Steve Palmer's LIV Golf Boston final-round preview, best bets, free golf tips

Where to watch

YouTube or livgolf.com, 6.15pm Sunday

Best bets

Dustin Johnson to win LIV Golf Boston
2pts 3-1 Coral, Ladbrokes

Cameron Smith top-five finish
1pt 2-1 bet365, Betfair, Power

Sadom Kaewkanjana top-ten finish
1pt 7-4 Betfair, Power

Story so far

Cameron Smith's love affair with the 18th hole of the Oaks Course continued on Friday, but the Australian was generally sloppy elsewhere on the Massachusetts layout, dropping five shots off the LIV Golf Boston lead.

Smith has eagled the 18th hole in each of the first two rounds, but he drifted from 7-2 to 30-1 for the title after a one-under-par second-round 69. The LIV Golf newcomer has seven players ahead of him going into Sunday's denouement.

Dustin Johnson produced the round of the day - a 63 which included three bogeys - propelling himself into third place. Johnson, 13-2 ante-post, is a stand-out 3-1 with Coral and Ladbrokes with 18 holes to play.

Talor Gooch, available at 16-1 early in the week, has a one-shot lead and is 15-8 favourite. LIV debutant Joaquin Niemann is sandwiched between Gooch and Johnson on the leaderboard. All players resume through a shotgun start at 6.15pm UK and Ireland time.

Leaderboard
-12 Talor Gooch
-11 Joaquin Niemann
-10 Dustin Johnson
-9 Anirban Lahiri
-8 Jason Kokrak, Matthew Wolff, Bernd Wiesberger
-7 Sadom Kaewkanjana, Pat Perez, Branden Grace, Cameron Smith, Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Na

Best prices
15-8 T Gooch, 5-2 J Niemann, 3 D Johnson, 22 M Wolff, 28 A Lahiri, 30 C Smith, 33 J Kokrak, 40 B Wiesberger, 70 bar

Final-round preview

Dustin Johnson and Matthew Wolff were the pre-tournament Racing Post Sport each-way recommendations - at 13-2 and 28-1 - and both are in contention with 18 holes to play.

Johnson has made some sloppy errors this week, but has overcome them with bursts of brilliance, and the former world number one will be sensing an enormous opportunity to claim a first LIV Golf victory.

Wolff shared the first-round lead, so will be disappointed to have dropped to a share of fifth place, four shots behind. It was a hugely frustrating day, with 15 pars going on Wolff's card, but the aggressive Californian can be expected to threaten the trophy if his putts start dropping again in round three.

With so many good players lurking just off the pace - Cameron Smith and Louis Oosthuizen for example - the place money (top five) from Johnson and Wolff is far from assured, but, nonetheless, a press-up on Johnson is advised at 3-1. The price does not seem to adequately reflect the chances of this proven champion asserting himself in the final round.

Johnson has swaggered around the LIV Golf circuit like its king ever since it was created. He has slowly but surely found his A-game in the previous three LIV events, getting close with no cigar, and Boston seems the moment for DJ to put the icing on the cake of a solid bank of form.

The arrivals of Smith and Joaquin Niemann to LIV Golf appears to have lit the competitive fire in Johnson, who has had his game-face on all week and seems more determined than ever. From a threeball with the two players ahead of him - Talor Gooch and Niemann - Johnson can be fancied to deliver a champion's performance. He is a 24-time PGA Tour champion and two-time Major winner. Gooch and Niemann have a total of three victories between them.

Smith will be delighted with his final-round threeball partners - close friend Marc Leishman and former Presidents Cup teammate Louis Oosthuizen. It is reasonable to expect a finishing flourish from the Open champion. He will probably fall short in terms of winning the tournament, but 2-1 about a top-five finish seems fair. The Aussie can force his name among Johnson, Niemann, Wolff and Gooch.

Bookmakers are still not giving Sadom Kaewkanjana enough respect. The 24-year-old Thai, who finished 11th in the Open in July, is clearly a class act. From a share of eighth place, the 7-4 about Kaewkanjana finishing in the top ten seems generous.

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