Steve Palmer's Charles Schwab Challenge third-round preview, best bets

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf red button, 2pm Saturday

Best bets

Chris Kirk to win 7.40pm twoball
2pts 4-5 Betfair, Power

Davis Riley to win 7.30pm twoball
2pts 4-7 Betfair, Power

Russell Knox to win 6.15pm twoball
1pt Evens Betfair, Power

Story so far

Scottie Scheffler holds a share of the lead going into the weekend of the Charles Schwab Challenge and the world number one is a general 7-4 for victory at Colonial Country Club.

Scheffler missed the cut in the US PGA Championship last week, but the Texas-based star has bounced back in his home state and will join Patrick Reed in the 7.50pm (UK and Ireland time) round-three twoball.

The 8pm match will comprise Scott Stallings and Beau Hossler, who are tied alongside Scheffler on the leaderboard. Scheffler was available at a pre-tournament 12-1, while Stallings (200-1) and Hossler (250-1) were well down the betting.

US PGA champion Justin Thomas missed the cut by two shots. His pal Jordan Spieth is only four shots off the lead, while Collin Morikawa has a ten-shot weekend deficit to overcome.

Leaderboard
-9 Scott Stallings, Beau Hossler, Scottie Scheffler
-8 Patrick Reed
-7 Pat Perez, Chris Kirk
-6 Max McGreevy, Davis Riley, Cam Davis, Viktor Hovland, Harold Varner
-5 Jordan Spieth, John Huh, Webb Simpson

Best prices
7-4 S Scheffler, 8 P Reed, 10 S Stallings, V Hovland, 11 B Hossler, 12 J Spieth, C Kirk, 22 H Varner, D Riley, 33 P Perez, W Simpson, 40 C Davis, 66 bar

Third-round preview

Scottie Scheffler was on the wrong side of a significant draw bias in the US PGA Championship last week - and the 25-year-old appears to have quickly shrugged off his Southern Hills failure.

Scheffler produced a ragged and ill-tempered performance in the second Major of the season, but perhaps the weekend off and few days out of the golfing spotlight did him the world of good. He is bogey-free at Colonial this week and has looked in cruise control.

Scheffler has never made an impact in this event, with form figures of 55-MC, but he has become a vastly more experienced and more confident player since those flops. Clearly from this position, he is the rightful favourite.

Scott Stallings has not won for more than eight years, while Beau Hossler is still a PGA Tour maiden. Patrick Reed and Chris Kirk will probably hang about on the leaderboard, but the most serious title threats to Scheffler may come from Jordan Spieth, Viktor Hovland, Davis Riley and Webb Simpson.

Spieth, due to his comfort at Colonial and course experience, has managed to put himself in in the mix without having his best stuff. A Friday afternoon off to work on the range should have set the regular Colonial contender up for a strong weekend.

Hovland has also put his name on the leaderboard and deserves great respect, Riley seems likely to make his PGA Tour breakthrough sooner rather than later, while Simpson could feature at the business end if he continues to find fairways and hole putts with as much ease as he has over the first two days.

Keeping the faith with pre-tournament pick Spieth appears the best course of action at this stage. Spieth was clearly licking his lips about the weather forecast in his post-round interview on Friday. A hot, windy weekend lies in store, so Spieth's feel, battling qualities and scrambling ability should see him move up from his current share of 12th place. On a breezy Texan track he knows like the back of his hand, expect Spieth to handle the test better than most, hopefully edging himself closer to Scheffler as the finish line looms.

Third-round twoball punters are pointed towards Kirk, the 2015 Colonial champion, who should be too solid for Pat Perez (7.40pm). Davis Riley can outclass Max McGreevy (7.30), while Russell Knox's ability to find fairways and handle wind makes the Scot an attractive option against Chad Ramey (6.15pm).

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