Steve Palmer's Farmers Insurance Open final-round preview, best bets, free tips

When to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 6pm Sunday

Best bets

Rory McIlroy to win Farmers Insurance Open
2pts 5-1 Betway, BoyleSports, Sky Bet

Cameron Champ to win threeball
2pts 11-10 general

Story so far

Ante-post 60-1 chance and halfway pacesetter, Ryan Palmer, surrendered his Farmers Insurance Open lead in round three. A bogey-free back-nine kept the Texan well in the hunt, but world number three Jon Rahm has claimed pole position.

Rahm fired an immaculate seven-under-par 65 on the difficult Torrey Pines South layout, including an eagle at the second hole, to put him well on course for a second Farmers success. The Spaniard made his PGA Tour breakthrough at Torrey Pines in 2017 and both his PGA victories have come in California.

Rahm leads Palmer by a shot and the pair will relish the company of each other in the final round. They combined to win the Zurich Classic pairs events in April and have become good friends. Rahm, available at 8-1 ante-post, is a general evens to turn his advantage into silverware.

Rory McIlroy is tied for third place, three shots behind, and is a 5-1 chance, while Tiger Woods is a further two shots adrift and 28-1 for a ninth Torrey Pines triumph.

Leaderboard
-12 Jon Rahm
-11 Ryan Palmer
-9 Rory McIlroy, Sung Kang, Harry Higgs, Cameron Champ
-8 Tyler McCumber, Tony Finau, Marc Leishman, Patrick Reed, Sebastian Cappelen, Brandt Snedeker, JB Holmes
-7 Tiger Woods, Tom Hoge, Mark Anderson, Bubba Watson

Best prices
Evens J Rahm, 5 R McIlroy, 6 R Palmer, 18 C Champ, 28 T Woods, P Reed, T Finau, 33 B Snedeker, 35 S Kang, M Leishman, 40 H Higgs, 50 JB Holmes, 80 S Cappelen, B Watson, 125 bar

Final-round preview

Jon Rahm was largely magnificent in round three and continues to be hugely impressive, but he hacked his way up the 18th hole to leave the door slightly ajar for some world-class pursuers.

Rahm is clearly good enough to become world number one and has a strong affection for Torrey Pines. It was the venue for his PGA Tour breakthrough and where he proposed to his wife. He contended to the halfway point on his title defence in 2018 and finished fifth last year. But quotes of even-money going into the final round of this edition seem a tad stingy.

Rahm, for all his brilliance and inevitable future success, has won only twice on the PGA Tour as an individual and has not made winning Stateside enough of a habit for punters to be chunking on at evens with gay abandon. Rory McIlroy at 5-1 is a more attractive option.

McIlroy has demonstrated this week why he has more potential than Rahm to establish himself as clear top dog. The Northern Irishman has got an extra gear with regards to power that comes in handy along the enormous par-fives at the South. Holes of more than 600 yards are in range for McIlroy, whose long game appears in mint condition on his first start of the year.

Some close-season rust was to be expected, and was evident in round two, but McIlroy was awesome in round three and a comfortable two-putt birdie at the 18th has set him up well for an assault on Rahm and Ryan Palmer.

Alongside the leaders in the final group, McIlroy has an excellent opportunity to assert himself and gain an early psychological edge over Rahm for 2020.

Tiger Woods, Brandt Snedeker and Cameron Champ are dangermen on the leaderboard who could enter the equation, but defeating both Rahm and McIlroy is a serious mission. Preference between the two at the prices is for 18-time PGA Tour champion and four-time Major winner McIlroy. A sunny, calm day is forecast and the FedEx Cup champion seems primed to finish with a flourish.

Final-round threeball punters are pointed towards Champ, a Californian with a great record in his home state. The two-time PGA Tour champ should carry too many guns for Sung Kang and Harry Higgs in the 6.15pm (UK and Ireland time) threeball. Rahm, Palmer and McIlroy are scheduled to tee off at 6.25pm, although morning fog often causes delays in this part of the world.

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