2016 British Open Odds and Preview

2016 British Open Odds and Preview

The 2016 Open Championship, also know as the British Open, will be the 145th playing of this tournament and takes place from July 14 to July 17 at Royal Troon Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland. It’s the 9th time this event has been played on this course, with the most recent in 2004.

In this year’s majors so far, Danny Willett was victorious at the Masters at 125:1 odds while Dustin Johnson won the US Open at 15:1 odds. At the Open Championship, it’s the big four of Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson who are favored yet again to win. Here’s a look at each player’s odds:

A couple players I like in this tournament are Sergio Garcia and Chris Wood. While I’m not sure if they’ll come out on top, I think both can make a nice top-10 run, with Sergio Garcia at +240 odds and Chris Wood at +800. Although Sergio has still never won a major, he’s a popular and trendy underdog pick and finished Top-10 in last year’s British Open and this year’s US Open. At CRIS, he’s getting the most tickets (5%) to win it all, but I’m not convinced he can so I’ll settle for him taking another Top-10.

Chris Wood is also getting some attention despite not having a lot of recent experience in majors. He did finish 3rd in The Open back in 2009 but I’m more interested in what he’s done lately. He has won a tournament already this year at the BMW Championship and his style should play well to this course. Again, I’m not sold on him winning the whole thing, but a Top-10 finish is certainly attainable.

While there have been a couple longshots to win majors over the last few years (Zach Johnson, Danny Willett), it’s been the favorites of Spieth, McIlroy, Day and DJ taking home most of the major victories. This is part of the reason why I think there’s better value on betting players to place Top-5 or Top-10.

These top favorites usually receive the most betting support as well. Although Sergio has the most tickets (5%) to win at CRIS, betting is pretty balanced with Scott, Grace, Day, DJ, McIlroy, Spieth, and Stenson all getting 4% of tickets. Over at William Hill in Nevada, Day, DJ, and Sergio are receiving the most tickets to win, with the most money wagered on Day, DJ, and McIlroy.

In terms of tournament matchups at William Hill, the money is on DJ to beat Day, Spieth to beat McIlroy, and Oosthuizen to beat Mickelson. And below shows some of the more notable tournament prop bets available at 5Dimes.

US Open Prop Bets:

Will there be a hole-in-one?
Yes -175, No +135

Will there be a playoff to determine the winner?
Yes +275, No -395

Lowest single round score Over/Under:
Over 65 (+120), Under 65 (-150)

Winning 72-hole score Over/Under:
Over 275.5 (+115), Under 275.5 (-145)

Finally, here’s a look at previous year’s winners and their consensus odds prior to the tournament. I’ve also added in Tiger Woods’ odds to win since oddsmakers continued to overvalue him despite little chance to win another major. He opened at 50:1 to win The Open Championship this year but will not be participating:

Dustin Johnson was able to break through in the US Open to win his first career major– will The Open Championship be the breakthrough for a Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson or Matt Kuchar?