LIVE Betting on the 2015 Open Championship: Free Picks
Carrie Stroup here with your betting on the 2015 Open Championship with a few good picks.
Tees Off: Thursday, July 16th
St. Andrews (Old Course) – Fife, Scotland
Sportsbook.ag Odds to Win Tournament
A visit to the 463-year-old St. Andrews course will bring about the third major championship of the year as the players look to put their best foot forward at the Open Championship. This is the oldest of the four majors, visiting some of Europe’s most famed and historic courses since 1860 (155 years) and will be played at the Old Course once again for the first time since 2010. In that installment of this impressive event, it was Louis Oosthuizen, this year’s runner-up at the U.S. Open, who dominated the field and was able to win over Lee Westwood by seven strokes after posting a score of 16-under-par. He was part of six non-Americans to win this tournament in the last eight years and his score was second only to Rory McIlory in that stretch. It was McIlroy’s 17-under that netted him his first Open victory last year at Royal Liverpool when he outlasted both Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler by two strokes, but he will be unable to defend his win after a ruptured ligament in his ankle knocked him out of the event.
The field will obviously still be very strong with all of the top golfers attending and being led by world No. 2 golfer, Jordan Spieth, who is attempting to win his third major of the year after taking both the Masters and U.S. Open. Only six other men in the history of the game have completed the first two parts of the major grand slam heading into the Open, but as of now, Ben Hogan is the only one of them to get the British Open after the first two victories. The 21-year-old should be feeling good, not only because he has dominated on the biggest stages this year, but because he is also coming off a win just last week at the John Deere Classic. In all, 78 of the top-80 players according to the Official World Golf Rankings will be in attendance with the only missing names being McIlroy and Alexander Noren.
Outside of the top-80, Tiger Woods sits all the way down at 241st in the world, but he will have some serious motivation after his early exit for the U.S. Open and will be returning to a course where he has taken down two of his three Open Championship wins. The field is huge once again this week, but it is hard to imagine anyone outside of the top-100 really having a chance at this famed venue.
Rickie Fowler: (+1400) Fowler continues to search for his first major victory and he has come up just shy nearly every time out in the past two years. In 2014, he was a top-five finisher at each of the four majors and tied for second at this particular event. Before that, he also had a fifth-place in 2011 and finished tied for 14th back in 2010 when the tourney was last played at St. Andrews. He’s been great in 2015 as well, taking down the PLAYERS back in May and is coming off a win last week at the Scottish Open behind four consecutive rounds of 68 or better. He hasn’t exactly excelled in any one area of his game, but has jumped to No. 5 in the world rankings thanks to doing everything well; ranking 46th in driving distance (294.8 yards per), 37th in sand save percentage (57.5%), fifth in overall putting average (1.550) and 33rd in par breakers (21.96%). Look for the 26-year-old to be competitive once again as he itches to take down a major.
Adam Scott: (+1800) Scott has been forgotten by many after holding the top spot in the OWGR last year, but he does own a Masters victory and has been in the top-15 at 12 of the last 14 majors. In his last three years at the Open, Scott has done no worse than fifth place and had a respectable 27th when he last walked the fairways of St. Andrews. The Aussie’s 64 on Sunday at the U.S. Open was mostly overlooked as Spieth and DJ were battling it out late, but that netted him a fourth at the big event on the links style course. Long hitters tend to do well at St. Andrews, and Scott is amongst the best as he is averaging 309.2 yards per drive (3rd on TOUR) and as a result is hitting 71.68% of GIR (6th on TOUR). If Scott can figure out his putting woes (-.710 strokes-gained putting, 171st on TOUR), he should have no issue getting another great week.
Brandt Snedeker: (+4500) Snedeker is one of the better players on TOUR without a major victory to his name, but he has come close, ranking in the top-10 seven times at such events with one of those coming at the British Open. He did that in 2012 when he tied for third behind a score of three-under-par, but he did not play when the event was last played at this venue. He is running hot coming into this tourney, ranking in the top-10 at each of his last four outings, including an eighth at the U.S. Open. Snedeker’s FedEx Cup ranking has jumped to eighth as a result and his tremendous putting stroke (0.633 strokes-gained putting, 5th on TOUR) should aid him in doing well amongst the massive greens in Scotland.
Byeong-Hun An: (+10000) An is one of the newer names amongst the top golfers in the world as he has flown up to 53rd in the OWGR thanks to a win at the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour back in late May. The 23-year-old looks to have a bright future as he has already proven to be a winner and owns a scoring average of 70.12 behind 72.61% of greens hit in regulation. His drive has the distance (303.5 yards per) to play well on this Old Course and he should be able to build on his seven top-15 outings on the European Tour so far in 2015. <P>
Ross Fisher: (+22500) Fisher is certainly not the best player from England going this week, but he has proven to be a force on the European Tour in recent years and has also performed well in past major championships. Overall, he has five victories across the pond and he comes in with a nice recent stretch as he earned an 11th at the BMW Championship and tied for seventh last week in the Scottish Open. The 34-year-old continues to be one of the more consistent players overseas with a stroke average of 70.60 as he hits a ton of GIR (71.75%). As long as he is able to keep up that consistency and make it through till Sunday afternoon, he should surprise many and rank higher than his odds suggest.
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
