Steve Palmer's Pebble Beach Pro-Am first-round preview and free golf betting tips

Where to watch

Live on Sky Sports Golf from 4.30pm

Best bets

Seamus Power to win 6.31pm twoball
3pts 17-20 Hills

Hole-in-one in tournament
3pts 4-7 Coral, Ladbrokes

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Preview

Two professionals and two amateurs go out together in groups of four in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am – the field spread over three different courses for the first three days – so punters have twoballs rather than threeballs for their Thursday betting menu.

The most attractive option is Seamus Power to win his 6.31pm meeting with Thomas Detry. The Irishman and the Belgian start the tournament at Spyglass Hill – the most difficult of the three tracks being used – and Detry seems more likely to come unstuck.

The 30-year-old is on a steep learning curve this year, having only just become a PGA Tour member, and he has three courses to learn this week. Detry has had to devote practice to Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula and Spyglass Hill.

Detry is more prone to destructive shots than Power, who made his Pebble Beach Pro-Am debut in 2017 and knows these courses much better than his playing partner. Power finished ninth in last year's Pro-Am and he has been in great nick on the PGA Tour lately, with victory in the Bermuda Championship followed by third spot at Mayakoba and fifth in the RSM Classic.

The other recommendation is a price-inspired play, so punters should not take much shorter, but the 4-7 dangled by Coral and Ladbrokes about there being a hole-in-one in the tournament is attractive.

There has been a lot of rain in this region in recent weeks, making for soft, receptive greens, and there are plenty of tiny par-threes for the competitors to attack under relatively calm skies, with easy pro-am pin positions.

This event has a long history of aces – even Donald Trump delivered one in the 1993 edition – and 4-7 about one of the 156 pros marking an ace on their card seems more than fair. Since 2009 there have been 15 aces in the event.

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