On behalf of Side Hustle Bets, I’d like to apologize for our first PGA major round in the red (first round in the red out of six rounds). I hope our -0.659 units day didn’t break the bank for you. It was one of those “anything that can go wrong, went wrong” type of days. I could list out our absurdly bad luck today, but who cares? We’re focusing on Saturday considering we’re still +0.529 units for the tournament and we’re sitting pretty with our futures bets currently.

Despite an absolutely brutal second round, there is valuable knowledge we’ve gained from Friday. For one, the disparity in course conditions over the last two days has been significant enough to affect players’ abilities to compete with the rest of the field. Any players forced to go off in the afternoon on Thursday and in the morning on Friday were at a massive disadvantage. That knowledge is valuable considering some of the players on top of the leaderboard right now… probably shouldn’t be there. Storms are rolling in Friday night which will cool things down and the wind shouldn’t be nearly as big of a factor for the rest of the tournament… That’s good news for the best players in the world who made the cut. Another thing to point out is that the grounds crew at Southern Hills didn’t cut the greens after Thursday’s opening round because of “weather conditions” (hence the massive putting issues across the board today). I highly doubt they will go two straight days without cutting the greens for a major championship so expect an exponentially larger number of putts to drop this weekend compared to Thursday/Friday. Lastly, the players are figuring this course out by now. You can tell by the improved play out of the sand today and the more consistently strategic/conservative game plans from the majority of the field. Expect a moving day for the ages from the names you’re used to hearing at major championships.

Don’t fall victim to chance, trust the numbers and always remember to bet smarter, not harder.

3rd Round Bets

3rd Round Matchups

Shane Lowry (+100) (1 unit) vs Jordan Spieth

Lowry has been a victim of his playing conditions for the past two days and Spieth has struggled despite lucking his way into the better side of the draw (he played Thursday morning and Friday afternoon). I still think Lowry could very well make a run this weekend given how well he’s been playing coming into this tournament and he looked great on Thursday. If it wasn’t for a couple of blow up holes during his back nine today and lipping out a short eagle putt then he’d very much still be in contention. Lowry plays his best on the hardest courses and Spieth has looked out of sorts all week so far.

Matt Fitzpatrick (-110) (1 unit) vs Tyrrell Hatton

Fitzpatrick is playing even better than we expected. He’s sitting at 3 under but he could easily be only a few shots off of the lead the way he’s been burning the edge of the cup with his putter. He’s playing super consistent with only 3 bogeys through two rounds and he’s done all of this despite playing through the windy conditions of Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Tyrrell Hatton has had the luxury of better playing conditions for both rounds and he still threw 6 bogeys on his card (two on the last 3 holes of his round on Friday). I like Fitzpatrick to continue his consistent play into the weekend and eventually the putts will start dropping.

3rd Round Props

Will Zalatoris – To Shoot Under 70.5 (+125) (1 unit): We said it in our initial PGA Championship article and we’ll say it again… As long as Zalatoris can putt even relatively decently then he will contend for this title. Not only is he putting half decent, he’s leading the field in strokes gained with the Texas wedge through the first two rounds. He’s posted a round of 66 and 65 so far and he currently sits atop the leaderboard. I’m expecting Zalatoris to keep the momentum rolling into Sunday and the weather conditions will only get better so this feels like a steal.

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