Steve Palmer's Masters third-round golf betting tips and predictions

Where to watch the Masters

Sky Sports Golf, 3pm Saturday

Best bets

Scottie Scheffler to shoot 70 or lower in round three
3pts 9-10 Coral, Ladbrokes

Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau dual forecast
2pts 11-4 bet365

Luke List to win 2.55pm twoball (11-20), Joaquin Niemann to win 4.05pm twoball (17-20), Patrick Cantlay to win 5.15pm twoball (7-20), Collin Morikawa to win 7.25pm twoball (3-4), Scottie Scheffler to win 7.35pm twoball (9-20)
1pt Super Yankee Coral, Ladbrokes

Story so far

Three Americans are tied for the lead at the halfway stage of the Masters – Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and Max Homa – and the weather forecast for the weekend is glorious.

The Masters field had to battle tough conditions over the first two days, with strong winds raging throughout Friday's play, but sunny, relatively calm weather is expected in Augusta, Georgia, for the remainder of the tournament.

Scheffler, 5-1 at the outset, has become a best-price 11-8 with two rounds to play at Augusta National. The 2022 champion has opened with rounds of 66 and 72 for a six-under-par 36-hole total. It has been a similar story for DeChambeau and Homa, and this trio are two shots clear of the rest of the field.

Rory McIlroy is tied for 35th place, ten shots behind, while Jon Rahm is tied 44th, a further shot off the pace. McIlroy can be backed at 175-1 for the Green Jacket, while Rahm is available at 400-1. DeChambeau is a general 9-2.

Those finishing seven over par or worse missed the cut. Among the sad throng packing their bags early were Justin Thomas, Sergio Garcia, Wyndham Clark, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland, Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns and Dustin Johnson. The action resumes at 2.35pm UK and Ireland time.

The Masters leaderboard

-6 Max Homa, Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler
-4 Nicolai Hojgaard
-3 Cameron Davis, Collin Morikawa
-2 Ludvig Aberg
-1 Mattieu Pavon, Cameron Young, Tommy Fleetwood, Danny Willett, Ryan Fox, Byeong Hun An, Cameron Smith
Par Adam Schenk, Patrick Reed, Kurt Kitayama, Lucas Glover, Sepp Straka, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele

Selected others
+1 Tiger Woods
+2 Brooks Koepka, Patrick Cantlay
+3 Shane Lowry, Will Zalatoris
+4 Joaquin Niemann, Rory McIlroy
+5 Jon Rahm
+6 Hideki Matsuyama

Missed cut
+7 Justin Thomas, Wyndham Clark
+8 Viktor Hovland
+9 Jordan Spieth
+13 Dustin Johnson

Best odds for the Masters

11-8 S Scheffler, 9-2 B DeChambeau, 11-2 M Homa, 14 C Morikawa, 20 L Aberg, 28 N Hojgaard, 33 X Schauffele, C Smith, 45 T Fleetwood, 50 bar

The Masters third-round predictions

Scottie Scheffler has stayed on course for a second Masters title and remains the man to beat at Augusta National.

Playing catch-up at an increasingly firm and fast Augusta is far from straightforward and it is not difficult to imagine the American trio at the top of the leaderboard detaching themselves further from the chasing pack over the weekend.

Scheffler, by far the best player in the world, has not needed to slip out of second gear to claim a share of the second-round lead. There is a sense that Scheffler is just warming to the task and a weekend masterclass could be in the offing.

Scheffler will certainly be looking to clean up his approach shots to the 13th hole – that has been the area of the course where he has been untidy – so expect a steely focus on the first par-five on the back-nine.

With the wind dropping significantly at Augusta, Scheffler to card a third round of 70 or better looks a solid wager.

Bryson DeChambeau was unlucky in round two – he did well to hold his emotions together after lip-outs at the 14th and 15th holes – and he looks ready to sustain his Green Jacket challenge. There is a maturity about the 30-year-old DeChambeau that was not there when he first started playing at Augusta – he is aware of how much respect this course needs to be given – and he is making better decisions.

The Scheffler-DeChambeau dual forecast looks a perfectly fair price at 11-4 with bet365, while a third-round threeballs Super Yankee is recommended as well.

Jose Maria Olazabal has done superbly to make the cut, but the 58-year-old Spaniard should be comfortably outscored by Luke List in the 2.55pm twoball, while Joaquin Niemann looks a juicy price to beat Min Woo Lee, who is playing with a broken finger and some illness, in the 4.05pm contest.

Patrick Cantlay can outclass shock amateur weekend qualifier Neal Shipley (5.15pm), then Collin Morikawa, who will be relishing the chance to show off his iron-play skills at a drying Augusta, can defeat Cameron Davis (7.25pm).

Expect Scheffler to dominate Nicolai Hojgaard in the penultimate twoball. Hojgaard has made an incredible Augusta debut, but the firmer, faster conditions of the weekend will fully examine the Dane. He has been labouring with some tennis elbow and the much more experienced Scheffler should boss this match.

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