Steve Palmer's Texas Open first-round preview and free golf betting tips

Where to watch the Texas Open

Sky Sports Golf, 1.15pm Thursday

Best bets

Jordan Spieth to beat Matt Fitzpatrick
4pts 4-5 Betfair

Billy Horschel to win 2.26pm threeball
3pts 11-10 general

Denny McCarthy to miss cut
2pts 11-8 Betfair, Power

Lee Hodges to win 7.08pm threeball
2pts 21-20 general

Alexander Noren to lead after round two
1pt each-way 40-1 bet365

Texas Open first-round preview

Weather may play a significant role in the Texas Open and avoiding the forecast Friday-afternoon winds at TPC San Antonio could be crucial to success.

Players drawn in the late-early wave may get to play their opening 36 holes in relative calm, while those out early on Thursday and late on Friday could have a difficult second round, with breezes whipping across the Oaks Course.

Jordan Spieth to beat Matt Fitzpatrick appeals as a 72-hole match bet at a shade of odds-on. Spieth, who won the Texas Open at this week's venue in 2021 and is a two-time PGA Tour champion in the Lone Star State, has what appear to be favourable tee-times. Fitzpatrick, making his course debut, is in the opposite side of the draw.

Denny McCarthy, who is without a top-20 finish this year, has been hugely unimpressive from tee to green this season. From the wrong side of the draw, the 31-year-old maiden looks a big price at 11-8 to miss the cut.

Billy Horschel, full of confidence again after three top-15 finishes in his last four starts, has twice won on the PGA Tour in Texas. Horschel, who can boast three top-fours in the Texas Open at the Oaks Course, looks a rock-solid first-round threeball investment against Zach Johnson and JJ Spaun.

Lee Hodges, who is in tidy form and finished sixth in this event last year, can be fancied to defeat Nick Hardy and Kevin Kisner in round one, while Alexander Noren, the only one of Racing Post Sport's outright fancies to get on what appears the right side of the potential draw bias, looks great value at 40-1 to lead after the second round.

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