Steve Palmer's Masters second-round tips and best bets

Where to watch

Sky Sports Main Event and Golf, 2pm Friday

Best bets

Brooks Koepka second-round leader
3pts 7-2 Betfair, Power

Shane Lowry to win 5.18pm threeball
3pts 11-10 general

Seamus Power to win 5.30pm threeball
3pts Evens BoyleSports

Story so far

Thursday was likely to be the best scoring day of the Masters and three big names took full advantage by opening with a seven-under-par 65 at a welcoming Augusta National.

Rarely does this famous layout have such soft fairways and greens in April, but balls could be easily controlled, seeing Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka end the day tied at the top of the leaderboard.

Conditions in Georgia are set to worsen, with a thunderstorm threat for Friday from late morning onwards. The early starters should have great weather, but a hooter will stop them in their tracks should any lightning arrive. The morning wave will be praying that the electrical activity misses Augusta – because they will get 18 holes in before the skies turn nasty. If there are no delays in play, the afternoon wave would probably face a stiff breeze as well as heavy rain.

The weather gods, then, could play a significant role in this Masters – and punters need to study the Friday tee-times. Koepka (8.18am local time; 1.18pm UK and Ireland) has the best opportunity of the front three to make early Friday headway. Rahm (1.18pm; 6.18pm UK) and Hovland (12.54pm; 5.54pm) have less attractive launchpads. A cold, breezy Saturday morning could be waiting for those who are denied the chance to complete their rounds on Friday.

Leaderboard
-7 Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka
-5 Cameron Young, Jason Day
-4 Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott, Gary Woodland, Sam Bennett, Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns
-3 Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa, Tony Finau, Jordan Spieth

Others to note
-2 Justin Thomas, Cameron Smith, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tom Kim
-1 Patrick Reed, Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im, Hideki Matsuyama, Dustin Johnson, Max HomaPar Rory McIlroy
+2 Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia
+4 Louis Oosthuizen

Best prices
100-30 J Rahm, 5 S Scheffler, 7 B Koepka, 11 V Hovland, 12 J Day, 18 C Young, 20 R McIlroy, J Spieth, 22 X Schauffele, 25 T Finau, C Morikawa, 28 S Burns, 40 bar

The Masters second-round preview

Brooks Koepka appears to have a fantastic opportunity to take a lead into the final 36 holes of the Masters and the second-round-leader market is the one for punters to concentrate on for day two.

Koepka seems to have an ideal launchpad with which to kick on from the front. He has been working extremely hard with coach Claude Harmon in the last few months, gearing himself up for a crack at the Majors, and last week's LIV Golf Orlando victory was the perfect pre-Masters tonic.

Koepka should be able to card a few birdies before any lightning arrives – and if the storms miss Augusta completely, he would likely get a full 18 holes in scoreable conditions. Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland will be much more concerned about the weather forecasts than Koepka.

With Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira massively out of his depth, and Bubba Watson clearly not ready to do himself justice so soon after knee surgery, the best of the second-round threeball options is arguably Seamus Power.

The 5.30pm (UK and Ireland) group may be bossed by Power, who will not fear the likely weather they will face. A windy, wet round will be no problem for the Irishman, who has an ideal game to handle such a test. He tied 27th on his Masters debut last year and on Thursday outscored his playing partners by three shots and four shots respectively. Expect a repeat.

Shane Lowry, striking his ball with great authority in round one, is another Irishman who should thrive as this Masters turns wet and wild. The 5.18pm match against Mackenzie Hughes and Thomas Pieters can go the way of the former Open champion. Lowry beat Hughes by eight shots and Pieters by six on day one. An Irish double may appeal to plenty of punters.

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