Steve Palmer's Pebble Beach Pro-Am final-round preview, best bets, free tips

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 3.30pm Sunday

Best bets

Patrick Cantlay to win 5.44pm twoball (8-13) & Andrew Putnam to win 5.55pm twoball (4-5)
2pts double Betfair, Coral, Ladbrokes, Power

Story so far

Andrew Putnam and two PGA Tour maidens lead the Pebble Beach Pro-Am with 18 holes to play in California - the 2018 Barracuda Championship winner is alongside Beau Hossler and Tom Hoge at the leaderboard summit.

Putnam, who has shortened from 90-1 to 7-1 in the outright betting this week, slipped three over par through four holes of round three, but launched a wonderful comeback, covering his final six holes in five under par.

After three days with the competitors teeing up at three different courses, a cut has been made, and the qualifiers have assembled at the Pebble Beach Links for the denouement. Two class acts who are tied for fourth place, a shot behind, head the market. Patrick Cantlay, 8-1 ante-post favourite, has regained market leadership going into Sunday. And a Saturday sizzler from Jordan Spieth has propelled him into contention.

Cantlay, who closed round three with back-to-back birdies, is 3-1, while Spieth, who carded a 63 at Pebble Beach to match his Ryder Cup colleague's total, is a 4-1 chance.

Leaderboard
-15 Beau Hossler, Andrew Putnam, Tom Hoge
-14 Patrick Cantlay, Joel Dahmen, Jordan Spieth
-13 Seamus Power
-11 Jason Day, Denny McCarthy

Best prices
3 P Cantlay, 4 J Spieth, 5 T Hoge, 7 A Putnam, 9 B Hossler, 10 J Dahmen, 11 S Power, 40 J Day, 80 D McCarthy, 125 bar

Final-round preview

Another calm, sunny day in the Pebble Beach paradise is forecast, so scores similar to the one Jordan Spieth managed yesterday will probably be up for grabs. JJ Spaun posted a round-three 64 at Pebble and birdies should be plentiful on Sunday.

From a bunched leaderboard, whoever fires a round in the low-60s will probably end up taking the trophy. Several players will still feel they have serious title aspirations, but with two established champions tied for fourth, those behind that dynamic duo have their work cut out.

There is a two-shot gap from Seamus Power in seventh place to Jason Day and Denny McCarthy in eighth, so Day, McCarthy and the rest of the field have a tough Sunday mission to overtake Cantlay, Spieth and the other pacesetters.

Perhaps in-running punters should narrow their focus down to the seven players who have scored best over the first three days.
Two of those seven were pre-tournament Racing Post Sport recommendations - Cantlay at 8-1 and Putnam at 90-1 - so punters with decent investments on that pair may opt to have some cover on others.

Tom Hoge is a 32-year-old maiden whose greatest achievement is winning an event on the Canadian Tour in 2011. Beau Hossler was much fancied to become a superstar when he finished 29th in the US Open at the age of 17, but the 26-year-old is winless on the Korn Ferry Tour as well as the PGA Tour.

Power may struggle to star on Sunday after going from five shots ahead to two shots behind with a round-three 74 at Monterey Peninsula, so Spieth and Joel Dahmen are arguably the two biggest dangers to Putnam and Cantlay.

Spieth was struggling with a stomach problem when missing the cut in the Farmers Insurance Open last week - a problem which lingered into this week - but there was some bounce to his step yesterday. Another yard on his drive at the eighth would have seen his ball fall down a cliff, but he managed a risky recovery shot from there, made par, and was five under to the clubhouse from there.

Spieth won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2017 by a four-shot margin. His swing, which includes an unconvincing new pre-shot routine, is probably not at the level for him to dominate today, but his short-game and fighting spirit seems likely to provide a chance down the stretch.

Dahmen won his maiden PGA Tour title last May - in the Corales Puntacana Championship - and this accurate operator should also hang about on the board. Cantlay, Putnam and Spieth are preferred though.

The outright prediction from here is Cantlay first, Putnam second, Spieth third, Dahmen fourth, but in-running actions depend on pre-event positions. The 3-1 about Cantlay - the FedEx Cup champion and world number four - seems more than fair. His birdie at 17 was crucial - he finally got his ball running at the hole with pace after leaving so much short - and it bodes well for Sunday.

Putnam won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour before his Barracuda success - and he is well up to winning this from the final twoball alongside Hossler.

Punters have some threeballs as well as twoballs to consider for today. The card is unattractive and those eager for extra Sunday action are pointed towards and Cantlay and Putnam double. Cantlay should outclass Hoge in the penultimate match (5.44pm UK and Ireland time), while Putnam can retain his composure better than Hossler in the final contest (5.55pm).

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