Steve Palmer's Bermuda Championship third-round preview, best bets

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 6.30pm Saturday

Best bets

Seamus Power top-five finish
3pts 17-10 bet365

Harrison Endycott lowest third-round score
0.5pt each-way 55-1 BoyleSports

Story so far

Ben Crane is the surprise pacesetter in the Bermuda Championship at Port Royal - the pre-tournament 500-1 chance firing a second-round 62 to edge one shot clear in the low-grade PGA Tour event.

Crane has shortened to 22-1 as he bids to win a sixth PGA Tour title at the age of 46. His last success came in June, 2014, in the FedEx St Jude Classic. Injuries and poor form have seen the plodder drop to 2,815th in the world rankings.

Four-time Korn Ferry Tour champion Robby Shelton is tied for second place, with four-time PGA Tour champion Aaron Baddeley alongside him. Baddeley, 719th in the world, came through a Monday qualifier just to get in this event.

Denny McCarthy and Thomas Detry, the ante-post market leaders, are tied for 12th place, four shots off the pace.

Leaderboard
-14 Ben Crane
-13 Adam Schenk, Aaron Baddeley, Robby Shelton, Ben Griffin, Austin Smotherman
-12 Seamus Power, Kevin Yu, Zecheng Zou, Nico Echavarria

Best prices
7 R Shelton, 8 S Power, A Schenk, 11 A Smotherman, 12 B Griffin, 16 T Detry, 20 Z Dou, K Yu, A Baddeley, 22 D McCarthy, B Crane, 33 J Lower, P Rodgers, 40 bar

Third-round preview

Ben Crane has shocked himself by taking the lead in the Bermuda Championship and this keen Christian may need help from above if he is to maintain his position to the finishing line.

Nothing Crane has done recently suggested he would be a contender at Port Royal this week - and it seems likely he gets swamped by the chasing pack in round three.

Crane's good pal Aaron Baddeley seems more of a title threat. The Australian has got his game in decent order this summer and has got some confidence back. Lucas Herbert won the Bermuda Championship last year and an older Aussie could be a serious threat this time.

Baddeley can be fancied to see off Crane, but Robby Shelton and Seamus Power may be more difficult opponents for Baddeley to deal with.

Shelton, a Racing Post Sport pre-tournament recommendation at 40-1, signed off from the Korn Ferry Tour last season in impressive fashion - and this class act has started his new PGA Tour campaign looking like the real deal.

A Shelton PGA Tour breakthrough seems likely at some stage - and it could come on Sunday - while Power is hunting victory No. 2 from just two shots behind Crane. A windy weekend if forecast for Port Royal and Power is well equipped to handle it better than most.

Darkness stopped play in round two with two players left on the course - Tano Goya needs a par at the 18th to make the cut - so the third-round draw is yet to be made.

Punters seeking an investment at this stage are pointed towards the top-five market. Seamus Power, comfortable in the wind and typically sharp on and around the greens, can be expected to hang around on the leaderboard all weekend.

Power has laid a solid foundation with a pair of 65s and 17-10 seems generous about him turning a share of seventh place through 36 holes into a top five through 72.

Punters seeking bigger prices can consider the 55-1 about Harrison Endycott carding the lowest round-three score. The Aussie, tied for the lead after round one, had an understandably difficult Friday trying to kick on, but he closed with back-to-back birdies to revive his title challenge, and could easily get back on the front foot in round three.

Endycott fired a Saturday 65 in the Fortinet Championship last month - a score bettered by nobody in the field that day - and he could start this weekend in similar fashion.

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