The Punter's In-Play Blog: Odds-on favourites at halfway on both Tours

12:10 - June 27, 2026 - Scheffler two clear at River Highlands

It's not often we see someone trading at odds-on after two rounds on either the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour and I can't recall the last time it happened on both Tours in the same week but that's the case this week.

The 10.519/2 pre-event favourite, Joaquin Niemann, leads the Italian Open by two strokes over Spain's rising star, Angel Ayora, and the 5.79/2 pre-event jolly at the Travelers Championship, Scottie Scheffler, leads by two over Viktor Hovland, after opening the event with rounds of 64 and 60.

Niemann heads into round three trading at 1.758/11 and Scheffler is now a 1.422/5 chance.

On -16 at halfway, Scheffler is two clear of Hovland, who is two clear of Akshay Bhatia and Eric Cole, who Dave Tindall correctly predicted to end round one with the lead at 50/151.00.

Scheffler is obviously the man to beat but I'm happy to take him on modestly at 1.422/5.

He won the Open Championship last year having led by a stroke at halfway and he's won twice when three clear at the midway point but he's also failed to convert on three occasions when he's only led by one at halfway - at the Byron Nelson in 2023, The Sentry in 2024 and the Houston Open last year.

He finished only sixth her last year when defending the title having been tied for the lead after rounds one and two and looking at past results at TPC River Highlands, he may be worth opposing modestly.

In the last 30 years, 20 players have held a clear 36-hole lead and only five of them went on to win.

And eight have led by two or more and only two went on to win so it's clearly not an easy place to make the running.

It's obviously not as simple as that as most of them weren't even close to the player that Scheffler is but it's never easy to back up a low round and we also have to consider that he's coming off a gruelling week at the US Open.

I suspect he will get the job done but he's simply too short at 1.422/5 and the same can be said of Niemann in Italy.

Both could suffer from mental and physical fatigue over the weekend after a long week at Shinnecock.

Neimann two clear in Italy

Having written the following before the off, I'm kicking myself for not backing the Chilean.

"It's very tempting to back the favourite, Joaquin Niemann, who finished tied for seventh, beaten by five strokes, at last week's US Open, despite dropping seven strokes on one hole in round one!

"After chalking up a nine, thanks mainly to hitting two drives out of bounds on the par four sixth hole, Niemann was penalised a further two strokes for serious misconduct because he threw his club around 50 yards in anger.

"Had he parred that hole instead of making an 11, he'd have finished the week two in front of the winner, Clark.

"That's obviously a far too simplistic way to look at what would have transpired had he not dropped seven strokes on one hole in round one, but the fact remains that he played extremely well, and importantly, he putted really nicely.

"The Chilean is a class act trading at a nice price on the Betfair Exchange ([10/1 at the time) but he often starts slowly and for that reason I'm going to leave him out before the get-go."

He hasn't started slowly!

Like Scheffler, he's very much the man to beat but he too is too short and worth a modest lay at 1.758/11.

Niemann has been playing on the LIV Golf Tour, which up until this year has featured only 54-hole events so he hasn't led a 72-hole event often.

In fact, he's only led a 72-hole event twice - way back in 2019 in his homeland, when he finished third, beaten by by three, and as recently as February on the Asian Tour, where he finished third in India, beaten by eight, having led by two at halfway.

Both men may well kick on and claim the spoils but I'm happy to take them on modestly at the prices.

Bookmark Betting.Betfair for golf betting tips every week