Chesson Hadley ready to go low again in Texas Open

Sky Sports Golf, 6.30pm Friday

Grayson Murray moved into the slenderest of leads on day one of the Texas Open following a fine opening 67 but the 24-year-old will be stalked by several classy golfers heading into round two.

US Tour winners Chesson Hadley, Billy Horschel, Ryan Moore and Keegan Bradley are all a shot back and that talented quartet are joined by 500-1 ante-post shot Matt Atkins.

Murray is into 16-1 from 100-1 while Moore and Horschel dispute favouritism at 10-1. Horschel, the FedEx Cup winner in 2014, failed to make the cut in five of his last six tournaments before finding form to finish fifth at the Heritage last week.

Pre-tournament favourite Sergio Garcia, playing his first event since missing the cut on his Masters defence, shot two over for his opening round and is out to 50-1.

Hadley played solid golf from tee-to-green on Thursday, the 30-year-old helped by some putting magic, and he could have had a share of the lead had he not bogeyed the par-five 18th. He could still prove too strong for Tom Hoge and Derek Fathauer in the 7.40pm threeball.

The Carolina native is brimming with confidence, finished fourth in this event in 2015 and is playing better golf now so he should be able to hang around the leaderboard for a while longer at TPC San Antonio.

Hoge is an average performer who hasn't posted a top-20 finish in his last eight events while Fathauer has missed his last four cuts and opened up with an abysmal 82.

Hadley is likely to still prove overpriced at 5-6 to go lowest again.

Recommendation
C Hadley
3pts 5-6 Coral, Ladbrokes

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