UPDATED: Scroll to the bottom for Top-10/Top-20/FRL props!

Open Championship week is here!

…Now that the lawyers stopped reading, I will be referring to this tournament by its real name, the British Open, the rest of the blog. Nothing can top The Masters for me as the best major in golf, but I would definitely put the British Open as my second favorite tournament of the year. The gray, depressing weather, the long, thick rough, the general pessimism that seems to hang in the air over the whole tournament, it’s all just beautiful to me. The tournament is designed for an upset more than any other major due to how low the winning scores are, but when one of the elite players in the world does win, it’s usually because they put on a god damn show for 4 days straight and conquered the course that beat everyone else to shit. Now, I am no golf expert but I do have a really good track record of picking winners in majors. People forget, I was the only person in America that picked Patrick Reed to win the Masters the year he won. So without further ado, let’s get into the picks.

My strategy when betting majors (not that this is innovative in any way, shape, or form) is picking a couple of the big dogs in the 10/1-20/1 range, then picking a couple of guys that are very capable of winning with good odds in the 20/1-40/1 range, then a couple of longshots that especially in the British could potentially pull off the payout of the year. So let’s start with the guys at the top of the odds board that I like.

The Favorites

Brooks Koepka (18/1)- Brooks always shows up at majors and he has finished T4 and T2 at the US Open and PGA Championship already this summer as well as a T5 at the Travelers his last time playing. Brooks also has two top-5 finishes in the last five years at the British so he has performed well in this style of golf before. If he wins and he’s not in your card you will feel like a big dumb idiot on Sunday evening.

Xander Schauffele (18/1)- Xander finished T2 at the British in 2018 and he has finished T11 or better in his last 3 starts going into this weekend. He has not been able to win that elusive major yet but now has multiple top-5s in majors and finished T3 at the Masters this year and T7 at the US Open just last month so I think it’s only a matter of time until he brings one home.

The Middle of the Pack

Viktor Hovland (30/1)- Viktor Hovland is one of the best young players on Tour and seems poised to have that one breakout weekend that makes him a household name. Viktor has a great attitude and seems to always stay calm which is part of the reason I like him on a course like this. In his last 16 starts he has 6 top-5 finishes so he has been playing phenomenal golf in the past year. The British has also had more first-time major winners than any other major. Let’s go Hov.

Louis Oosthuizen (30/1)- From the young up and comer to the experienced former champion. Louis has won at the British Open before and also finished second in 2015 so he has a great track record in this tournament. He has finished as the runner-up at the last two majors (PGA and US Open) and has overall just been playing great golf coming into this weekend. Don’t be surprised if ole Louis adds his second British to his trophy case.

Tyrell Hatton (33/1)- Ty has T5 and T6 finished at the British since 2016 so he has a good track record. Royal St. George’s is just a couple hours away from where Ty grew up and still lives part of the year so he has a lot of experience playing in this type of weather on this type of course so that is a big help. Ty had a solid top-20 finish in the Scottish Open in his tune up for the British and finished T2 at the Palmetto last month. I think he’s ready to contend for the big one here.

The Longshots

Lucas Glover (180/1)- Lucas is coming off a win at the John Deere last week and honestly if you told me I could get anybody who just won on Tour at 180/1 the next week, I’d take it. Lucas also had a solid T12 performance the last time the Open was played at Royal St. George’s so he has experience of playing well here. Putting is really the only part of Lucas’ game that he has struggled with so if he can find a way to get at least to average putting stats this weekend he has a real shot to contend.

Rickie Fowler (65/1)- Could this be the week Rickie finally gets it done? He finished T6 at The Open in 2019 and had two top-5 finishes at the British prior to that including T5 last time at Royal St. George’s. Rickie has abysmal year-long stats, however, he played decent golf at the Rocket Mortgage his last time out and finished T11 at the Memorial and T8 at the PGA over the last couple of months so he has shown signs of getting back into form. In a week where everyone will struggle some, I like Rickie to beat the odds and contend over the weekend.

Kevin Kisner (150/1)- Kiz has been playing great golf lately with a T8 at the Rocket Mortgage and a T5 at the Travelers his last two times out. Kiz also finished T2 at the Open in 2018 so we’ve seen him contend here before. Kiz is one of the best putters on Tour so if from tee to green everybody is getting beat up this week, the best putters will prevail which would make Kiz a contender over the weekend.

That’s it folks! It should be a great weekend of golf and hopefully one of our boys can take it home.

Props

I’m also going to be betting some top-10s, 20s, and other props to hopefully cover some losses if we didn’t pick the winner. If it’s a player I didn’t bet to win, I’ll write up what I like about them, otherwise, just consult my write-ups above where I already included why they should succeed here.

Top-10

Xander Schauffele (+190)

Louis Oosthuizen (+240)

Top-20

Robert MacIntyre (+210)- finished T6 at his first British in 2019 and has a game suited for links golf. Finished T12 at the Masters this year and finished T18 at the Scottish Open last week so he is not afraid of the big tournament and is playing well coming in.

Tommy Fleetwood (+190)- Tommy has finished 2nd and T12 at the last two British Opens and despite not having a great year so far, if he’s going to show up big at any major it will be this one.

Lucas Glover (+700)

Kevin Kisner (+360)

Rickie Fowler (+260)

First Round Leader

Spieth (29/1)

Westwood (33/1)

Hatton 41/1

Macintyre (50/1)

Fleetwood (50/1)

Kisner (80/1)

Kokrak (100/1)

Other Props

Zalatrois to Miss Cut (+140)

Finau to Miss Cut (+205)

Bryson to Miss Cut (+225)

DJ to Miss Cut (+300)

JT to Miss Cut (+300)

Top Continental European- Hovland (+500)

Full Tournament Brooks over Bryson (-152)

Full Tournament Brooks over Rahm (+148)

Full Tournament Spieth over DJ (-112)

Full Tournament MacIntyre over Zalatoris (-120)

Full Tournament Kisner over Kuchar (-120)