The 150th Open Championship, St Andrews The best Major by far in my mind, and i think it is for the players as well, this years Open carries a bit of extra value being that it is the 150th. Who will be the Champion golfer come 7:00pm on Sunday, well that is anyone's guess, but we will have a go...!! I do think that going out early on the Thursday helps, not that i have any proof of it but that longer bit of rest between rounds can help. The conditions will be the same for most part of the four days so we won't get many of the players facing unfair conditions to the rest of the field, so we should be in for a good show... Patrick Cantlay @ 20/1 Has the form in the book, hits great iron approach shots, can he get past the fact he's not played hits course before in competition... Tommy Fleetwood @ 25/1 Has form from playing coast road, links golf courses, he's from Southport and we have loads of great links golf courses down that stretch of coast to Liverpool. I just hope that this is his day and that he can get that putter going. Seamus Power @ 66/1 Has been my go-to-guy recently (along with Zalatoris, though i've abandoned him here...) and seems to be enjoying his golf very much. Another who is no stranger to the links type of courses, i expect a good show of him to get a top 10 finish at worst...!! Robert MacIntyre @ 66/1 You gotta have a Scot in your picks don't you, and this young lad good surprise a few with his overall game. Tied 8th in last years Open, 23rd at the Masters he has the ability to go deep in to this tournament. All these are with PadPow who pay top 12 for the tournament... Good luck to all who are playing...
Round one (all times BST) Highlighted some of the more interesting groups to watch in my opinion... Thursday, 14 July * denotes amateur 06:35 Paul Lawrie (Sco), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Webb Simpson (US) 06:46 Barclay Brown (Eng*), Ben Campbell (NZ), Sadom Kaewkanjana (Tha) 06:57 Dean Burmester (SA), Chan Kim (US), Brandon Wu (US) 07:08 Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Ian Poulter (Eng), Jamie Donaldson (Wal) 07:19 Ashley Chesters (Eng), Garrick Higgo (SA), Min-Kyu Kim (Kor) 07:30 Lucas Herbert (Aus), Phil Mickelson (US), Kurt Kitayama (US) 07:41 Tom Hoge (US), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Patrick Reed (US) 07:52 John Daly (US), Bryson DeChambeau (US), Cameron Tringale (US) 08:03 Brooks Koepka (US), Seamus Power (Ire), Cameron Smith (Aus) 08:14 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Justin Rose (Eng) 08:25 Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Cameron Young (US) 08:36 Corey Conners (Can), Billy Horschel (US), Zach Johnson (US) 08:47 Brian Harman (US), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Danny Willett (Eng) 09:03 Stephen Dodd (Wal), J. T. Poston (US), Lee Westwood (Eng) 09:14 Justin de Los Santos (US), Luke List (US), Sepp Straka (Aut) 09:25 Adria Arnaus (Spa), Ernie Els (SA), Brad Kennedy (Aus) 09:36 Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Victor Perez (Fra), Scott Vincent (Zim) 09:47 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Si-Hwan Kim (US), Jason Kokrak (US) 09:58 Rory McIlroy (NI), Collin Morikawa (US), Xander Schauffele (US) 10:09 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Shane Lowry, Justin Thomas (US) 10:20 Tony Finau (US), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Will Zalatoris (US) 10:31 Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Chris Kirk (US), Kevin Kisner (US) 10:42 Dylan Frittelli (SA), Matthew Jordan (Eng), Trey Mullinax (US) 10:53 Zander Lombard (SA), John Parry (Eng), Anthony Quayle (Aus) 11:04 Thomas Detry (Bel), Richard Mansell (Eng), Marco Penge (Eng) 11:15 Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Oliver Farr (Wal), Matt Ford (Eng) 11:36 Mark Calcavecchia (US), Ryan Fox (NZ), Jediah Morgan (Aus) 11:47 Sam Bairstow (Eng*), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (SA), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 11:58 Marcus Armitage (Eng), Haotong Li (Chn), Adrian Meronk (Pol) 12:09 Thriston Lawrence (SA), Alex Wrigley (Eng), Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 12:20 Sam Horsfield (Eng), Si Woo Kim (Kor), Aaron Wise (US) 12:31 Wyndham Clark (US), Talor Gooch (US), Shaun Norris (SA) 12:42 Russell Henley (US), Aldrich Potgieter (SA*), Henrik Stenson (Swe) 12:53 Stewart Cink (US), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Aaron Jarvis (Cay*) 13:04 Paul Casey (Eng), Sung Jae Im (Kor), Gary Woodland (US) 13:15 Dustin Johnson (US), Marc Leishman (Aus), Adam Scott (Aus) 13:26 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Scottie Scheffler (US) 13:37 Richard Bland (Eng), Filippo Celli (Ita*), Darren Clarke (NI) 13:48 Kazuki Higa (Jpn), Kevin Na (US), Erik van Rooyen (SA) 14:04 David Duval (US), Justin Harding (SA), Jordan Smith (Eng) 14:15 Shugo Imahira (Jpn), David Law (Sco), Jason Scrivener (Aus) 14:26 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Yuto Katsuragawa (Jpn) 14:37 Harris English (US), Keita Nakajima (Jpn*), Louis Oosthuizen (SA) 14:48 Padraig Harrington (Ire), Keith Mitchell (US), Thomas Pieters (Bel) 14:59 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Max Homa (US), Tiger Woods (US) 15:10 Jon Rahm (Spa), Jordan Spieth (US), Harold Varner III (US) 15:21 Sam Burns (US), Patrick Cantlay (US), Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi) 15:32 Keegan Bradley (US), Sebastian Munoz (Col), Sahith Theegala (US) 15:43 Laurie Canter (Eng), Matthew Griffin (Aus), Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 15:54 David Carey (Ire), John Catlin (US), Jamie Rutherford (Eng) 16:05 Min-Gyu Cho (Kor), Robert Dinwiddie (Eng), Jorge Fernandez Valdes (Arg) 16:16 Jack Floydd (Eng), Ronan Mullarney (Ire), Lars van Meijel (Ned)
Great write up redcgull. A lot of talk this year of the course being brought to it's knees. It will be interesting to see what defence the Old course throws up to avoid some fancy numbers coming in. Unlike courses such as Augusta, there is not enough area of land to purchase to move tee boxes back. Anyway, four selections for myself this week: Tony Finau 40/1 Brooks Koepka 40/1 Haotong Li 80/1 Dylan Fritelli 125/1 All four with PP each way 12 places. One notable entry for me is Matthew Jordan who is making his major debut. Likely too big of an ask this time around but I will be keen to see how he fares given his liking for this course and of links golf. Would also like to see Tommy Fleetwood go well, got such a good swing but doesn't seem to be able to challenge for these big ones as frequent as he should be for some reason. Could force more concentration into him for his home Open this week. Good luck with all the picks
Banker of the week for me is a Top 40 finish for..Robert MacIntyre Local loves the Open set up as his game is set up for the test...6-4 with Bet 365
This Open will be lethal. I thought our golf club's greens were fast and dried up- until I saw those at St Andrews. The winner this week will need to have a great short game and be a great putter- and loads of luck. The bounces from their approaches to the greens could go anywhere, and we could have a very high winning score. Shane Lowry has the short game to cope with conditions and Matthew Fitzpatrick's great putting and current form appeals. Hideki Matsuyama seems to be playing well and young Joohyung Kim played great in last week's Scottish Open. If I had to pick one, Shane Lowry would be my pick, but it's a real lottery under those conditions (30 players out of bounds in the earlier practice round).
Cameron Young leading on 6 under after 11 holes. Needs some good old Scottish weather to slow down the scoring
They're going to have to start considering taking some of these courses from the British Open rota now, unable to meet the demand of the modern player and technology. Plus 6 hour rounds would turn your stomach as a player, let alone waiting and watching it.
Could be a tense couple of hours for McIlroy. Missed a couple of makeable birdie putts and he’ll be thinking he should be further ahead.
Cam Smith playing like a champ - five successive birdies to take the lead. McIlroy needs to scrap the percentage game and attack the last few holes.
