Golf betting tips for The Open: Specials and prop bets for golf's Open Championship

Golf betting tips: The Open Championship specials

4pts Mackenzie Hughes to be the top Canadian at 11/4 (General)

1pt Richard Bland to finish in the top 40 at 5/2 (Unibet)

1pt Aaron Rai to finish in the top 40 at 7/2 (BoyleSports, Sky Bet)

Sky Bet odds - 11 places | Paddy Power - 12 places | Betfair Sportsbook

Top Canadian

MACKENZIE HUGHES is one of the more interesting debutants on offer at prices which perhaps wrongly assume this will be a bit too much. A fabulous putter who contended for the US Open and finished 14th last time out, both times hitting good approaches, I think he could really take to this and top Canadian is a great way to play him.

Corey Conners is a worthy favourite but while a second-round 65 in Scotland catches the eye, ultimately he's been poor in his last three events. A better ball-striker than Hughes he may well be, but that long game has gone missing and his short-game simply isn't good enough to make up the difference.

Hughes nearly won a windy Honda Classic last March and has since underlined that a tough test is ideal. His sole PGA Tour victory came by the coast and of the four, completed by Adam Hadwin and Richard T. Lee, he might be best equipped for an Open Championship.

With Hadwin out of form and Lee's Korean Tour efforts not stacking up all that well, Hughes may only have Conners to beat and 11/4 about him doing so is by far the best bet in the sub-markets.

Top-40 finish

RICHARD BLAND gets the Open Championship under way on Thursday morning and the veteran is expected to still be involved come Sunday afternoon, whether or not he's able to get right in the mix.

Bland is without doubt one of the form players coming in, finishing first, third, 50th, fourth and 15th on his last five starts. The middle one in that sequence was at the US Open, where he collapsed having been the halfway leader, but Torrey Pines was a big ask and he'll be far better suited to Royal St George's.

Having missed the cut when playing in the Open as a club professional almost a quarter of a century ago, Bland's sole subsequent start was a very solid tie for 22nd at Birkdale. He got off to a bright start back then and a similar performance is well within reach which makes 13/2 for a top-20 tempting. However, 5/2 for a top-40 is preferred and if he sustains his solid tee-to-green play, he should manage it.

In the same market, AARON RAI looks good value as a links winner, who arrives in-form, and who Matt Cooper reveals has been on a scouting trip to Royal St George's — no great surprise for one of the most diligent players on the European Tour.

Rai can be excused a nightmare start to the PGA Championship where he was returning from two months away, and is better judged on his 18th place in the WGC-Workday, a high-class effort on a firm course where his accuracy and tidiness counted for plenty.

That should be the case here, and having led the field in both fairways and scrambling in Ireland a fortnight ago, the key pillars of his game are in good shape. He backed that up with a solid title defence in Scotland, where he was fifth in overall accuracy and second in scrambling, and only a shaky putter would worry me.

If he can overcome that, like Bland a top-20 finish isn't out of reach (10/1), but as he's playing in his first Open and lacks experience at this level in general, again I'll take the safer option. Both are also of interest in the top Englishman market, but the top of it does look strong.

Others to consider

I had been reasonably keen to get with Takumi Kanaya, but he's favourite in the top Asian and top Japanese markets and probably short enough. He has really impressed when playing on the European Tour and his Open debut in 2019 showed some promise, while his neat, sharp game looks good for the challenge ahead.

It's just hard to take a firm view on some of the Asian and Japan Tour regulars who line up, and both CT Pan and Ben An have a touch of class, plus an experience edge. For those reasons I'll leave him out.

In the top amateur market, Sam Bairstow's run of excellent links form could help to oveturn favourite Cole Hammer, and 8/1 with bet365 looks too big. That said he's 11/2 generally and again, let's not pretend we know all there is to know about the latest batch of promising youngsters who will respond in various ways to this situation.

Finally, while there are several likeable favourites in the top nationalities markets, the Open is probably not the tournament in which to go perming them up. Something will likely go wrong somewhere, although anyone who can take what remains of the evens about Alex Noren being the pick of four Swedes will have some nice value tucked away, win or lose.

On that note, I am dead against Hao-tong Li this week. He's driving it terribly and only a red-hot putter kept his missed cut to a respectable set of scores in Scotland. That said, should it really be each-of-two for top Chinese honours with Yuxin Lin, an amateur who has struggled in majors so far? Then again, the fact that it is tells you how far Li has fallen and backing someone to be the best of a bad pair isn't the best way to approach things.

Posted at 1445 BST on 13/07/21

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