Steve Palmer's Canadian Open final-round preview, best bets, free golf tips
Sky Sports Golf red button, 3.30pm Sunday
Best bets
Justin Thomas to win the Canadian Open
2pts 9-2 general
Sam Burns to win 5.40pm threeball
2pts 10-11 general
Story so far
Tony Finau and Rory McIlroy share the lead going into the final round of the Canadian Open - the dynamic duo edging two shots clear of the rest of the field on a noisy Saturday at St George's Club in Ontario.
Finau, 28-1 ante-post, and McIlroy, a pre-tournament 10-1 chance, made 13 birdies between them in round three, while Finau eagled the ninth for good measure. McIlroy is 13-8 favourite with 18 holes to play, with Finau available at 11-4.
US PGA champion, Justin Thomas, is tied for third spot, alongside Colonial victor Sam Burns. Finau's Saturday 62 upstaged the 63 carded by Thomas. World number one Scottie Scheffler had a bad day, dropping eight shots behind, sharing 29th place.
Leaderboard
-11 Tony Finau, Rory McIlroy-9 Justin Thomas, Sam Burns, Wyndham Clark, Alex Smalley-7 Austin Cook, Jim Knous
-6 Sebastian Munoz, Chris Kirk, Adam Long, Doug Ghim, Matt Fitzpatrick, Keith Mitchell
Best prices
13-8 R McIlroy, 11-4 T Finau, 9-2 J Thomas, 13-2 S Burns, 16 A Smalley, 18 W Clark, 50 bar
Final-round preview
Scottie Scheffler (eight behind), Corey Conners (seven), Shane Lowry (six) and Matt Fitzpatrick (five) have almost certainly given themselves too much Sunday work to do in terms of claiming the Canadian Open title.
The quality foursome can be expected to finish strongly, but the top of the leaderboard is dripping in class, so encouragement from the frontrunners is extremely unlikely. With the field squeezed into a tight set of threeballs for Sunday to overcome potential bad weather (heavy rain but hopefully no electrical activity), there is no weather advantage for the chasing pack either.
Wyndham Clark and Alex Smalley will deserve more than one trophy if using this Canadian Open for a maiden PGA Tour title. The inevitably nervous duo will look at the names around them on the leaderboard and know that nothing but their A-game will be good enough to emerge triumphant.
Most punters will be understandably narrowing down their final-round focus to Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas and Sam Burns.
At the prices, McIlroy is the easiest to remove from the radar. Chunking on a 13-8 chance the week before the US Open is an unappealing option - and the short odds disrespect Finau, Thomas and Burns. McIlroy has been enjoying incredible support this week - there is probably not another PGA Tour event where he is more popular - but that backing is not enough to justify the odds.
McIlroy won the last Canadian Open from the final group and obviously has every chance of a repeat, but 13-8 can be left alone. It should be noted that his usual caddie, Harry Diamond, is not with McIlroy this week. Diamond is at home with his wife, who is expecting their second baby. The replacement - former rugby player Niall O'Connor - has caddied for McIlroy once before. That was in the 2019 DP World Tour Championship, where McIlroy was two shot behind through three rounds, but carded a Sunday 73 to finish fourth.
Former Canadian Tour regular, Tony Finau, deserves plenty of respect, but a Sunday threeball with McIlroy and Justin Thomas will test his mettle. The jury is still out on whether Finau's Northern Trust victory last year will make him significantly stronger in contention going forward.
With Sam Burns unhappy with how he has hit it over the last two days - he has been wild off the tee and has done well to hold his score together - the Sunday nomination is Thomas.
The relief of winning that second Major title last month is obvious - a weight has been lifted from the shoulders of Thomas - and his bogey-free Saturday masterclass has set up a golden opportunity.
Thomas rolled in a par putt from 13 feet on the 17th to keep his scorecard clean - a hugely positive sign. He has gained almost ten shots on the field from tee to green - hitting his ball with trademark authority - and Saturday's putting performance underlined the strides he has been making lately with a new flat stick.
From two shots behind - and with a place in the final threeball - the 9-2 Thomas is the most attractive Sunday package. Showers and a moderate breeze can be expected. Thomas, McIlroy and Finau are scheduled on the tee at 5.51pm UK and Ireland time.
Final-round threeball punters are pointed towards Burns, who should be several levels ahead of Clark and Smalley in terms of Sunday composure. If Burns finds a way to straighten out his driver, the rest of his game is in great nick, so Clark and Smalley would probably be outclassed.
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