For the fourth and final major of the season, we head to Royal Portrush Golf Club (par 71, 7,381 yards, fescue greens) in Portrush, Ireland, for the Open Championship. Royal Portrush also hosted the Open Championship in 1951 and 2019. In 2019, Shane Lowry (-15) won by six shots. There will be 156 golfers competing at Royal Portrush next week and there will be a top-70 and ties cut after the first two rounds.
Below, I dive into some of my favorite early outright betting picks for the Open Championship, via DraftKings Sportsbook.
Tyrrell Hatton (+2500)
Hatton continuously is in the mix at major championships. The Englishman just finished T4 at the U.S. Open last month, which is his fourth top-15 finish in his last 10 major starts. Hatton competed at the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush and he thrived with a T6 finish.
Hatton now returns to the links course 23 spots higher in the world golf rankings and with three top-six finishes in nine starts in the LIV Golf league this season. Ranking fourth on the circuit in GIR%, Hatton has the excellent iron play that is required to contend at Royal Portrush. When Lowry won the Open Championship at this venue six years ago, he led the field in greens found. Additionally, Hatton ranks 11th in both birdies and putting average in the LIV Golf league this season.
Hatton is a great all-around player that has plenty of experience winning overseas, as he has eight DP World TOUR wins on his resume. The veteran breaking through for a major victory at Royal Portrush is absolutely possible. Notably, five of the last eight Open Championship winners were first time major champions.
Jordan Spieth (+4000)
Spieth is worth taking a chance on at this number. The former world No. 1 has a long history of succeeding at the Open Championship. He has never missed a cut in 11 starts at this major and five of these finishes have been top-10 results, most notably with a runner-up at Royal St. Georges in 2021 and a three-shot win at Royal Birkdale in 2017. Plus, Spieth finished T20th at Royal Portrush in 2019. Among the players in this field that have competed at more than one Open Championship, Spieth ranks fourth in strokes gained per round.
Spieth hasn’t won in three years, but he is quietly have a strong season and his 14th career win is coming soon. This season, the former Texas Longhorn has made 14-of-16 cuts with eight top-25 finishes. In his last start, Spieth finished T23rd at the U.S. Open and he gained a huge 8.6 strokes on approach at Oakmont CC, which is third-best performance of his career in the major category.
Spieth has gained strokes on approach in six of his last seven starts. He ranks ninth with 400-450-yard par four efficiency when analyzing this field’s last 50 rounds, putting him in prime position for his return to Royal Portrush. Six of the 11 par fours at this par 71 fall between 400-450 yards. When Lowry ran away with a six-shot victory at Royal Portrush in 2019, the Irishman led his field in efficiency on the 400-450-yard par fours of this links course.
