Steve Palmer's South African Open final-round preview, best bets, free golf tips

When to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 9am Sunday

Best bets

Branden Grace to win the South African Open
1pt each-way 12-1 general

Story so far

Ante-post 5-1 South African Open favourite, Louis Oosthuizen, is odds-on across the board for the title after hitting the top of the leaderboard in round three.

Oosthuizen fired a Saturday 64 to move one shot clear and in position for a successful defence, having romped to a six-shot victory at the same Randpark venue last year.

Marcus Armitage charged to the head of affairs with an early round-three 62, but Oosthuizen followed with a bogey-free scorecard to edge a shot ahead of the English raider. Jaco Ahlers is alone in third place, with former SA Open champion, Andy Sullivan, among the five-way share of fourth spot.

Oosthuizen is a general 4-6 for his tenth European Tour success, with Armitage next in the betting at 11-1. Oosthuizen led by three shots going into the final round 12 months ago, before doubling his advantage in the final 18 holes.

Leaderboard
-15 Louis Oosthuizen
-14 Marcus Armitage
-13 Jaco Ahlers
-12 Andy Sullivan, Jayden Schaper, Martin Rohwer, Jacques Blaauw, Branden Grace
-11 Thriston Lawrence, George Coetzee, Jack Senior, JC Ritchie, Min Woo Lee

Best prices
4-6 L Oosthuizen, 11 M Armitage, 12 J Ahlers, B Grace, 18 A Sullivan, 28 G Coetzee, 33 M W Lee, 40 J Schaper, 40 M Blaauw, 66 M Rohwer, T Lawrence, 80 bar

Final-round preview

Louis Oosthuizen has continued his love affair with Randpark Golf Club, dropping only one shot in 54 holes, and the likelihood is the leader is going to be tough to stop in his quest for back-to-back South African Open titles.

Oosthuizen will not expect to get much of a challenge from his final-round playing partners. Marcus Armitage is a genial and extremely likeable character, but wildly inconsistent on the golf course, highlighted by his closing 83 in the Alfred Dunhill Championship last month. The world number 1,398 is joined by number 217 Jaco Ahlers in the closing threeball.

Oosthuizen can deal with Armitage and Ahlers, but there are a few dangermen lurking a little further back who could catch the leader if he treads water in front. Given the unsettled weather forecast, with some rain in the air and a threat of thunder, there has to be a chance Oosthuizen makes the odd mistake to leave the door ajar.

George Coetzee and Min Woo Lee are potential chargers from four shots behind, but Branden Grace and Andy Sullivan are one shot closer to Oosthuizen and even more threatening.

Preference at 12-1 is for Grace, the sporting alternative to 4-6 Oosthuizen, especially with layers still offering three each-way places. Grace appears to be slowly but surely getting back to his best, having endured a difficult 2019, and seems set to follow up his third place in the Alfred Dunhill with something similar at Randpark.

He finished seventh at this track last year and enjoys the layout.
Four of Grace's eight European Tour victories have come in his homeland and the Pretorian could make that statistic five from nine if given some encouragement from Oosthuizen in the early stages.
The final threeball of Oosthuizen, Armitage and Ahlers is scheduled on the first tee at 9am UK and Ireland time on Sunday.

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