The 152nd Open Championship brought a great week of golf for the final major championship of 2024. After plenty of twists and turns, Xander Schauffele won The Open with a thrilling Final Round. There was plenty of drama along the way, but in the end, Schauffele definitely earned the title of Champion Golfer of the Year and his first career Claret Jug.
Schauffele started the week as a +1200 play at The Open, the third-lowest odds in the field behind only Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Schauffele entered the Final Round with the best odds in the field even though he started tied for second one shot behind Billy Horschel.
On Sunday, Schauffele fired an impressive bogey-free round of six-under. He really got things going on the difficult back nine, dropping four birdies in a six-hole stretch that vaulted him into the lead, including a birdie on the famously difficult Railway Hole on No. 11 and the birdie on No. 13 in the highlight below that moved him to the top of the leaderboard.
Our new leader.
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 21, 2024
Xander Schauffele birdies the 13th. pic.twitter.com/4srLdWkYtq
Schauffele’s 65 was the best round of the day and helped him finish two strokes ahead of Justin Rose and Horschel, who finished tied for second. Rose shot a -4 which was tied for the second best round of the day while Horschel’s -3 wasn’t quite enough to keep pace with Schauffele’s electric finish.
Schauffele’s win was his second major championship of the year after he won the PGA Championship at Valhalla in May. He now has nine career wins on the PGA TOUR, and he’s also lined up to defend his 2020 gold medal in two weeks at the Paris Olympic games. Schauffele is +600 on DKSportsbook for that competition, with the second-best odds to bring home the gold behind only Scottie Scheffler.
Place your golf bets at DraftKings Sportsbook or by downloading the DraftKings Sportsbook app.
DFS CONTESTS
Since it was a major championship, DraftKings had plenty of huge fantasy golf contests including the $2.75M Fantasy Golf Millionaire, which awarded $1 million to first place for just a $25 entry fee. At the end of the tournament, an entry from DraftKings player “hardrada” was atop the leaderboard by a comfortable 18-point margin:
This entry included two players with huge salaries in Scheffler and Schauffele and then filled around them with great value options to round out the lineup. Horschel was the big differentiator with his second-place finish at just 1.3% ownership in that contest. All six of the players in this entry finished in the top 20, including DP World Tour player Shubankar Sharma, who finished T29 at just 1.2% ownership.
At the other end of the ownership spectrum, the most-owned golfer in this contest this week was Collin Morikawa, who finished T16 after an even-par final round. Schuaffele was the 13th-most owned player with an ownership of 16.1%.
To see all DraftKings DFS analysis, head over to the DraftKings Network Fantasy Advice page!
CUT SWEATS
For many fantasy golf lineups, the week ended early after a brutal cut saw many popular options wiped out. Rory McIlroy was the second-most-owned player in the $2.75M Fantasy Golf Millionaire at 26.8%, but the veteran missed the cut by a wide margin after rounds of +7 and +4.
Rory wasn’t alone in his early exit, though, as a huge wave advantage for those that started late on Thursday saw many big names headed away from Royal Troon early. Ludvig Aberg, Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood and Sahith Theegala were all more owned than Schauffele but all failed to make the cut. Louis Oosthuizen, Akshay Bhatia, Tom Kim and U.S. Open champion Bryson Dechambeau also had ownership over 10% in the $2.75M Fantasy Golf Millionaire but missed the cut.
DK NETWORK HITS
In his Fantasy Golf Value Picks: Top DraftKings PGA TOUR DFS Bargain Plays for the Open Championship, DraftKings Network’s Alex Hunter listed Sungjae Im as one of his top value plays. He wrote, “Im finished T20th at last year’s Open and not only is he a terrific DFS target, he is a tremendous bet for a top-20 finish on the DraftKings Sportsbook at +210.” Since Im finished T7, he delivered at those odds.
In the DK Network Betting Group, which you can join below, there were several winning picks including my play of Matteo Mannassero to finish as the Top Italian (+261) and to finish in the top 40 (+200).
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LOOKING AHEAD
After two weeks in Scotland, the PGA TOUR heads to Minnesota for the 3M Open, a regular stop since 2019. TPC Twin Cities will host the event for the sixth straight season with Lee Hodges as the defending champion. You can fill out your DFS lineups for this week’s PGA TOUR $800K Summer Sand Trap [$200K to 1st] and get your betting card set on DKSportsbook. For help on all your picks and lineups, be sure to stay tuned to the DK Network for the best values, bets and picks throughout the week.
You can also get in your early best for the Olympics golf tournament and for plenty of other Olympic events over the next few weeks. After the Olympics, the PGA TOUR has one more event before the FedExCup Playoffs tee off in early September. Stay tuned to DK Network for weekly fantasy golf coverage all season long!
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All odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook, lines and odds subject to change.
I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is z.thompson) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
