Carl Pettersson (14/1 in Betfred’s in-play betting) will start the final round of the Canadian Open just four shots off the lead after a stunning 60 on Saturday to move into contention for the title.

The Swede carded the lowest-ever score at the event, which has been running since 1904, keeping him in touch with leader Dean Wilson.

Pettersson’s third round included two eagles and seven birdies, with the 32-year-old seeing his 30-foot birdie putt skirt past the hole at the 18th.

Hawaiian Wilson, who was given an exemption by the sponsors to play the PGA Tour event, carded a 65 on Saturday to take him to -15 for the tournament.

Pettersson (8/11 to win his two-ball v Wilson) is joined on 11-under-par by South Africa?s Tim Clark and US veteran Bob Estes, with the three-man group the closest challengers to the leader.

Former Masters winner Trevor Immelman is tied for fifth on ten-under, alongside US trio Bryce Molder, Kevin Sutherland and Brock Mackenzie.

Englighman Luke Donald is in a group of nine players at eight-under-par, but the Ryder Cup hopeful has seven shots to make up on Wilson.

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• Three-time major winner currently reliant on wildcard slot
• Dubliner has three tournaments left to gain automatic selection

Padraig Harrington has admitted he would be “gutted” and “devastated” if he was not part of Europe’s team at the Ryder Cup in October.

With only five weeks left in the points race the three-time major champion admits he is in a “very perilous” position down at 17th place.

Yet things are so tight that if Harrington wins this week’s Irish Open at Killarney he could move all the way up to sixth.

Nine players qualify automatically at the end of next month and then captain Colin Montgomerie adds three wild cards.The newly-appointed vice-captain Darren Clarke says that he cannot envisage Harrington missing out, but competition is fiercer than ever before.

Five players in the world’s current top 25 – Paul Casey (9), Edoardo Molinari (17), Justin Rose (18), Harrington (19) and Henrik Stenson (23) – are in need of a wild card as things stand.

If the team were to be selected today Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald would qualify from the world points list, with Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Francesco Molinari, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Ross McGowan joining them from the European list.

But Rose has won twice in the United States recently, Casey and Stenson were joint third at the Open and Molinari won the Scottish Open three weeks ago – and won the World Cup with his brother Francesco last November.

Harrington’s last victory was the US PGA two years ago, but he was at great pains, with Clarke listening, to point out that in the past 12 months he has had no fewer than 14 top 10 finishes.

“I was asked the other day if I got selected would I actually pull out,” he said. “The inference was: ‘Would you pull out because you’re not playing well?’.

“I’ve had more top 10s in the last year than I’ve ever had in my career, so going on a guideline that most people use I’ve actually had the best year of my career. I haven’t won and that’s certainly below my expectations and everybody else’s expectations, but my form has actually been solid enough.

“I just have to wait and let it happen. I do try to be very disciplined in doing my own thing and not being influenced by outside factors – but clearly that one got to me.”

The 38-year-old Dubliner is focusing all his energies on the next three weeks – Ireland, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron and then the US PGA in Wisconsin – and trying to make sure he does not need to be picked as a wildcard.

But, should he still not be certain after that, it remains to be seen if he would do as Montgomerie wants and change his schedule to play the race-ending Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles rather than the non-counting FedEx Cup play-off event, The Barclays, in the same week.

“My schedule is set to play in The Barclays at the moment, so I’m really hoping that I play well enough in the next three weeks that I don’t have to think about not playing it.”

Ryder Cup teams as they stand

Europe Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Francesco Molinari, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Ross McGowan. Plus three wildcard picks.

US Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Lucas Glover, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Tiger Woods. Plus four wildcard picks.

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Paul Casey, Luke Donald and Retief Goosen took the flight from Scotland to Ontario, Canada for this week’s Canadian Open.
Casey, fresh off of his 3rd place finish at the British Open last week, is the golf betting favorite to win his tournament matchup against Donald in the Canadian Open.

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Edoardo Molinari admits he has plenty of work to do before securing a place on Europe’s Ryder Cup team for Celtic Manor, despite another fine performance at the Scandinavian Masters (Europe 4/7, USA 7/4 to win).

Molinari is now into the world’s top 20 for the first time following his third-place finish over the weekend, when he ended up just two shots behind winner Richard Johnson.

The former US Amateur winner is now 17th in the world rankings but, like fellow European hopefuls Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Padraig Harrington, he still has to make it into one of the nine automatic qualifying places for October’s showdown against America in Wales.

Molinari’s younger brother Francesco is currently seventh in the standings and he is determined to push further up the rankings himself in what’s left of the tour before the Ryder Cup.

“I’m still outside the team, so I need to play very well in the last two or three events,” he said.

Molinari has opted to miss this week’s Irish Open in Killarney but will play the World Golf Championship event in Akron and then the USPGA Championship in Wisconsin as he looks to push himself into contention for a Ryder Cup spot.

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Golf bettors often like to latch on to a hot player in order to bolster their wagering formula, and one guy who looks to be surging right now is Retief Goosen, who has come back with a vengeance after a couple of lean years.

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Anthony Kim admits he cannot wait to get back out onto the course and prove he is worthy of a place in the USA’s Ryder Cup team (USA 7/4 to win Ryder Cup).

The talented American has missed the last two months of the PGA Tour due to thumb surgery and says he is now ready to make his return to the course.

Kim’s injury problems have meant he has missed both the US Open and The Open but the 25-year-old says he expects to be back in time to challenge for the next month’s USPGA Championship (Kim 50/1 to win the tournament) at Whistling Straits.

He told Sky Sports: “I’m feeling good, I want to be out there. It’s tough to be on the golf course and not bring my clubs but everything happens for a reason and when I come back I’ll be better than ever.

“It’s been tough to sit and watch two majors go by and miss tournaments that I really want to play.

“My goal is to play better in majors so I want to make sure that I’m ready to play in the US PGA Championship.”

Despite the long lay-0ff, Kim currently sits fourth in the US Ryder Cup standings and is hoping for strong performances at both the USPGA and the upcoming WGC Championship at Firestone to cement his place in Corey Pavin’s side.

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Anthony Kim says his main target for this year is to play in the Ryder Cup (Europe 4/7, Tie 9/1, USA 7/4 – Ante Post Betting) as the American closes in on a comeback from a thumb injury.

The 25-year-old has been out of action since May following an impressive start to the season, when he won the Houston Open and claimed a third-place finish at the Masters.

The world number 13 was forced to undergo surgery to repair thumb ligaments and although this week’s Canadian Open (Casey & O’Hair 16/1f – Canadian Open Outright) has come too soon, Kim could be back on the PGA Tour soon.

Kim admits it has been a “tougher than expected” comeback and that doctors have told him not to rush back to action.

The US ace looks like he will have most of August and September to try and prove his fitness to Ryder Cup skipper Corey Pavin ahead of October’s clash at Celtic Manor.

Kim admitted: “I definitely want to make that Ryder Cup team. It’s a very special event to me and hopefully I can get back and get some more points so I won’t need to have any favours called in from Corey.”

The three-time PGA tournament winner could be fit enough to play in next month’s USPGA Championship – with the year’s final major taking place at Whistling Straits from August 12-15.

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• South African splashes out on a new tractor for his farm
• ‘John Deere is very close to my heart’ says Oosthuizen

Open champion Louis Oosthuizen has splashed out on something special to mark his first major win – a tractor.

The South African sealed a seven-shot win at St Andrews on Sunday, as his potential challengers fell by the wayside during the final round.

“Being a farm boy it was one of my big dreams and I bought myself a nice John Deere tractor for my farm back in South Africa,” said the 27-year-old. “John Deere is very close to my heart. It’s for me to drive around on and I made sure there was enough space for my little daughter Jana to sit beside me. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”

Oosthuizen is now in Stockholm for the Nordea Scandinavian Masters and the fact that he flew from Manchester by private jet this morning underlined his new status. He could hardly take a step on arrival without somebody congratulating him on his runaway victory, the fifth biggest win in any of the four majors since 1921.

“The last two days have been hectic and it will be nice knowing my phone is switched off and in the bag – I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

Alongside him still is his Soweto-born caddie Zack Rasego, who not surprisingly has kept his job a week after being told The Open could be his last event with Oosthuizen.

The player’s manager Chubby Chandler said: “It was a possibility, but it is not going to happen now. There was a feeling Louis needed a more experienced caddie. Now Zack has proved his worth. It would not look too clever to sack your caddie after you have just won a major.”

Winning caddies normally receive 10% of the first prize, and for Oosthuizen that was £850,000.

After this week’s tournament at the Bro Hoff Slot course, which also features the Americans Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, the Korean KJ Choi and the return of Jesper Parnevik after five months out injured, Oosthuizen flies home. He received a late invitation to the Stockholm tournament and decided to honour his commitment despite his unexpected St Andrews triumph.

“To be honest, when I am playing well I want to keep playing. I saw the golf course on the European Tour website and thought it looked fantastic. I thought it would also be good for the Tour if I came here. I want to support them,” he said.

Oosthuizen confirmed on Monday that he would be continuing as a member on this side of the Atlantic, although his next two tournaments next month will be the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron and then the US PGA, where he will partner the US Open champion Graeme McDowell and the Masters winner Phil Mickelson in the first two rounds.

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Dustin Johnson, Mr. Pebble Beach himself, travels to Stockholm, Sweden this week to take on some of Europe’s best, including British Open victor Louis Oosthuizen, at the Scandinavian Masters.
Johnson is a co-favorite in the golf sportsbook to get his irons and putter on the Bro Hof Slot links golf course.

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Louis Oosthuizen has secured his maiden major title by clinching victory in the Open at St Andrews (Check out Betfred’s golf markets).

The South African had led the field since Friday and there was never any doubt that he would claim the famous Claret Jug during the final day’s play.

He started the day five strokes ahead of Paul Casey in second and the Englishman saw his challenge fail with a triple-bogey on the 12th.

Lee Westwood picked up two shots to score a final round of 70. This pushed him into second place at nine under par overall. This was still seven shots behind Oosthuizen, whose final day 71 enabled him to finish 16 under par for the tournament.

There was a tie for third with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and England’s Casey all on eight under.

Tiger Woods was a shadow of his former self, with double bogeys on the fourth and seventh contributing to his level-par 72. This meant he finished the tournament three under.

Speaking to the BBC upon being crowned Open champion, Oosthuizen paid tribute to Nelson Mandela, whose 92nd birthday it is today, and compatriot Ernie Els.

He also said; “It’s unbelievable. After the 12th it became a bit difficult to keep such a big lead and to remain calm and focused but I kept cool and calm the whole way.

“I’m glad I had eight shots on 18! I think I cramped up a bit with the putter on 18 as well.

“It was a battle for me to keep clam round this course. That was the biggest goal for me, to keep calm. It’s probably going to hit me tomorrow or the week after what I did.”

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