Steve Palmer's Mallorca Open first-round preview, best bets, free golf tips

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 12.30pm Thursday

Best bets

Romain Langasque to win threeball
1pt 7-5 Betfair, Power

Preview

The afternoon starters in the Mallorca Open look set to get some breeze whipping across the Santa Ponsa layout, so reaching the clubhouse lead registered in the morning calm could prove beyond them, even though the likes of Thomas Pieters and Wilco Nienaber are in the second wave.

Romain Langasque could be worth backing for his first-round threeball against Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and James Morrison (12.50pm UK and Ireland time).

Langasque, a 26-year-old who has won once on the Challenge Tour and once on the European Tour, bounced back to form in the Andalucia Masters last week. A share of 11th place in the Andalucia Masters was impressive given the tight and fiddly nature of the Valderrama venue.

Langasque, a powerful and naturally attacking player, is much better suited to more open layouts such as Santa Ponsa. The Frenchman, who won the Spanish Amateur in 2016, should fall in love with this week's assignment.

Fernandez-Castano fell outside of the world's top 1,000 last month and the Spaniard's career as a touring professional is under threat. He has missed 13 of his last 17 cuts.

Morrison is a powderpuff driver who could get outgunned this week on a layout with wide fairways and four par-fives. The Weybridge-based plodder enjoyed himself at Valderrama last week - a test of precision which is ideal for him - but he missed four cuts in a row prior to that and could be set to struggle again this week.

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