Steve Palmer's Austrian Open final-round preview, best bets, free golf tips

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 12.30pm Sunday

Best bets

Joost Luiten to win the Austrian Open
1pt each-way 10-1 Coral, Ladbrokes

Matthias Schwab to win threeball
1pt 11-10 general

Wil Besseling to win threeball
1pt 6-5 bet365, Coral, Ladbrokes

Story so far

Martin Kaymer - the most decorated player in the Austrian Open field - will take a share of the lead into the final round at Diamond Country Club. The dual Major champion, 20-1 ante-post, is no bigger than 6-4 with 18 holes to play.

Kaymer has had three 54-hole leads since his last European Tour victory - the 2014 US Open - and the 36-year-old has finished runner-up three times. The drought of almost seven years came after he won ten European Tour titles in his first five years on the circuit.

Alejandro Canizares, a far less prolific victor than Kaymer, is tied atop the Diamond CC board. Canizares won the Russian Open in 2006 and the Hassan Trophy in 2014. The 38-year-old has been badly struggling for form since and is ranked 628th in the world, but he led after day one this week and has stayed in the mix throughout.

Ante-post favourite, Thomas Detry, is tied for 37th place, nine shots adrift. Kenya Open champion Justin Harding was among those to miss the cut.

Leaderboard
-9 Alejandro Canizares, Martin Kaymer
-8 Maximilian Kieffer
-7 John Catlin
-6 Jacques Kruyswijk, Joost Luiten, Daniel Gavins
-5 Nicolai Von Dellingshaussen
-4 Austin Bautista, Marcus Armitage, Garrick Higgo, Adrien Saddier, Matthias Schwab
-3 Justin Walters, SSP Chawrasia, Jeff Winther, Richard Mansell, Lorenzo Gagli, Wil Besseling, Dale Whitnell

Best prices
6-4 M Kaymer, 4 A Canizares, 11-2 M Kieffer, 7 J Catlin, 9 J Luiten, 16 J Kruyswijk, 50 M Schwab, D Gavins, 66 G Higgo, 80 N Von Dellingshaussen, M Armitage, 200 bar

Final-round preview

Martin Kaymer is a golfing legend who gutsily won the 2010 US PGA Championship in a playoff, courageously holed the winning putt in the 2012 Ryder Cup, won the 2014 Players Championship at Sawgrass, then the 2014 US Open by a remarkable eight-shot margin.

Kaymer's CV is the envy of everyone in attendance at Diamond Country Club, but his swing is nowhere near as reliable as it used to be - too long and too loose at the top - and his nerve lacks the steel of old. He has thrown away some golden opportunities in humdrum events to end his barren spell, so there is no guarantee that he outclasses the field in Austria on Sunday.

Alejandro Canizares, deep in a slump for almost five years, is playing under the pressure to guarantee his golfing future. He has already carded three double-bogeys this week and seems likely to bust his scorecard at some stage as the tension increases on Sunday.

Maximilian Kieffer failed to impress in round three, looking jittery on the greens. John Catlin, who won his first two European Tour titles last year, is well in the hunt from only two shots behind, but perhaps the best value in the outright market is Joost Luiten, who adores Diamond CC.

Luiten can boast form figures of 3-1-3-6-7-18 from his previous visits - and the Dutchman will appreciate the warming of conditions over the weekend and the course returning to its more traditional test. He has improved his score each round - 71, 70, 69 - and from only three shots has every chance of going close to a seventh European Tour title.

A closing 65 for seventh place in the Kenya Savannah Classic last time out hinted at a return to form for Luiten - and he has played solid golf for three days in Austria.

Local hero, Matthias Schwab, has slowly but surely got his act together this week and can be fancied for his 11.23am (UK and Ireland time) threeball against Nicolai von Dellingshaussen and Jacques Kruyswijk.

And Wil Besseling, who closed with a 66 for third place in last year's Austrian Open, also seems a favourite to trust against Dale Whitnell and Austin Bautista (11.01am).

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