Growing up, the British Open was often my favorite major golf event to watch because it was on early in the morning on weekends. And as a hacker myself, I always enjoyed seeing the world’s best players succumb to sometimes crazy weather across the pond while playing links-style courses – the way golf was meant to be played. Another thing I remember from the Open Championship is that it always seemed to have a lesser-known guy win. Sure, we’d see Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson or Ernie Els or Nick Faldo but also the likes of Paul Lawrie, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, Darren Clarke or Brian Harman. Which brings me to a very unusual streak entering the first round early Thursday morning Eastern time from Royal Birkdale in northwest England: A surprising 12 straight British Opens – no event in 2020 due to COVID – have been captured by a first-time winner of the Claret Jug.That’s the second-longest streak in any major all-time, after 19 straight first-time winners of the PGA Championship from 1952-70. The last British Open champion who already owned a Claret Jug was South Africa’s Els in 2012. There are 15 former champions in this year’s field, including Clarke, Harman and 2001 winner David Duval, whom I honestly didn’t even know was still around, much less golfing professionally at age 54. That there is a first-time major champion on Sunday is -115, with No at -108, while that there’s simply a first-time British Open winner is -280, with No at +210. I’ll play something on No at that nice price. Fans who want to wager on golf futures can do so with the just in FanDuel promo code and get up to $1,000 in bet resets:
LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau (+5600) has a couple of major titles (both at the U.S. Open), but I can’t say I recommend him doing much this week. He has missed the cut at all three majors in 2026 for the first time in his career, and he’s -240 to make it this time. He had three major top 10s in each of the past two seasons.
DeChambeau would be the fourth golfer this century to miss all four cuts at the majors within two years of winning one, joining Sergio Garcia, Shaun Micheel and Duval. DeChambeau perhaps doesn’t like links-style golf, as he has zero top-five finishes career at the Open Championship, his only major without one.
PGA Tour Player of the Year is still very much up for grabs, and Rory McIlroy (+840) would have to get consideration if he wins Sunday – even if he’s not playing that many Tour events this year – considering he would be the first golfer since Tiger in 2005 to win the Masters and British Open in the same year.
At 37, McIlroy would be the oldest golfer with multiple majors in a year since Mark O’Meara in 1998, when he captured the Masters and the Open Championship, also at Royal Birkdale. McIlroy won the 2014 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and would have the longest gap (12 years) between Open Championship wins all-time.
He was T-4 when Royal Birkdale last hosted in 2017, shooting 5 over in his first six holes and 10 under on the final 66. McIlroy’s six career top-five finishes at the Open Championship are tied for second-most since 1990 behind Els’ 12. I like Rory for a top 10 at -112.
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American Wyndam Clark (+3900) tries to become the first player since Woods in 2000 to capture the U.S. Open and British Open the same year. Clark also tries to be the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win consecutive majors. Clark was T-4 last year, his only major top 20 career other than his two U.S. Open wins.
Spieth (+8000), incidentally, won that ’17 tournament at Royal Birkdale, but he’s nowhere close to that guy these days. Though he has never missed the cut in this event and his cumulative score of 43 under par is best in Open Championship history.
Finally, world No. 1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler (+650) is not having a good year by his standards, with just the one victory back in January, and he stunningly missed the cut at last week’s Scottish Open. That ended a streak of 78 straight made cuts. Scheffler won by four last year at Royal Portrush, but no reigning winner of the tournament has even finished top five since Padraig Harrington repeated in 2008 at Royal Birkdale. Scheffler is +135 for a top five.
He is taking the most handle (15.4%) and tickets to win at BetMGM, so the book is quite exposed on Scheffler, as well as England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (+330) as he is second in tickets (7.9%) and third in handle (11.1%). Chris Gotterup (+4500) also would be a loss.
The best finish by a defending champion since Harrington was a T-7 last year by 2024 winner Xander Schauffele (+2400 to win). He has 18 straight top 30 finishes in majors, the longest streak since Tiger from 1996-2003, and the second-lowest cumulative score to par (-39) in Open Championship history behind Spieth. Schauffele is only -148 for a top 30, so why not?
