Two ways to take on the Pinehurst principals

I may live to regret this, but I'm against Bryson DeChambeau this week. A phenomenal golfer though he is, and one of the greatest, most effective drivers of a ball we've ever seen, my view is that waywardness off the tee will be punished. Last year, at a rough-free Pinehurst, he ranked 66th in fairways. Surely, that will not do at Oakmont.

DeChambeau was 69th in fairways at Quail Hollow and 44th last week in LIV Golf's latest event (that's in a field of 53), so unless he dials it down or significantly ups his accuracy, I think he'll run into trouble. For me, he is the worst value in the field this week at single-figure odds, which cascade down into all of the sub markets.

I therefore have to be with JON RAHM and JOAQUIN NIEMANN in the top LIV Golf player betting, at 11/4 and 6/1 respectively. There are 11 more of them and both Marc Leishman and Dustin Johnson are somewhat interesting, but it will ultimately be a shock if the top three players on the circuit are beaten by someone else.

And if it isn't Bryson, that leaves us with Rahm and Niemann at a fraction short of 6/4 combined. Perfect.

DeChambeau is also favourite in the top former winner betting, where Rahm is around the 11/4 mark and a drifting Rory McIlroy is next at 3/1. The latter is a huge price on his early-season form but arrives on the back of arguably his worst ever performance as a professional, so the way could be clear for Rahm again.

However, McIlroy's drift makes him hard to be taking on now and with Justin Rose so capable of popping up in majors, Matt Fitzpatrick in better form and Johnson also in this market, I'm content on balance to sit it out.

Top nationalities treble

Presumably because it's a bit of a technical faff, some firms won't let you bet multiples on top nationalities markets. That's a real shame as there's no reason not to be able to, but enough will allow it and if you want things made really simple, Sky Bet have priced up my three selections in a treble which pays in full in the event of dead-heats.

First up, VICTOR PEREZ is the pick of the Frenchmen. He leads Matthieu Pavon 5-2 on the head-to-head this year and while Perez was finishing ninth in Canada, Pavon's year-long struggles continued with rounds of 70-80 to miss the cut by a mile.

The third player here is solid DP World Tour operator Frederic Lacroix, but this is a big ask and he lacks experience. Perez does have to overcome a miserable US Open record, but he's a top-10 performer in total driving, which was a key stat here in 2016, and I can see him being far too good. He may not need to make the cut to win this anyway.

Next is HIDEKI MATSUYAMA to beat four Japanese rivals.

Matsuyama is even-money and at first glance you may wonder if that's a little short, but his record of 43 cuts made in 49 majors is phenomenal and means he should be significantly odds-on. For a player who has had fitness issues throughout his career, it's astonishing how good he's been at grinding his way to the weekend.

Takumi Kanaya is on a run of 11 successive missed cuts in majors. Jinichiro Kozuma's record reads MC-MC, while Riki Kawamoto shot 77-82 at Pinehurst last year. The promising Yuta Sugiura is a bit of an unknown quantity but his Japan Tour form is only solid and this is just a totally new, fearsome challenge, one he'll struggle with.

Matsuyama is 8/15 to make the cut. Do that, and your even-money top Japanese bet is almost certainly weighed in. In fact I would've been really keen to double Rahm and Niemann with him to boost those prices, but the firms offering top prices don't allow it, presumably because Kozuma is a LIV Golf player.