Magnificent Molinari primed to land maiden US Tour title at TPC Potomac

Final round
Sky Sports Golf, 6pm Sunday

Francesco Molinari is a model of consistency but the arrow-straight Italian is yet to land a US Tour title. However, he has a terrific chance of putting that right in the final round of the Quicken Loans National.

Molinari, a five-time winner on the European Tour, most recently in convincing fashion at Wentworth's BMW PGA Championship, tops the leaderboard at TPC Potomac and is no bigger than 13-10 to register a Stateside victory for the first time.

He is tied for the lead at 13-under with fellow PGA Tour maiden Abraham Ancer.

Ancer, a 27-year-old Mexican, is a Web.com Tour winner who is threatening a breakthrough on the main circuit but the white-hot heat of final-day competition is likely to weigh heavily on his shoulders and the more experienced Molinari, the 22-1 ante-post recommendation of Racing Post Sport's Ian Wilkerson, is the man to beat.

Sanderson Farms champion Ryan Armour and Zac Blair are two shots off the pace while Texas Open champion Andrew Landry is three back.

Tiger Woods produced a third-round 65 but he will have to produce something special to threaten the lead in Maryland.

Molinari matched Woods's score on Saturday while Ancer went lower, firing a 62 to grab a share of the lead, but it's notoriously tough to follow up a stellar round and the Mexican could wilt in the sun at Avenel Farm.

Anyone who backed Molinari before the tournament is in an excellent position. The consistent 35-year-old rarely throws in a poor round and his accurate iron play is perfectly suited to TPC Potomac.

There is potential for someone to come from off the pace with conditions likely to be benign for the final round but there's no reason why Molinari can't grind his way to a first US Tour victory, even if the current odds look short enough.

Twoball punters are pointed towards Marc Leishman in his 6.10pm match against Chesson Hadley.

The Australian was third favourite to lift the title behind Rickie Fowler and Woods and has produced typically solid golf at Potomac with two round of 67 and a Saturday 69.

Putting problems stopped Leishman from registering a better score on Saturday but he should remedy that in a bid to make a late Sunday charge.

By contrast, Hadley has been on fire with the flat stick but his driving has been errant. Leishman was a 20-1 shot pre-tournament while Hadley was available to back at 55-1 and the Aussie looks decent value at 5-6 to go lowest of the pair.

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