Steve Palmer's Palmetto Championship first-round preview, best bets, free tips

Golf tips, best bets and player analysis for the Palmetto Championship at Congaree Country Club on the PGA Tour.

When to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 8pm Thursday

Best bets

Sungjae Im top Asian
2pts 5-4 Coral, Ladbrokes

Luke List to beat Jhonattan Vegas
2pts 19-20 Betfred

Doc Redman to beat Russell Knox
2pts 5-6 Betfair

Harris English to win threeball
2pts 4-5 general

Preview

Most of the early spotlight in the inaugural Palmetto Championship will fall on Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka - and the American superstars have been separated in the first-round draw at Congaree Country Club, South Carolina.

Johnson, who appeared set to lose his mantle as world number one to Jon Rahm before the Spaniard tested positive for Covid-19 in the Memorial Tournament last week, tees off early at Congaree. He will be joined by fellow Carolinians Kevin Kisner and JT Poston in the 12.44pm (UK and Ireland time) group, while Koepka has Keith Mitchell and Lucas Glover for company at 5.59pm.

The marquee matches are difficult to call and preference on the threeballs card is for Harris English, a Georgian playing close to home, teeing off against Luke Donald and Brian Gay at 6.10pm. English was hugely impressive when winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions at the start of the year but has failed to hit those heights since. However, he should still be trusted to account for two veteran plodders at a long, punishing Congaree CC.

Donald is now outside the world's top 500, while Gay has missed ten cuts this year with a best finish of 34th place in a full-field event. English should dominate the group.

Sungjae Im to finish the week as top Asian is another appealing option. Congaree bears great similarities to Royal Melbourne, where Im excelled in the 2019 Presidents Cup, and he could take a shine to the Palmetto venue.

Im, 17th in the US PGA on his last visit to South Carolina, has CT Pan, Byeong-Hun An, Satoshi Kodaira, Xinjun Zhang, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Anirban Lahiri and Arjun Atwal to beat.

Pick of the 72-hole match bets are arguably Luke List to beat Jhonattan Vegas and Doc Redman to defeat Russell Knox. List is the course-record holder at Congaree - one of few players in the field to have visited this venue before - while Redman, a North Carolina boy who went to college in South Carolina, finished ninth in the Byron Nelson last month and should enjoy this assignment.

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