The Open Championship 2010

The British Open returns to St Andrews and all eyes are on Tiger Woods. He looks a broken man right now, though he still has plenty of money even if he is $720 million lighter. He made the trip over for J.P McManus' Pro Am and received a hero's reception in Limerick, where have the Irish morals gone? There will be plenty here cheering him on this week.



But Is he worth a bet? St Andrews is one of his favourite courses. He won both times in 2000 & 2005 without breaking sweat and he has managed to finish 4th in this seasons Masters and Us Open even though every hole can act like one of his mistresses, an expensive hole and every short putt is a potential Dennis Wise( A nasty 5 footer). This is his course though and with 7 places an argument that he will surely get into the mix is fair enough. It could be argued it's an each way bet to nothing but he just doesn't look like winning nor deserves to win right now. Flying home from Adare last Wednesday instead of staying in Ireland and playing links courses tells me he's not in the right frame of mind and not worth the bet. There is no logical reason to back him other than blind faith in his potential game.

Beware the injured golfer

Lee Westwood suffered a calf injury at the French Open and has started to drift ever since. He missed the playoff by one shot last season and contented fantastically at the Masters only for a magical Mickelson performance to deny him. At the Open many would say he choked, I'd agree with that assessment but would argue he just met one too good at the Masters and he now looks ready to make the jump to major champion. In 2008, Padraig Harrington was supposed to be too injured to compete and drifted out from 12-1 out to 33-1. I doub we'll get that kind of drift but he's still worth a win bet .

Harrington himself has started to show some form without threatening to add to his last win in 2008 US Open in the last 2 majors. He has a mural on his wall of the 18th green at St Andres in his indoor practise and this tournament holds a special memory as his dad dies just before the 2005 tournament and he had to withdraw. Can he do it for his dad? Lets hope so.

Of the other Irish, Rory McIlroy has apparently never shot lower than 69 at St Andrews after 29 rounds there. He will be well supported but I just don't think his price reflects his true chance of victory and I'll give him a miss.

Graeme McDowell did fantastic at Pebble Beach and has twice led at the Open after the first day. McDowell is a fantastic golfer and a decent fella to boot but I just think his golf game will not be there after plenty of celebrating. He may have a decent plan on how to attack this course and has commented on the changes made to the 17th but at 20/1 for back to back majors, no thanks.


Of the others:
I love backing Phil Mickelson and he owes me nothing but again not worth a go at that kind of price in this type of tournament. Ian Poulter is a great golfer, so says Ian Poulter and is not a bet for me and Justin Rose is better on the other side of the Atlantic.

Sergio Garcia's form has been rank rotten recently but he does have Open form, coming close in 2005 and in 2007 only for Sunday wobbles to stop him. Regarded as the greatest player to never win a major, maybe he can keep up Spain's unreal run of form. A more popular Spanish choice this week will be Jimenez after his French Open victory. Worthy of a few wins on the European tour but not classy enough to walk off with this

Bigger priced golfers worth consideration are Chris Wood who has the best record combined of the last two Opens and loves links golf. Charles Schwartzel kicked off 2010 with a bang winning two on the bounce, his game could well be suited to the Old Course.

Colin Montgomerie would be a Cinderella story if he wasn't as lovable as the ugly sisters. He came close in 2005 and after Greg Norman and Tom Watson turned back the years, why not?

Martin Laird is another Scot to consider and has played mostly on the US Tour. He again could threaten the leaderboard at a huge price for the each way backers.

Jeff Overton finished last season 4 shots back but if we excuse 2 bad holes in the 3rd round, he could of got into the shakedown and is not a bad price each way


Conclusion: With the exception of John Daly in 1995, the winners of the Open at St Andrews tend to be the cream of the crop. Tiger(twice), Nick Faldo, Jack Nichlaus(twice) and Seve Ballesteros are the previous champions and it may be worth looking to the head of the field with a small each bet on top.

Back: Padraig Harrington & Lee Westwood
Outsider at a huge price: Martin Laird

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Odds:
11/2 Tiger Woods
16/1 Rory Mcilroy
18/1 Lee Westwood
18/1 Ernie Els
20/1 Phil Mickelson
20/1 Padraig Harrington
25/1 Justin Rose
28/1 Graeme Mcdowell
33/1 Ian Poulter
40/1 Martin Kaymer
40/1 Steve Stricker
40/1 Luke Donald
40/1 Paul Casey
40/1 Jim Furyk
50/1 Retief Goosen
50/1 Ross Fisher
70/1 Francesco Molinari
70/1 Camilo Villegas
70/1 Chris Wood
80/1 Geoff Ogilvy
80/1 Adam Scott
80/1 Charl Schwartzel
80/1 Sean OHair
80/1 Sergio Garcia
80/1 Angel Cabrera
80/1 Henrik Stenson
80/1 Tim Clark
80/1 Alvaro Quiros
80/1 Robert Karlsson
80/1 Darren Clarke
80/1 Stewart Cink
80/1 K J Choi
90/1 Dustin Johnson
90/1 Edoardo Molinari
100/1 Robert Allenby
100/1 Nick Watney
100/1 Rhys Davies
100/1 Vijay Singh
100/1 Peter Hanson
110/1 Miguel A Jimenez
125/1 Ben Curtis
125/1 Matt Kuchar
125/1 Ryo Ishikawa
125/1 Zach Johnson
125/1 Hunter Mahan
125/1 Bo Van Pelt
125/1 Jeff Overton
125/1 Thomas Bjorn
125/1 Soren Kjeldsen
125/1 Shane Lowry
150/1 Ryan Moore
150/1 JB Holmes
150/1 Bubba Watson
150/1 Rickie Fowler
150/1 Justin Leonard
150/1 Kenny Perry
150/1 Jason Day
150/1 Ben Crane
150/1 Y E Yang
150/1 Soren Hansen
150/1 Thongchai Jaidee
150/1 Stephen Gallacher
150/1 John Daly
150/1 Ricky Barnes
150/1 Oliver Wilson
150/1 Davis Love III
150/1 Mike Weir
175/1 Trevor Immelman
175/1 Simon Dyson
175/1 Lucas Glover
175/1 Alejandro Canizares
200/1 Bradley Dredge
200/1 Scott Verplank
200/1 Steve Marino
200/1 Gregory Havret
200/1 Heath Slocum
200/1 Bill Haas
200/1 Anders Hansen
200/1 Colin Montgomerie
225/1 Paul Lawrie
250/1 David Duval
250/1 Louis Oosthuizen
250/1 Brian Gay
250/1 Martin Laird
250/1 John Senden
250/1 Tom Watson
250/1 Thomas Aiken
250/1 Robert Rock
250/1 Gareth Maybin
250/1 Gonzalo F Castano
250/1 Michael Sim
250/1 Thomas Levet
250/1 Kevin Na
250/1 Simon Khan
300/1 Ross McGowan
300/1 Alexander Noren
300/1 Jason Bohn
300/1 Paul Goydos
300/1 Matthew Goggin
300/1 Fredrik A Hed
300/1 Yuta Ikeda
300/1 Jason Dufner
300/1 Ignacio Garrido
300/1 Hiroyuki Fujita
350/1 Marc Leishman
350/1 Marcel Siem
350/1 Tim Petrovic
350/1 Jerry Kelly
350/1 Seung-yul Noh
350/1 Tom Lehman
500/1 Richard S Johnson
500/1 Mark Calcavecchia
500/1 Tom Pernice Jr
500/1 George McNeill
500/1 Todd Hamilton
500/1 Mark F Haastrup
500/1 Jose Manuel Lara
500/1 Toru Taniguchi
500/1 D A Points
500/1 Tano Goya
500/1 Hirofumi Miyase
500/1 Katsumasa Miyamoto
500/1 Mark OMeara
500/1 Andrew Coltart
500/1 Loren Roberts
500/1 Ryuichi Oda
750/1 Darren Fichardt
750/1 Koumei Oda
750/1 Glen Day
750/1 Cameron Percy
750/1 Kyung-Tae Kim
750/1 Colm Moriarty
750/1 Phillip Archer
750/1 Sandy Lyle
750/1 Shunsuke Sonoda
1000/1 Jean Hugo
1000/1 Tom Whitehouse
1000/1 Victor Dubuisson
1000/1 Jin Jeong
1000/1 Zane Scotland
1000/1 Nick Faldo
1000/1 Steven Tiley
1000/1 Danny Chia
1000/1 Gary Clark
1000/1 Jae-Bum Park
1000/1 Byeong-Hun An
1000/1 Eric Chun
1000/1 Laurie Canter
1000/1 Simon Edwards
1000/1 Paul Streeter