BMW Championship: Steve Palmer's match-bet free tips, predictions & odds

TV: Sky Sports Golf, 5pm Thursday

The top three players in the FedEx Cup standings are alongside each other for the first round of the BMW Championship, the penultimate event of the playoffs, with Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy comprising a mouthwatering threeball at Medinah Country Club.

The marquee group tees off at 4.48pm UK and Ireland time and may turn into a duel between Koepka, the increasingly undisputed world number one, and McIlroy, who scored three points at Medinah in the 2012 Ryder Cup. Reed was complaining about a tight back after winning The Northern Trust on Sunday and has not had much time to recover.

The threeball card is tricky in the extreme and preference for additional BMW Championship investments is for a lively dual-forecast wager and two 72-hole match bets.

• BMW Championship tournament tips

There are only 69 runners going to post for the BMW – Kevin Na has withdrawn to be with his heavily pregnant wife – so punters have a better chance than usual of nailing the dual forecast.

Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka are a juicy 70-1 with Sky Bet – and 66-1 with Ladbrokes – to fill the first two places on the leaderboard by close of play Sunday night.

Thomas has been swinging magnificently, compiling form figures of 9-11-12-12 despite carrying a cold putter, while Koepka, who won the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational at the end of last month, is kicking clear at the top of the world rankings and threatening to dominate the sport. Both Thomas and Koepka are well suited to Medinah and can be expected to contend for BMW glory.

• Czech Masters tournament tips

Bryson DeChambeau could be a man to oppose this week, given the unhelpful spotlight which is following his every move.

His slow play in The Northern Trust appears to have been the last straw for the golfing world with regards to the antics of the Californian – a chorus of condemnation has followed – and it will probably be difficult for the under-fire snail to concentrate in Chicago.

DeChambeau came out fighting in interviews – little in the way of logic emerging from his mouth as he attempted to justify his pace of play – but it is almost inevitable that he will try to speed up this week with cameras following his every move and his performance may suffer.

However the furore impacts on DeChambeau, he can be taken on with both Hideki Matsuyama and Paul Casey.

Matsuyama, one of the finest iron-players in the game, can use his laserlike approaches to find the tiny Medinah dancefloors with ease, while Casey, who skipped last week's Northern Trust to freshen himself up for the final fortnight of playoff action, should be trusted to zoom up the BMW leaderboard too.

Recommendations
J Thomas-B Koepka dual forecast
1pt 70-1 Sky Bet
H Matsuyama to beat B DeChambeau
1pt 10-11 Betway
P Casey to beat B DeChambeau
1pt 10-11 bet365, Betfred, Boyles, Hills

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