US Open: Steve Palmer's day-one threeballs tips & TV details

Sky Sports Golf, 3pm Thursday

US Opens at Pebble Beach are the dream ticket for golf fans – the best players in the world at the iconic Californian venue – and punters can bet on some mouthwatering threeballs throughout day one of the latest Major.

Rory McIlroy, who won last week's Canadian Open by seven shots and stormed to the head of the US Open betting, starts his Pebble Beach campaign at 3.51pm UK and Ireland time. Joining the four-times Major champion will be former world number two Jon Rahm and 2015 Open playoff loser Marc Leishman.

The pick of the later groups is even more appetising – 15-times Major champ Tiger Woods tees up at 10.09pm alongside FedEx Cup champion Justin Rose and three-times Major victor Jordan Spieth. Late-night entertainment is guaranteed.

McIlroy may edge Rahm in the first match, while Woods could overcome Rose in the second, but better threeball investments are to be had in three gatherings which will not get much attention from the television cameras. Sepp Straka, in the first group out, could be the best bet on the card.

Straka, tackling Luis Gagne and Julian Etulain in the 2.45pm contest, is a burly 26-year-old Austrian who is looking increasingly comfortable on the US Tour, having graduated from the Web.com Tour last season.

Straka won the KC Classic last August on the Web, then finished third in the Web.com Tour Championship, before an excellent share of 13th place in the Farmers Insurance Open in January. That effort showed he can handle poa annua greens in California, even though he missed the cut in the Pebble Pro-Am next time out.

Straka has been quick out of the blocks a lot in the last five months, opening with a 69 at Torrey Pines, a 67 in Puerto Rico, a 66 to share the first-round lead in the Valspar Championship, a 68 in the Corales Championship, a 69 in the Byron Nelson and a 68 last week in Canada. And he started the season with a 63 to lead the Safeway Open in California on his US Tour debut.

Straka lies 20th on the US Tour first-round scoring average statistics (69.80) and can beat some weak opposition in round one at Pebble. Gagne, a qualifier from the Florida sectional, is a 21-year-old Costa Rican who is massively inexperienced, while only two players scored worse than Etulain in Canada last week and he has missed three of his last four cuts, labouring with a wrist problem.

The two other threeballs options which appeal are Nate Lashley (8.30pm) and Brett Drewitt (10.42pm). Lashley is accurate – both off the tee and on approach – so should keep out of serious strife. He was 12th in the Desert Classic in January and 45th in the Pebble Pro-Am, which were decent West Coast efforts, and his lone Web.com Tour victory came by the coast in the 2017 Corales Championship.

Renato Paratore is surely too wild to succeed at Pebble Beach, while little can be expected either from course debutant Lee Slattery, so Lashley can boss that group. Drewitt has been struggling to make an impact on the Web.com Tour, but is still a class above his playing partners – Eric Dietrich, who has been struggling on the Canadian Tour, and Guillermo Pereira, who plies his trade on the South American circuit.

Recommendations
S Straka
3pts 6-4 general
N Lashley
2pts 11-8 general
B Drewitt
1pt 6-4 general

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