio, but it should not stop Jonatthan Vegas building on his fine recent form.

The Venezuelan capture the Canadian Open in a playoff success over Charley Hoffman on Sunday and Thursday's opening round of 68 should be the foundation for a decent week.

His putting helped him out as he struggled to find fairways, but Firestone is just the sort of course where he could get away with that and he should have enough to see off two players who had opening rounds to forget in their 2pm threeball.

England's Tyrrell Hatton headed into the tournament in wretched form having missed his last five cuts and had not posted a top-ten finish in his last ten outings.

His two-over-par tally would have been another disappointment and it would be no surprise to see him slip further behind as he has broken 70 in just one of his last eight second rounds.

Billy Horschel's opening effort was even worse as his six-over-par 76 included a triple-bogey seven at the fourth.

That left the Byron Nelson champion at the bottom of the leaderboard and as he has missed six of his last ten cuts, he may see the remaining three rounds to try to sort his game out in preparation for next week's USPGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

Recommendation
J Vegas to win threeball
2pts 15-8 Betfair, Paddy Power