Heavyweight three-way scrap afoot in Barclays final round
Published:
The Barclays is all set for a grandstand finish in the final round after Adam Scott surged to join Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed at the sharp end of the leaderboard in New York.
The Australian, who won this tournament in 2013 and was runner up seven years earlier, shot a six-under-par 65 to take his score to seven under for the tournament.
That puts the 36-year-old two shots behind the leader Fowler, whose 68 gave him a one-shot cushion over countryman Reed.
The Californian is our favourite to win the tournament at 2/1 and the success would be his second of the season after he claimed the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in January.
Fowler hasn’t won on his home tour since last September. However, this would be a timely return to the winner’s circle with the Barclays forming one of four play-off events that help decide the FedEx Cup. Victory here would catapult Fowler to the top of those standings.
A level-par 71 kept Reed in contention for the title and we give him a 7/2 chance of overtaking his Ryder Cup teammate down the home straight.
With Reed currently in possession of the final automatic qualifying place for this year’s USA team, which is named after the conclusion of the Barclays, he has more than one motivation for victory.
He’ll likely have one eye cast over his shoulder at Scott though, who had the lowest score in round three to make a charge up the leaderboard.
We go 5/1 that the Adelaide native carries that momentum all the way to victory, while his compatriot Jason Day – who is four shots off the pace – is next in the betting at 8s.
The only European hope of success comes from Scotland’s Martin Laird, who is six-under par after three rounds and carded a 69 on Saturday.
He’s 20/1 to win the tournament, but with each-way bets paying out at a fifth of the odds for the first four home, he could earn some place money.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
