We head to Royal Birkdale Golf Club (par 70, 7,223 yards, fescue/bentgrass greens) in Southport, England, for the 154th Open Championship. This will be the 11th time the Open Championship has been played at Royal Birkdale. This course was last hosted in 2017 and Jordan Spieth (-12) won by three strokes. There will be 152 golfers competing for a $17 million purse this week and a top-70 and ties cut after the first two rounds.
Below, I have featured two of my favorite outright long shot bets to win the Open Championship on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Hideki Matsuyama (+9600)
This is a crazy price for Matsuyama. This season, the 34-year-old has yet to miss a cut in 16 starts and he has finished T13th or better seven times. Matsuyama hasn’t won this season, but he was very close, losing in a playoff to Chris Gotterup at the WM Phoenix Open in February. Matusyama is an 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR and he is only about a year and a half removed from his win at the 2025 Sentry.
Matsuyama last competed at the Travelers Championship three weeks ago and finished T14th at the Signature Event. The veteran shot 67, 67, 66 and 66 at TPC River Highlands, and he led the stacked field in par four performance, which bodes well for a par 70 at the Renaissance Club. The two Open Championship winners at this links course in the new millennium both finished the event in the top-three in par four performance.
Matsuyama teed it up at the Renaissance Club in 2017 and he finished T14th, including a 4-under 66 in the third round, which is tied for his lowest score at the Open Championship. Matsuyama has made 8-of-11 cuts and recorded five top-20 finishes at this major, two of which have come in the last three years.
The former Masters champion reminding everyone of his elite talent with a win at Royal Birkdale isn’t the wildest scenario and Matsuyama is worth backing at these long odds.
Victor Perez (+14500)
Perez hasn’t had the greatest season on LIV, ranking 31st in points, but when competing off the circuit in Europe, the French professional has been great. In his four starts on the DP World TOUR this year, Perez has finished T64th, runner-up, T9th and T9th.
That final finish came at the Genesis Scottish Open last week and at the Renaissance Club, Perez posted a 6-under 66 in the second round and he gained strokes in every major category, except around the greens.
Perez thriving at a European track isn’t surprising, as he is a three-time winner on the DP World Tour. Perez has made 2-of-4 cuts at the Open Championship and while he hasn’t finished higher than T34th at this major, him staying hot after the Genesis Scottish Open and contending at Royal Birkdale is possible.
