It’s the biggest weekend in British golf as the renewal of The Open Championship takes place at The Dunluce Links in Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland. The biggest names in the sport are in attendance, laying claim to a bumper prize pot and one of the most sought-after trophies in the business. Here are our top The Open Championship 2019 betting tips.
Play gets started on Thursday morning bright and early and armchair fans can watch the action live on Sky Sports. The play is brought to you alongside expert commentary and analysis from the team. You’ll also receive highlights of the day later in the evening, allowing those who missed the afternoon session a chance to catch-up on the progress of their favourite players.
Bookmakers Offer Extended Coverage
Bookmakers have seized on the interest and offer extended betting coverage of The Open Championship. You can have your say on the winner and cheer your player to victory or play one of the many specials markets, including first round leader, to make the cut, top American, top European, top UK and Irish, top 10 finish, and plenty more besides.
Once the first tee is underway you can also bet in-play with many of the original markets kept live throughout the course of the afternoon. This gives punters a chance to get a feel for the course and how their player is performing before risking their hard-earned cash. The great thing about golf betting, especially at majors, is there’s no lack of value around. Even the favourites in the field carry a big price and there’s often extended place terms for each-way backers, making it easier to take a chance on an outsider.
Who will triumph in the 2019 The Open Championship? It’s anyone’s guess at this stage but traders have had their say and put forward a market that should shed a little light on the days ahead. Will you follow the betting, pick out the clues given by the trends or make up your own mind, going for a player that catches your eye or a price that looks bigger than it should be? There are many strategies to backing a golf betting winner, each with their own merits.
Molinari Won Last Year
Francesco Molinari won this tournament last year when recording a winning score of eight under par, enough to see off the competition in what turned out to be a tense final day. He took the title from Jordan Spieth who carded 12 under the year before. Only one of the last nine champions have been crowned through a play-off and that was Zach Johnson in 2015. There’s a market for this year’s tournament to be settled with a playoff but the stats tell us it’s best avoided.
The outright betting has Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy priced up as early favourite and backers looking to get their cash down on the local lad, who will enjoy the backing of the support, will find him available at 9/1 with Bet365. That’s one of the better prices available, most of the competition stuck around the 8/1 mark. If you are going to trust Rors with your stake money, we would suggest getting on at Bet365 as you don’t want to be taking less of a price about your pick. Calling The Open Championship winner is difficult enough.
McIlroy last won this title back in 2014 when recording an astonishing -17 that was more than enough to see him cross the line unchallenged. He was at his best that day, but the star’s recent form suggests he’s back to somewhere near that and it would come as no surprise to see him take this competition by storm again. He’s capable of the fast start needed to hit the front and with the benefit of an early lead behind him he’ll take all the catching, especially on his own patch.
Taking on the Traders
Regular readers of our sports previews will confirm we don’t often go for the shortest price runner, especially in the big tournaments and the majors, so it will come as no surprise to them that we are, again, lining up against the traders. Casting our eyes further down the list in the hope of picking out a plucky underdog at a nice price who is capable of upsetting the odds, we find ourselves spoiled for choice. Outside of the front three in the betting – Rory McIlroy at 9/1 (Bet365), Brooks Koepka 10/1 (William Hill) and Jon Rahm 16/1 (Ladbrokes) the prices get hefty.
The player to carry our stake money into the week is Matt Kuchar who can be backed at a healthy 35/1 with Bet365. The challenges of this course should play to his strengths and for your stake money you’ll be getting a player who has proven his bottle to compete in the big tournaments. The 41-year-old American was second here in 2017 and believes he has unfinished business at The Open.
He has yet to win a major but that was the closest he has come and that really doesn’t put us off backing him. It will come, if not here then in the near future, but the pieces look to be falling into place for a big effort at The Open.
Tiger Looks Too Big
Other players that caught our eye in the outright betting were Dustin Johnson at 16/1 (Bet365), Tiger Woods at a value 20/1 (Bet365), Justin Rose 20/1 (Bet365), Henrik Stenson 30/1 (Bet365) and, at a much bigger price, you’ll find Louis Oosthuizen at 50/1 with Bet365.
Each-way backers will get 1/5 the odds the best eight players at Bet365. Some firms offer more places but also give out less of a price and that’s worth taking into consideration. Make sure it’s worth it and don’t just be attracted by the big numbers.
Our Tip: Matt Kuchar each-way at 35/1 with Bet365