{"id":228125,"date":"2019-07-17T10:12:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T10:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/"},"modified":"2025-04-09T14:12:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:12:56","slug":"open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"How to pick a winner at the Open Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While\nthe PGA Tour and American majors have favoured the young, big hitters over the\npast few years, the Open remains an old man\u2019s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nonly major to be held outside of the US has been dominated by experienced\nplayers for a long time, with nine of the last 12 Open champions having been\nover the age of 34<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Open
Dustin Johnson plays his shot from the third tee during the final round of the 2019 RBC Heritage. (Tyler Lecka\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Four of those, Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Darren Clarke, were in their 40s, so while you may like the look of Rory McIlroy – who is the 8\/1 favourite in the golf betting<\/strong><\/a> – this is certainly a week to be looking at the older heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nOpen is considered by plenty of people (albeit most of them British) to be golf\u2019s\ntruest test, and the tournament has historically leaned towards the best\nplayers in the world, with only a few outsiders coming from nowhere to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Of\nthe past 14 champions, 11 were ranked among the top 30 players in the\nworld<\/strong> at the time of their victory, including each of the\nlast six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\nno surprise, given how well elite, experienced players have fared at this\nevent, that most Open winners in the recent past have had plenty of career\nvictories to their name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\n2005, 12 of the 14 champions had won at least eight times combined on the\nPGA and European Tours<\/strong>, with Stewart Cink in 2009 and Louis\nOosthuizen in 2010 the only exceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nwinning in the past isn\u2019t enough. It\u2019s important for players to come into the\nOpen in good form, as 10 of the last 14 winners had already claimed at\none victory in the season that they lifted the Claret Jug<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

As\nthe Open is traditionally held at links courses, it provides an entirely\ndifferent test for players who are more accustomed to playing on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\na result, most champions have needed a few cracks at the tournament before they\nwin it, and it\u2019s very important to have played well at the Open at least once\nin the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of\nthe past 14 Open champions, 13 had previously finished inside the top 10<\/strong> at\nthe event at least once, while 12 of those had a top-six finish to their name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly,\nthough, none of the last 10 champions finished better\nthan 30th at the Open in the year prior to their triumph<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six\nof those players missed the cut entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nOpen is such a mental test that it\u2019s extremely tough to contend in successive\nyears, so this year\u2019s champion will likely be a player who wasn\u2019t in the\nrunning last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

This\nweek we\u2019re looking for a player who is at least 35 years old, ranked inside the\nworld\u2019s top 30, has won at least once this year and eight times in his career\nand has finished inside the top 10 at the Open in the past, but no better than\n30th last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two\nplayers fit the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dustin Johnson <\/strong>has\nonly won one major to date despite being arguably the world\u2019s best player for\nthe past three years, but this week looks a great opportunity to add to his\ntally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nworld No. 2 has 21 career wins to his name, including two this year, and just\nabout fits our age bracket at the age of 35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two players match the ideal profile of an Open champion \u2013 who do you fancy for this year’s championship? ⛳

We’ll pay out as a winner if your player leads at the end of any round! 🙌#TheOpen<\/a>

Terms ➡️ https:\/\/t.co\/FEe0WSIcgO<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/3Lzjg71O0I<\/a><\/p>\u2014 betway (@betway) July 16, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote> <\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

He\nfinished second at the Open in 2011 and missed the cut at Carnoustie last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something\nto bear in mind, though, is that just two of the last 20 Open champions were\ncoming off a missed cut in their previous start, and Johnson failed to make the\ncut in his last appearance at the Rocket Mortgage Classic last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Casey <\/strong>also\nfits into each of our criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nEnglishman is ranked 15th in the world, having won the Valspar Championship in\nMarch, which took his tally of career victories to 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nfinished joint-51st at the Open last year and has a career-best finish of third\nat this event. And while he\u2019s yet to win a major, this could be his best chance\ngiven that he\u2019s now 41.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The only major to be held outside of the US has been dominated by experienced players for a long time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,9393],"tags":[3109,1079,65,3911,4179,2985,469,585,4180,3674,2549,461],"class_list":["post-228125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-open-19th-hole","category-trivia","tag-148th-open","tag-betting","tag-golf-major","tag-golf-statistics","tag-golf-trends","tag-july-2019","tag-major","tag-open-championship","tag-past-results","tag-pick-a-winner","tag-royal-portrush-gc","tag-the-open"],"yoast_head":"\nOpen pick a winner - the Open remains an old man\u2019s game - Golf Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Open pick a winner - the tournament has historically leaned towards the best players in the world, with only a few outsiders coming from nowhere to win\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to pick a winner at the Open Championship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Open pick a winner - the tournament has historically leaned towards the best players in the world, with only a few outsiders coming from nowhere to win\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Golf Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-17T10:12:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-09T14:12:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/open-championship_johnson_betway.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Editorial Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Editorial Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/\",\"name\":\"Open pick a winner - the Open remains an old man\u2019s game - Golf Today\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/open-championship_johnson_betway.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-17T10:12:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-09T14:12:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/2a5385905c87c8218d8da413c1616189\"},\"description\":\"Open pick a winner - the tournament has historically leaned towards the best players in the world, with only a few outsiders coming from nowhere to win\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/open-championship-how-to-pick-a-winner\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/open-championship_johnson_betway.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/open-championship_johnson_betway.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":576,\"caption\":\"Dustin Johnson plays his shot from the third tee during the final round of the 2019 RBC Heritage. 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