The 2017 British Open is just about set to tee off from the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in England, and it isn’t too late to place some stakes on the action.
Considering the huge field of competitors this week, perhaps it would be best to bank on some dark horses instead to get the most bang for your buck. As such, here are a few suggested sleepers from the internet’s golf experts.
Luke Kerr-Dineen of USA Today’s all-sports portal For the Win chose the top Brit in The Open’s field this week in Tommy Fleetwood (+2,000) as his dark horse pick.
Not only is the 14th-best golfer in the world a Southport native, which is the actual location of the Royal Birkdale Golf Club, he also has a fantastic stretch of performances heading into the tournament. Kerr-Dineen mentioned that Fleetwood has top-10 finishes in five of his last six starts, and that he also finished a superb fifth at the U.S. Open last month.
Golf.com
Expert
Prediction
Josh Sens
Lee Westwood
Josh Berhow
Ian Poulter
Sean Zak
Bill Haas
Golf.com’s three contributors each had differing sleeper picks, with Josh Sens and Josh Berhow going with Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, respectively, as their choices who also happen share the same odds of winning the British Open at +6,000.
Sens and Berhow’s colleague Sean Zak, meanwhile, went with Bill Haas (+10,000). Although the 35-year-old hasn’t been very consistent this season, Zak is high on Haas’ strength when it comes to straight driving and accuracy at striking the ball, which is well-suited for Royal Birkdale’s course. Furthermore, Haas is also hot off a T5 finish at Erin Hills, showing that he has great composure come major tournaments.
Heavy
Golfer
Odds
Hideki Matsuyama
+1,800
Alex Noren
+4,000
Daniel Berger
+6,000
Charl Schwartzel
+7,000
Ross Fisher
+7,500
Bernd Wiesberger
+8,000
Over at Heavy, Tim Keeney compiled a list of six golfers as his sleeper candidates. Out of the six, it’s Austrian Bernd Wiesberger who has the longest odds of winning The Open.
In a similar vein as Bill Haas from earlier, Keeney mentioned that Wiesberger is one of the most accurate ball-strikers on the PGA Tour. Beyond that, the 11-year pro has been outstanding in his stomping grounds of the European Tour as well with one win and four top-10 finishes for the season.
Having said that, Keeney does make a compelling case for Wiesberger, who could make plenty of his backers a ton of cash for taking the plunge on him this week instead of going with any of the safer favorites that really won’t net bettors as much earnings in return.
