|
|
Join us this week for the Open Championship from Royal Troon over in Scotland, the final major PGA Tour championship of the year. Our expert has his top picks, with the best odds from top sportsbooks.
Picks Summary
- Wyndham Clark to Win Open (+8000)
- Wyndham Clark to Finish Top 10 (+700)
- Matthew Southgate to Finish Top 20 (+800)
- Matthew Southgate to Finish Top 10 (+1800)
*All odds from Bet365 (check our Bet365 Review)
The Open 2024
July 18 – 21, 2024 at Royal Troon Golf Club
Royal Troon and The Open
Royal Troon has been on the Open roster since 1923 and the last time the event was hosted by the Scottish track in 2016, Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson embarked on a remarkable record-breaking duel. The winning score of 20-under par from Stenson bested the previous best at Troon by seven strokes.
It is always interesting identifying the types of players who thrive in the course chosen for the Open, but Troon’s results appear to correlate with results from the Players Championships at TPC Sawgrass and TPC Scottsdale for Phoenix Open over the years.
The 1989 winner Mark Calcavecchia (three-time Phoenix winner) was 2nd at the Players in 1990, funnily enough to Jodie Mudd who was 5th here, the same year. The runner-up, Greg Norman, won the Players in 1994 with a record score at TPC Sawgrass 1997 winner at Troon; Justin Leonard won the Players Championship in 1998 while Stephen Ames in 5th also won the same event and Jim Furyk in 4th was twice a runner-up.
The 2004 Open at Troon saw a shock with Todd Hamilton win at +100000, but there were multiple Players champions behind him in the top 10.
This year’s weather looks testing with wind and rain all four days.
Why Wyndham Is a Great Price
Wyndham Clark looks a great price for this week’s Open Championship after a fast-finishing top 10 at last week’s Scottish Open.
Bet365 offers a massive +8000 for last year’s U.S. Open winner this week and we believe he has been overlooked.
His penultimate start in the Travelers Championship saw the thirty-year-old from Denver in Colorado re-finding his best form after a lackluster couple of months.
Before that dip in form, 2024 had been a great year for Clark, winning the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and finishing runner-up in the Players Championship among six top 10 finishes from sixteen starts.
That difficult period saw several missed cuts, but that’s what you get from the uber-aggressive Clark who plays to win, and this week’s price compensates us for the chance that he may blow out
For that reason, it is impossible to pass up Wyndham Clark’s upside this week.
Golf Pick: Wyndham Clark to Win Open (+8000) at Bet365
Golf Pick: Wyndham Clark to Finish Top 10 (+700) at Bet365
Will It Be Southgate Again?
Southgate is a very English name, with Gareth Southgate the national soccer team manager who led the English Football Team to the final of the European Championship last weekend. This week it is Matthew Southgate’s chance to have his own “Cinderella Story” at the Open Championship, an event that is close to his heart since attending it with his father as a boy.
If there is ever an “Open Specialist,” it is Matthew Southgate, who has come through qualifying an amazing five times in the last decade. The story doesn’t end there for the thirty-five-year-old from Southend-on-Sea who is building a strong plethora of Open results with a 12th here at Royal Troon in 2016, a 6th the year after, and a 23rd last year.
With a challenging weather forecast in store, that is bound to suit Southgate over many of the players who are not as experienced in links bad weather golf.
It would be a huge shock if Matthew Southgate’s first tournament win was the Open Championship and the “Cinderella Story” of the golfing year however, he holds strong claims in the props markets.
Readers will remember that we put Matthew Southgate up in the same markets last week at the Scottish Open and we are unperturbed by him missing the cut, in fact, it has protected his price for the most important week of the year.
Golf Pick: Matthew Southgate to Finish Top 20 (+800) at Bet365
Golf Pick: Matthew Southgate to Finish Top 10 (+1800) at Bet365
*The line and/or odds referenced in this article might have changed since the content was published. For the latest information on line movements, visit OddsTrader’s free betting odds tool.