Confident Webb Simpson can pile pressure on the leading trio

Sky Sports Golf Red Button, 6pm Sunday

Story so far
Charles Howell retained his overnight lead in the third round of the RSM Classic at Sea Island, Georgia, but it was reduced from three shots to one and the serial underachiever goes into Sunday under plenty of pressure.

Howell forged five shots ahead through eight holes of round three, but the ante-post 50-1 chance started to wobble on his way to the hut, covering the next ten holes in one over par to encourage the chasing pack.

Cameron Champ, winner of the Sanderson Farms Championship in fine style last month, is tied for second place having made a brilliant birdie at the 18th hole in round three. Jason Gore, a US Tour maiden who has won seven times on the Web.com Tour, is alongside Champ on the leaderboard.

Webb Simpson, the ante-post 10-1 favourite, is in fourth place, three shots behind Howell, and well capable of overcoming the leading trio.

Leaderboard
-16 Charles Howell
-15 Jason Gore, Cameron Champ
-13 Webb Simpson, Ryan Blaum
-12 Luke List
-11 Zach Johnson, Brian Gay, Patrick Rodgers, David Hearn

Best prices
7-4 C Champ, 13-5 C Howell, 5 W Simpson, 9 J Gore, 33 R Blaum, L List, 50 Z Johnson, 66 B Gay, 80 P Rodgers, D Hearn, 125 bar

Final-day advice
Cameron Champ clearly has a ridiculously bright future in the grand old game of golf and the way he has been contending on unsuitable tracks over the last fortnight bodes extremely well for his career.

El Camaleon, venue for last week's Mayakoba Classic, and the Seaside Course, which stages 75 percent of the RSM Classic, negate the strengths of Champ to a great extent. But the 23-year-old dude has been perfectly happy to throttle back, take plenty of irons off the tee, and stay in control.

Champ is going places and deserves slight favouritism with 18 holes to play, but a best-price 7-4 can be overlooked given his inexperience, and the proximity of Webb Simpson to him on the leaderboard.

Charles Howell is on a winless streak of 11 years and, despite his bluster this week about not feeling nervous, the way he came home in round three suggested otherwise. The three-putt bogey at the 16th was particularly worrying for his fans. Champ is an intimidating opponent and the rising star of golf will be alongside Howell again for round four.

Jason Gore is the most prolific champion the Web.com Tour has ever seen, but he has never been able to retain sufficient composure to get the job done on the main circuit. It is doubtful that anything is going to change in his mid-40s.

By far the biggest danger to the front three is Webb Simpson, who will fancy his chances of overcoming a three-shot deficit and going one better than 2011, when he lost a playoff at the Seaside Course.

Howell, Champ and Gore have a total of three US Tour titles between them, while Simpson has five alone, including two of the biggest events on the calendar, the US Open and Players Championship. There is no question as to who will be the most comfortable with the situation should the final round turn into a tight, tense affair.

The first six holes of the Seaside Course do not feature a par-five – and there is only one par-five on each nine – so Simpson can turn the screw on Champ by finding fairways and greens.

It is not difficult imagine Howell and Champ treading water in front, leaving Simpson, full of form and confidence and playing a course he loves, to slowly but surely overtake both of them. Simpson, Champ, Howell is the possible tricast.

Racing Post Sport followers are on Simpson at 10-1 ante-post, but those yet to get involved have a perfectly acceptable price of 5-1 remaining.

Final-round threeball punters are pointed towards Simpson, who should account for Luke List and Ryan Blaum in the penultimate contest (4.20pm UK and Ireland time), while 2015 RSM champion

Kevin Kisner, who has slowly but surely rid himself of rust this week, also looks a strong threeball favourite at 3.50pm against Graeme McDowell and Matt Every.

Threeball recommendations
W Simpson
3pts 11-10 bet365, Sky Bet

K Kisner
2pts 13-10 general

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