When you have a field that contains 156 of the best golfers in the world, choosing a single winner can be tough. After all, the eventual winner will need to play four rounds of nearly flawless golf, which also means being able to handle the pressure of playing in a major event. This Thursday, July 20, sees the start of the 2017 British Open, which will be held at the famed Royal Birkdale course in Southport, England. This will be the 10th time that the Open has been played at this course, and it is one that has been good to American golfers, with 5 of the previous 9 winners at Royal Birkdale hailing from this side of the pond.
Find out more about the updated British Open Golf betting picks here.
The job that we have here is to handicap the field to try and determine who will be hoisting the Claret Jug on Sunday afternoon. There are a lot of factors that go into making that choice, not the least of which is trying to determine who might be able to play through any potential weather issues, which is often a problem in the UK. What we are going to do is pick a winner, a top 5 (place), and someone with the potential to finish in the top 10 (show). These players can be played any way you see fit, or you can abandon these picks altogether and instead play the players who you believe will be atop the leaderboard this weekend.The 2017 British Open Winning Picks (Win – Place – Show)
The 2017 British Open Show Prediction
What we are looking for here is a player who could put in a solid performance, but who will fall just short on the final day. It’s rather obvious that we will be looking at a crowd here who will be hoping for a British player to come up big, and if anyone is going to do that, it may well be Tommy Fleetwood. This is a Cinderella story in the making, as this young man was born and raised in Southport, and is the one player in the field who has almost certainly played this course more than anyone else. He will be well aware of all the traps and dangers that Royal Birkdale delivers, and it’s all just a matter of whether he will be able to handle the pressure that comes with playing in a tournament of this magnitude. Fleetwood is in at +1800 for the win, and you can get him at +160 for a top 10 finish.The 2017 British Open Place Prediction
Things get a little bit tougher as we try to pick out a player destined to land in the top 5. I like John Rahm to land in this spot, even though the Spaniard has missed the cut in his last two tournaments. Rahm was due for a bit of a slump, as he had been playing like a man on fire all season long, with no less than 7 top 10 finishes to his name. Prior to those last two tournaments, Rahm had 3 top 5 finished in 6 starts, proving that he knows how to consistently stay in the hunt over the course of four days. Rahm has not played a competitive round since the US Open, so you know he is going to be coming into this one well rested and ready to go. Rahm is +1300 to win, and is +300 for a top 5 finish.
