Jason Day and Rory McIlroy could emerge as the Firestone crackers

Sky Sports Golf, 7pm Saturday

Two Englishmen are tied for the lead with world number three Justin Thomas at the halfway stage of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club.

Ante-post 25-1 chance Thomas has assumed favouritism, with no bigger than 7-2 available about the Kentucky man after 36 holes of action in Ohio, but Tommy Fleetwood and Ian Poulter are alongside him. The trio are 11 under par, two shots clear of the rest of the field.

Sunny, calm conditions are expected for the weekend, so there is plenty of scope for the chasing pack to come from way off the pace.
Outright punters should probably be concentrating on Thomas, Fleetwood, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy, with Jon Rahm, Marc Leishman and Tiger Woods a dangerous trio lurking five shots behind.

McIlroy was thrilled to finish round two with back-to-back birdies, sending him into round three in good heart, and 7-1 is a generous price, while Day provided an exhibition of approach-play in the second round and is also extremely tempting at a fractionally shorter price than McIlroy.

Third-round twoball punters are pointed towards Patrick Cantlay, a strong tee-to-green performer well suited to Firestone. Cantlay is one of the slowest players on the circuit, which seems sure to rile his playing partner Matthew Fitzpatrick, who is one of the fastest.

Cantlay can slowly but surely boss the 5.05pm (UK and Ireland) match, while Emiliano Grillo should showcase too much long-game control for Satoshi Kodaira in the 2.45pm contest.

The driving ability of Ross Fisher makes him a solid option against Patton Kizzire in the 5.45pm twoball, while Hills are being bemusingly generous with an 8-13 quote about US Open champion Brooks Koepka defeating Ted Potter (5.15pm).

Twoballs recommendations
P Cantlay
2pts 10-11 Hills

E Grillo
2pts 5-6 Betway

R Fisher
2pts 19-20 BetBright

B Koepka
2pts 8-13 Hills

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