Steve Palmer's Wells Fargo Championship final-round preview, best bets

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf red button, 1pm Sunday

Best bets

Lanto Griffin to win twoball
1pt 9-5 bet365, Hills

Advised yesterday morning

Gary Woodland to win the Wells Fargo Championship
2pts each-way 8-1 Betfred, BoyleSports, Coral, Ladbrokes

Story so far

Rory McIlroy shortened from 9-2 to 2-1 for the Wells Fargo Championship after a third-round 68 - the four-times Major champion retaining favouritism at Quail Hollow, North Carolina, going into Sunday.

McIlroy, who won this tournament by four shots in 2010 and by seven in 2015, has not lifted a trophy since the WGC-HSBC Champions in China, which was played in the first week of November, 2019.

The Northern Irishman, ranked 15th in the world after starting July last year ranked No. 1, has given himself a golden chance of getting back to winning ways. The pre-tournament favourites have flopped - Jon Rahm missed the cut and Justin Thomas is nine shots off the pace - leaving ante-post 20-1 poke McIlroy making merry at one of his favourite courses.

Keith Mitchell is two shots ahead of McIlroy, though, having reached nine under par. Mitchell's lone PGA Tour victory came in the 2019 Honda Classic. The top four on the Quail Hollow leaderboard all played in the favourable late-early draw over the first two days.

Leaderboard
-9 Keith Mitchell
-7 Rory McIlroy, Gary Woodland
-6 Luke List
-5 Satoshi Kodaira, Scott Stallings
-4 Jason Dufner, Viktor Hovland, Kyle Stanley, Patrick Reed, Abraham Ancer, Matt Wallace

Best prices
2 R McIlroy, 11-4 K Mitchell, 6 G Woodland, 12 L List, 16 V Hovland, 20 P Reed, 25 A Ancer, 33 S Stallings, 50 S Kodaira, M Wallace, 60 K Stanley, 66 bar

Final-round preview

Rory McIlroy complained during his post-lockdown slump that he found it difficult to get his juices flowing competing on spectator-less courses - and the atmosphere at Quail Hollow this week could be helping the former top dog of the sport to great things.

Quail Hollow always seems to bring positive vibes out of McIlroy - his birthday celebrations are perennially around the tournament and his course record is incredible - and the fact the venue is at 30 percent capacity for fans appears to have added to his bounce over the last three days.

Maybe with galleries slowly but surely increasing at golf tournaments, McIlroy will slowly but surely return to the top of the sport. It is an appealing theory for his supporters - and his next 18 holes could go a long way to determining how the rest of the year pans out.

With the US PGA Championship on the horizon - at a Kiawah Islands course McIlroy has won at before - the possibility of a glorious May has presented itself. But McIlroy has admitted he has surprised himself this week - and 2-1 quotes do not make much appeal.

The swing of McIlroy is work in progress - he ditched the coach who has guided him all his life and recruited Pete Cowen in the lead-up to the Masters - and such changes typically take time to bed in under tournament pressure. It was a red-hot putter which powered McIlroy in round three and there must be plenty of doubt as to whether his swing is ready to finish the job on such a demanding layout.

Keith Mitchell is no mug and he likes tough courses, underlined by his 2019 Honda Classic victory, where he repelled Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler to make a PGA Tour breakthrough.

Mitchell was the standout performer in the Zurich Classic pairs event the week before last, carrying Brandt Snedeker to fourth place, and produced three solid rounds in the Valspar Championship last week. A Sunday 82, though, left him last of the weekend qualifiers and saw him chalked up at 140-1 in a place for the Wells Fargo.

Mitchell finished eighth in the previous Wells Fargo in 2019. If you take that Valspar 82 out of the equation, his Quail Hollow credentials were strong, and he has subsequently explained that the Sunday Valspar horror show was largely down to his putter being out of alignment. He bent it back to the right specifications afterwards and feels his game is in mint condition.

Mitchell is tempting at 11-4, but preference is for the 6-1 about Gary Woodland, who covered the Green Mile in style to end round three strongly and go into Sunday alongside McIlroy on the leaderboard. A brilliant bunker shot salvaged par at the 16th, he speared his ball at the hole for a birdie at the 17th, then two solid shots set up a comfortable par at the 18th.

Woodland, having liaised with both Butch Harmon and Pete Cowen in the build-up to this event, is swinging with great confidence again and says he is over the back and hip problems which had been hindering his progress. The 2019 US Open champion looks extremely dangerous from the penultimate group.

Pre-tournament 22-1 recommendation, Viktor Hovland, still has a chance from five shots behind, but giving a three-shot start to Woodland could be the main issue. Woodland was recommended yesterday at 8-1, but would be the tip for punters yet to get involved.

Final-round twoball punters are pointed towards Lanto Griffin, who could prove a touch of value against a potentially jaded Bryson DeChambeau in the 4.45pm (UK and Ireland) match. DeChambeau thought he had missed the cut on Friday and flew home to Dallas, forced to jet back early on the Saturday morning having squeezed through to the weekend.

The final twoball of McIlroy and Mitchell tees off at 6.40pm. A pleasant day, with light to moderate breezes increasing as the afternoon wears on, is forecast.

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