British Open

Subscribe

A whole host of appealing 72-holers have appeared overnight, but sticking to two confident bets. 

BRANDEN GRACE TO BEAT ZACH JOHNSON - 6 points @ 4-5 (Corals)

Grace returned to form last week at Castle Stuart, when fast fairways and greens were similar enough to the conditions facing the players this week. After a quiet spell by his standards, his stats were impressive and he worked well with experienced caddy Billy Foster, working his way round the course and showing a perfect understanding of Links golf. Of course, nothing less should be expected of a player with two Links trophies under his belt and he has already been backed from 90-1 to 66-1 outright in the expectation of a good week.

Johnson, on the other hand, appears to have little game to cope with the bump-and-runs and imagination shots needed on some small, undulating greens. He was impressive enough last week when losing in a play-off at the John Deere, but that is exactly his track. He tends to perform regularly at the same venues and much less ably at others and having little form in The Open, appears to have a tough task beating his market rival. He will be carrying mental scars from Illinois and the feeling is that 4-5 is a cracking price.      

GRAEME MCDOWELL TO BEAT JASON DAY - 6 points @ 10-11 (Spreadex)

Multiple Major winner G-Mac (yes we all hate that but there we are), looks to have a huge advantage over Aussie Day in almost every respect this week. The Irishman never seems to let punters down when the going gets tough, and can already boast three wins this year, including the tough tracks at The Heritage and in France. Unlike his rival, G-Mac consistently finds fairways and greens, ranking highly for both, whilst he can fight for par as well as anyone. He goes into the week with huge self-belief and with the wind unlikely to prove too much of a hazard over the weekend, can be fully expected to match his 5th of 2012, when he would have been a main contender but for the strong gusts appearing on the final day.

Day is a talent and is sure to win plenty, as when challenging at The Masters and US Open, but his frailties were exposed under pressure and whilst they were tough tracks, this course will give him no leeway from the tee. The Aussie relies on his distance from the tee and his putting to get challenging, but Muirfield will place huge pressure on his accuracy and iron play, something he has yet to shine with. Should his inconsistency with the Driver continue, he will playing from the long stuff and he simply doesn't have the patience to get the ball round and accept mistakes. He may not need to take the long club for many holes, but nothing in his game suggests that he will like facing the greens here and he is exactly the type of player to run up huge scores. Certainly against the battle-hardened McDowell, he will need huge luck to finish ahead.