The Punter's In-Play Blog: Penge looks poised for a weekend charge

20:20 - July 3, 2026 - Could it be a case of beware the injured golfer in Germany?

The second round of the John Deere Classic is well underway on the PGA Tour, and the afternoon wave are trying to pass the clubhouse leader, pre-event 65.064/1 chance, Jackson Suber.

At the time of writing, the 2021 winner, Lucas Glover, who was a 250.0249/1 chance before the off, is about to go two clear with a tap in birdie at the par three 16^th (his seventh hole of the day) and he's now trading at just 4/15.00 on the Betfair Exchange.

Playing the back-nine first in round two, my pre-event pick, Tom Kim, was matched at as low as 13.525/2 today when he gave himself a look for eagle from inside 15 feet on the par five second hole (his 11^th hole of the round) but after settling for a birdie four to get to four-under-par for the day and eight-under-par for the tournament, he played his last seven holes in one-over.

I'm leaving this event alone for now and I'll revisit it on Sunday morning when there's 18 holes to play as I won't get a chance to update the blog tomorrow at all.

I'm doing a 32-mile charity walk which will take me all day and a bit more besides, but I have had an in-play wager in the BMW International Open on the DP World Tour.

Pre-event 100.099/1 chance, Hennie Du Plessis, leads at halfway on 10-under-par and he's the current favourite on the Betfair Exchange at a shade over 6/17.00 but he makes little appeal in a tournament that looks wide open.

Last year's winner, Dan Brown, sat as close as third, trailing by three, at halfway and two of the last four winners were leading at halfway but Ernie Els is the only other halfway leader to go on to win in the last 12 editions held here and it's not easy place to front run.

The 2022 winner, Thriston Lawrence, was tied for 15^th and five back at halfway, and we've seen numerous victors trailing by four and five strokes, Matt Fitzpatrick and Sergio Garcia have both lost playoffs here having trailed by six, Anders Hansen lost in extra time having trailed by eight after 36 holes and Russell Claydon win the event back in 1998 having trailed by seven.

Penge the pick at halfway

With all that in mind, I was happy to play the classy Englishman, Marco Penge, who's playing in his first event since he missed the cut at the US PGA Championship in May.

Penge, who won three times on the DP World Tour last year, sits tied for 19^th so he has plenty of traffic to pass but he's only four off the lead and he's capable of going super low over the weekend.

Penge has been suffering with vertigo-like symptoms on and off since he picked up a viral infection in Dubai back in November last year so he's given himself plenty of time off to recover and he sounded quite positive before the off this week.

"I'm feeling a lot better than when I stopped playing," he said on the eve of his return to competitive golf.

"I wouldn't say I'm 100%, but definitely 90% of the way there. At least know what was going on and have got some things in place if I start to feel a little worse again. I'm happy to be back.

"I had several scans and appointments with specialists, and everything was kind of coming back normal, which is good. But at the same time, I wanted an answer to what was going on.

"But they think it was a vestibular ocular deficiency where basically your eyes and ears work together so when I turned my head there would be a delayed focus of my eyes, so it made me feel really dizzy.

"I thought it was vertigo at the time when I stopped. That's what was assumed and I've got some extra medication which is helping so yeah, it's nice to be feeling more myself."

It's obviously a bit risky to play someone with health issues but he sounded confident after the pro-am and he's started quite nicely.

"After playing today in the Pro-Am, I was really impressed with myself and really pleased with how I played.

"I feel like it's probably the best I've played all year and the most comfortable I felt all year.

"I mean, I could come out and be up there in contention, but I'm fully aware that it could also go the other way, so we'll see."

He'll be happy to be on the fringes of contention, and he won't be backing off tomorrow.

He's generally a 22/123.00 shot on the High Street so I was happy to take a small chance at 26.025/1 on the Betfair Exchange.

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