Steve Palmer's Hero World Challenge first-round preview, best bets, free tips

Golf tips, best specials bets and first-round analysis for the Hero World Challenge at Albany on the PGA Tour.

When to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 6.30pm Thursday

Best bets

Tony Finau to win twoball
3pts 10-11 Coral, Ladbrokes

Justin Rose top GB & Ireland
2pts 9-2 Power

Brooks Koepka to beat Daniel Berger
1pt Evens Hills

First-round preview

Matthew Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton get the Hero World Challenge started at 4.05pm UK and Ireland time, forming an all-English twoball at Albany, Bahamas, then just over an hour later the two tournament favourites lock horns.

Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa, who have battled for the CJ Cup and DP World Tour Championship titles in recent weeks, tee off alongside each other in the first round of the Hero. Both men are making their Albany debut. CJ Cup victor McIlroy is 8-1 for victory, while Morikawa can be backed at 9-1.

It may take McIlroy time to settle on his first visit to Albany and the favourite, last seen ripping his shirt in anger after surrendering his lead in Dubai, can be opposed in the top Great Britain and Ireland market with Justin Rose.

World Challenge regular Rose has teed up in every event at Albany - a course he knows intimately from spending years living in The Bahamas. His form figures from the last three World Challenges are 5-3-5, and the Englishman will expect to contend again this time after warming up nicely with 12th place in the RSM Classic.

Rose at 9-2 to outscore McIlroy, Fitzpatrick and Hatton seems a generous price, while Tony Finau is the most attractive first-round twoball option at a shade of odds-on.

Finau, effortlessly powerful and able to murder the five par-fives at Albany, finished runner-up in the 2018 Hero and can leave Hero debutant Harris English in his wake (4.38pm).

Brooks Koepka, who enjoyed a fresh injection of confidence by thrashing Bryson DeChambeau 5&3 in The Match last Friday, is an attractive even-money outsider for a 72-hole match (tie no bet) against Daniel Berger.

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