Steve Palmer's CJ Cup third-round preview and free golf betting tips

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 8pm Saturday

Best bets

Sungjae Im to win 4.53pm threeball
3pts 6-4 Hills

Jon Rahm to card 67 or better in round three
2pts Evens Coral, Ladbrokes

Rory McIlroy to win 5.58pm threeball
2pts 10-11 bet365

Tyrrell Hatton top Englishman
2pts 4-5 BoyleSports

Story so far

Jon Rahm threatened a second-round 59 as he charged to the head of the CJ Cup leaderboard with a ten-birdie blast at Congaree Golf Club on Friday.

The Spaniard, 9-1 on tournament-eve, has become a best-price 15-8 with 36 holes to play in South Carolina. As Rahm's approach to the 17th hole worked its way up towards the hole, it seemed almost certain to drop for eagle, before taking a huge late break left. The tap-in birdie meant he needed to hole-out from the fairway at the 18th for a 59, but his approach fell off the right edge of the green, resulting in a closing bogey.

The Friday 61 meant a share of the halfway lead for Rahm alongside Kurt Kitayama. Cam Davis and Aaron Wise are tied for second place, a shot behind, while Rory McIlroy is alone in fifth spot, another shot off the pace.

The final third-round threeball of Rahm, Kitayama and Davis is scheduled to tee off at 6.10pm UK and Ireland time. Coverage, infuriatingly late as it has been all week, starts at 8pm on Sky Sports Golf.

Leaderboard
-11 Kurt Kitayama, Jon Rahm
-10 Cam Davis, Aaron Wise
-9 Rory McIlroy
-7 Lee Hodges, Tyrrell Hatton, K.H Lee, Billy Horschel, Tom Hoge, Brendon Todd, Shane Lowry, Tom Kim

Best prices
15-8 J Rahm, 7-2 R McIlroy, 9 A Wise, 10 C Davis, K Kitayama, 25 T Kim, 28 S Lowry, 33 T Hatton, 50 bar

Third-round preview

The CJ Cup boasts a high-class line-up and is a no-cut event in which everyone in the field gets 72 holes, but several members of the elite have given themselves a mountain to climb over the weekend.

Jordan Spieth (two over par), Hideki Matsuyama (level), Justin Thomas (one under), and Matt Fitzpatrick, Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa (three under) all know that they require extreme weekend fireworks to get back into this tournament.

Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm came into the event with the best credentials - both bursting with form and confidence - and this dynamic duo have cemented their places as the top two in the market.

Tyrrell Hatton is clearly fond of Congaree, having finished second there in last year's Palmetto Championship, while Tom Kim continues to make PGA Tour golf seem a breeze, but the suspicion is that McIlroy and Rahm will assert themselves over the final two rounds and set up a thrilling duel for the closing stretch.

Rahm was the Racing Post pre-tournament recommendation at 9-1, slightly preferred to McIlroy at bigger odds, and belief remains strong that the 27-year-old can get the job done. Rahm slowly but surely found his A-game through the FedEx Cup playoffs, then the BMW PGA Championship and the Spanish Open. The Spanish Open victory was a low-grade success, but it meant an awful lot to Rahm, and he was thrilled with how he handled the weight of expectation and the "football-like" crowd.

Rahm won by six shots in Madrid and will confident of staying on the front-foot from the final threeball of the CJ Cup. He will be acutely aware that his biggest challenge will probably come from behind, with McIlroy seeking to retake world number one status.

The slow start from Scheffler has given McIlroy a sniff of the top spot. And the Northern Irishman will have been delighted to have ended round two with just a two-shot deficit on Rahm. There was four shots between them as both played the 18th hole on Friday, but Rahm's bogey and McIlroy's birdie tightened the contest.

Rahm at 15-8 is slightly preferred to McIlroy at 7-2 for punters wishing to get involved in the outright market at this stage.
The evens about Rahm carding 67 or better on this par 71 track in the forecast sunshine and calm of Saturday seems more than fair, while McIlroy can be expected to boss the 5.58pm threeball alongside Lee Hodges and Aaron Wise.

Pick of the threeball options is arguably the 6-4 about Sungjae Im for the 4.53pm contest. The Korean is in rock-solid form, while Max Homa has been carrying a back injury this week. Im should be shorter to defeat Homa and Andrew Putnam.

Hatton can be expected to repel his fellow countrymen and end the week as the top Englishman. The 4-5 available at this stage appears to hold plenty of juice.

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