Open Championship early betting information: 3 picks our knowledgeable loves

Welcome to our PGA Tour gambling-tips column, that includes picks from GOLF.com’s knowledgeable prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is an everyday visitor on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio community dedicated to sports activities and sports activities betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can comply with him on X at @LasVegasGolfer, and you’ll learn his early picks under for the Open Championship, which will get underway on July 16 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England.

The golf season’s closing main is correct across the nook. The John Deere Classic supplies the ultimate tune-up on American soil, and subsequent week’s Genesis Scottish Open transitions us to the opposite aspect of the pond forward of the next week’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England.

Scottie Scheffler arrives as your defending champion, hoisting the Claret Jug final summer season at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, and is the event favourite once more at round +550.

The final time we noticed Royal Birkdale for an Open Championship was in 2017. An epic duel on the inward 9 noticed Jordan Spieth lastly draw back from Matt Kuchar and seize his third profession main championship title. Beginning on Thursday, July 16, 2026, Birkdale kicks off what would be the 154th version of this superb, world golf championship. The golf course is a traditional hyperlinks design, located on the coast of the Irish Sea. It will play to a Par 70 and measures roughly 7,200 yards.

I like the combo of holes. Six Par 4s fall into the 400-450-yard vary. Three Par 4s are below 400 yards lengthy, and three are over 500 yards. Two of the 4 Par 3s are over 200 yards, and one of many two Par 5s is over 600 yards. The nasty, wispy, heather-grass exists off the fairways amidst the rolling moguls of windswept terrain we now have develop into accustomed to when considering of hyperlinks golf and this event. The fairways themselves are notoriously flat, slender and bordered by signature sand dunes that attain as much as 50 ft in top. The sandhills create a separation between holes within the golf course routing in addition to an elevation change from tee to inexperienced.

There are actually lots of of sand bunkers all through the golf course, a lot of that are the particularly penal pot bunkers — one other signature function of many Open Championship venues. The greens are smaller than common targets with quite a lot of refined undulation. Because of the ever-present menace of extreme winds at an Open Championship, the greens will, as typical, be stored at a comparatively slower velocity than we’re used to seeing.

In attempting to narrate Royal Birkdale to different programs we’re accustomed to, I consider Sea Island on the RSM Classic with its flat fairways, coastal location and dunes. Harbour Town for its small greens, coastal location and slender fairways, and Colonial Country Club, additionally for the similarities in fairways and greens in addition to format routing. Royal Troon is smart as probably the most related Open Championship venue.

We see proof of those correlations within the 2017 leaderboard. Both Spieth and Kuchar have received at Harbour Town, as has Branden Grace, who completed sixth on the 2017 Open. Spieth has received at Colonial, and Kuchar has been as excessive as runner-up. Looking at hyperlinks to Royal Troon, Matthew Southgate completed twelfth at Troon in 2016 and was sixth at Birkdale in 2017. Henrik Stenson received at Troon in 2016 and was eleventh at Birkdale the next 12 months. Xander Schauffele completed twentieth at Royal Birkdale in 2017 and received the Open Championship at Royal Troon in 2024. Sweden’s Alex Noren completed thirteenth in 2024 and was sixth at Birkdale in 2017, Links golf could be very completely different from what we’re used to in America and each Open Championship is completely different due to climate situations however within the early explorations, I imagine we now have an honest base of data to combine into our handicap and sufficient to make just a few educated guesses as to who is perhaps the 2026 Champion Golfer of the Year.

Early bets

Shane Lowry (40-1)

It is fascinating to see Lowry’s worth so low in comparison with what we frequently see at Signature Events on the PGA Tour or different main championships. Oddsmakers are effectively conscious of how effectively Lowry’s sport interprets to hyperlinks golf — and naturally, he received the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush. He is arguably the very best wind participant on this planet, and if situations are such at Birkdale, he’s an excellent man to have in your card. Lowry has twice completed third at Harbour Town and was sixth at Royal Troon in 2024. He ranks 18th on Tour in Strokes Gained: Approach and is twenty fourth in Driving Accuracy.

Russell Henley (50-1)

This would be the second main in a row that I’ve performed Henley, and I’m hoping it goes higher than the final, the place he completed sixty fifth at Shinnecock on the U.S. Open. Henley was thirty seventh at Birkdale again in 2017. He completed fifth at Troon in 2024 and tenth at Portrush final summer season. He additionally received again in May at Colonial. His sport needs to be wonderful for this golf course. Henley is forty eighth on Tour for Strokes Gained: Approach and is twenty ninth in Strokes Gained: Putting. He is No. 1 for Driving Accuracy and is fourth in Scrambling.

Harris English (100-1)

A significant championship appears like one thing that could possibly be within the playing cards for each Henley and one other Georgia Bulldog in English. He’s had a number of high 10 finishes at main championships and was runner-up to Scheffler final 12 months at Portrush. English lives locally and performs out of the Sea Island Golf Club. He’s completed as excessive as sixth at Colonial and was fourth earlier this season at Harbour Town. He ranks twentieth on Tour in Total Driving and is eighth for SG: Putting. It feels to me like he has a greater likelihood than 100-1.

We’ll be again right here on Tuesday, July 14, for the remainder of our event preview and the rest of our performs to win The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

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