Steve Palmer's Fortinet Championship final-round preview, best bets, free tips

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 11pm Sunday

Best bets

Max Homa top-five finish
2pts 11-8 Coral, Ladbrokes

Webb Simpson (8-11) and Maverick McNealy (8-13)
2pts double BoyleSports

Story so far

Maverick McNealy and Jim Knous, 55-1 and 500-1 respectively ante-post, joint-lead the Fortinet Championship going into the final round at Silverado Resort, Napa, California.

McNealy, two shots clear at the halfway stage of the tournament, covered his first 12 holes of round three in two over par to drop into the pack. A four-under-par burst from the 13th hole onwards, though, propelled the Californian back to top spot, and he takes 5-2 favouritism into Sunday.

Bookmakers are dreaming of a perfect golfing week, with 300-1 rag Kristoffer Broberg having taken charge of this week's European Tour event (Dutch Open), and 500-1 outsider Knous in position to cause another enormous upset on the PGA Tour.

The 31-year-old Colorado native has had problems with his wrist and he is not even assured of full status on the Korn Ferry Tour for this season if he lets this opportunity pass. Knous is 9-1 to complete a fairytale victory. Pre-tournament 4-1 favourite Jon Rahm missed the cut by two shots.

Leaderboard
-14 Jim Knous, Maverick McNealy
-12 Max Homa, Scott Stallings, Mito Pereira, Troy Merritt, Beau Hossler
-11 Talor Gooch
-10 Webb Simpson, Phil Mickelson, CT Pan, Patton Kizzire, Dawie van der Walt, Si Woo Kim, Scott Percy, Tom Hoge, Harold Varner, Will Zalatoris

Best prices
5-2 M McNealy, 7 J Knous, 9 M Pereira, M Homa, 12 T Merritt, 14 S Stallings, 16 B Hossler, 18 T Gooch, 22 W Simpson, W Zalatoris, 33 H Varner, 35 S W Kim, 50 bar

Final-round preview

Jim Knous is almost certainly playing under too much pressure to get the job done in the final round of the Fortinet Championship. He is competing on a medical extension and requires a two-way tie for third or better to maintain full PGA Tour status.

Knous, who wears glasses and has adopted an unusual putting grip which some observers have labelled the "moose claw", needs a 12th-place finish or better for conditional PGA Tour status and full Korn Ferry Tour status. If you offered him a two-way tie for third, Knous would gleefully accept, so punters planning a win-only investment at 9-1 should realise that he will probably lay-up from the centre of the fairway if pars were enough to guarantee employment on the par-five 16th and 18th at Silverado on Sunday.

In contrast, Maverick McNealy has fully established himself on the PGA Tour and will be targeting nothing other than victory. He came close in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, finishing runner-up to Daniel Berger, and the former world number one amateur is clearly good enough to become a champion.

The way McNealy bounced back from a poor start to round three will greatly encourage his backers. He has been one-paced in contention since Pebble Beach, squandering promising positions with too many pars, but this is the greatest opportunity he has ever had to win a professional Tour event.

McNealy at 5-2 is preferred to Knous at 9-1, but neither price screams value. McNealy, for all his obvious class, has got to overcome inevitable nerves as he bids to take his career to the next level. With so many players close behind, the short odds can be resisted.

Mito Pereira and Will Zalatoris, Racing Post Sport pre-tournament recommendations at 66-1 and 25-1, are both in contention from two shots and four shots behind respectively. Pereira tops the tee-to-green statistics this week and will have been encouraged that a cold putter might warm up after holing a birdie putt from 12 feet on his final hole of round three.

Zalatoris has been missing a lot of fairways this week, so can be a serious threat if he tightens up off the tee on Sunday. He has left himself little margin for error, though, and the 9-1 Pereira appeals more than the 22-1 Zalatoris at this stage.

Max Homa (9-1) and Webb Simpson (22-1) are nominated as the main outright dangers to McNealy, Pereira and Zalatoris. Homa at odds-against for a top-five finish seems generous.

Simpson (9.20pm against Phil Mickelson) and McNealy (10pm against Knous) appeal as a twoball double.

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