Scottie Scheffler betting favorite to win Open Championship.

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For the fourth and final time this year, Scottie Scheffler is the outright favorite in a major golf tournament, carrying a +500 price into the 152nd Open Championship, according to ESPN BET odds.
The feat has Scheffler sharing rarified betting air, yet again, with arguably the greatest golfer of all time. He is the first player to be favored outright in every major of a calendar year since Tiger Woods did so in 2013; Woods accomplished that feat an astounding 12 times in his career.
Assuming his favorite status at Royal Troon holds, Scheffler also will have been the pre-tournament favorite or co-favorite at eight consecutive majors, tying him with Woods (2009-10 and 2012-13) for the longest such streak in the last 15 years.
The betting public is backing Scheffler at a healthy clip, attracting a field-leading 9.3% of the bets and 19.6% of the handle at ESPN BET,.
BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel also reported Scheffler as their tickets and money leader, but his short price dictates that he would need even more handle to give bookmakers a real scare.
"Surprisingly, we are on the plus side with Scottie. I don't know why -- maybe [bettors] feel like the price is too short, but that hasn't stopped them in the past," DraftKings director of sportsbook Johnny Avello told ESPN. "That doesn't mean that they're not betting it, it's just that we don't have a liability on him right now."
Accordingly, DraftKings lengthened Scheffler's odds to win the tournament from +450 to +500 between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Scheffler has managed to maintain his favorite status at the majors this year by dominating the PGA Tour regular season: He won two tournaments before winning the Masters, then won an event between each of the other majors. But Scheffler still hasn't tasted victory at a major championship outside of Augusta National in his career, and the Open Championship historically has not been friendly to Americans.
Since 1950, Americans have won The Open 47% of the time, well below the next closest, the Masters (68%), according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Americans have not won back-to-back Opens since they won four straight from 2003 to 2006, putting that much more pressure on players from the U.S. after Brian Harman lifted the Claret Jug last year.
Despite his collapse at the U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy is still the second-favorite this weekend, showing +800 odds on ESPN BET. He trails only Scheffler for ticket (6.8%) and handle (10.3%) at the book, a status shared at BetMGM and DraftKings.
Other popular Europeans include Ludvig Åberg (14-1), Tommy Fleetwood (22-1) and Jon Rahm (25-1).
There's also rising star Robert MacIntyre (45-1), who last week became the first Scotsman to win the Scottish Open since Colin Montgomerie in 1999. Despite that, the 27-year-old MacIntyre still has only attracted 2.5% of the bets and 2.1% of the money at ESPN BET, and he is outside the top 10 for betting splits at all books polled.
If there's one thing MacIntyre has going for him, it's that the last player to win the Scottish Open and Open Championship in the same year was fellow lefty Phil Mickelson.

 

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Tiger Woods struggles to 8-over 79 at Open Championship.​

TROON, Scotland -- Tiger Woods said he didn't do much right while posting an 8-over 79 in the first round of the 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Course on Thursday, which left him in danger of missing the cut in a third straight major for only the second time in his career.
Woods, a three-time winner of the Claret Jug, is tied for 138th after the opening round, 14 strokes behind leader Dan Brown.
The golfers with the low 70 scores and ties will make the 36-hole cut.
"I didn't do a whole lot of things right today," Woods said. "I made that putt on the third hole (for birdie), and then I think I had, what, three three-putts today? I didn't hit my irons very close, and I didn't give myself a whole lot of looks today. I need to shoot something in the mid-60s tomorrow to get something going on the weekend."
If Woods doesn't do that, he'll be in danger of missing the cut in a third straight major. He wasn't around for the weekend at the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, in May or at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina in June.
The only other time he missed the cut in three consecutive majors was in the U.S. Open, The Open and the PGA Championship in 2015.
Thursday's round was only the 10th Woods has completed in a PGA Tour event this season. He has competed in only five official events as he continues to rebuild his strength from injuries suffered in a car wreck in February 2021.
"I'm physically feeling a lot better than I did at the beginning of the year," Woods said. "At the end of last year, it was tough, and I haven't played a whole lot. I think that, as the year has gone on, I have gotten better.
"I just wish I could have played a little bit more, but I've been saving it for the majors just in case I do something pretty major and then take myself out of it. Hopefully, next year will be a little bit better than this year."
Woods, playing in a tournament at Royal Troon for the first time since 2004, gave fans something to cheer for early with a 36-foot birdie putt on the third hole. He didn't make another birdie putt until he dropped a 7-footer on the par-4 13th.
There were plenty of hiccups in between. After a bogey 6 on the fourth hole, he made a double bogey on the par-3 fifth after knocking his tee shot into a greenside bunker and having to hit his second shot out sideways.
The 15-time major champion posted bogeys on Nos. 7 and 8 and then another double bogey on the par-4 11th. He nearly sliced his drive out of bounds near the railroad tracks down the right side. Woods found his ball but had to take an unplayable lie and one-stroke penalty. He needed two shots to reach the green and two-putted for 6.
Woods, 48, added three more bogeys and a birdie on the 13th the rest of the way.
It was only the sixth time in Woods' career that he posted a round of 8 over or worse in a major championship, according to data from ESPN Stats & Information. He carded a 10-over 82 in the third round of the Masters in April.
At the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in December, Woods had suggested he hoped to play one tournament a month. The Open will probably be his last official event this year.
"I thought I could play a little bit more earlier in the year," Woods said. "I think I was a little bit too optimistic. I need to do a lot more work in the gym and keep progressing like we have."

 

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Tiger Woods 14 over at Open, to miss another major cut.​

TROON, Scotland -- Tiger Woods' major championship season ended with another missed cut in the 152nd Open Championship on Friday, and golf fans won't see him again on the PGA Tour this season.
Woods carded a 6-over 77 in the second round at Royal Troon Golf Club, leaving him with a 36-hole total of 14-over 156. The projected cut line was 4 over.
Woods has now missed the cut or withdrawn in six of his past seven majors.
It was Woods' worst score to par after the first two rounds in 23 starts at The Open; his previous worst was 9 over after 36 holes at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2022.
It was his second-worst score to par after 36 holes in a major -- he was 16 over in two rounds at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington, during the only other stretch in his career when he has missed the cut in three straight majors.
The fifteen-time major champion was tied for 149th when he walked off the course, ahead of only four of the 153 other golfers competing in the last major of the season.
"Well, it wasn't very good," Woods said. "I made a double there at 2 right out of the hopper when I needed to go the other way. Just was fighting it pretty much all day. I never really hit it close enough to make birdies and consequently made a lot of bogeys."
Woods, 48, said he won't compete again until the Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event he hosts in the Bahamas, Dec. 5-8. He also plans to compete in the PNC Championship -- another unofficial event -- in Orlando, Florida, with his son, Charlie, Dec. 19-22. Woods was able to compete in each of the four majors this season but didn't get the results he was hoping for. After setting a Masters record with his 24th consecutive made cut and finishing 60th at Augusta National Golf Club in April, he missed the cut at the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and The Open.
"I loved it," Woods said. "I've always loved playing major championships. I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors. Obviously, it tests you mentally, physically, emotionally, and I just wasn't as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping that I would find it somehow, just never did."
Woods competed in just one other PGA Tour event this season, the Genesis Invitational outside Los Angeles in February, and he had to withdraw in the second round there because of illness.
"I'd like to have played more, but I just wanted to make sure that I was able to play the major championships this year," Woods said. "I got a lot of time off to get better, to be better physically, which has been the case all year.
"I've gotten better, even though my results really haven't shown it, but physically I've gotten better, which is great. I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again."
After posting an 8-over 79 in the first round, Woods wasn't much better Friday. He made a double bogey on the par-4 second after missing a 4-foot bogey putt. After draining a 22-foot birdie on No. 6, Woods picked up another bogey when he missed a 5-footer on No. 9.
After making the turn at 3-over 39, Woods made three more bogeys on Nos. 12, 14 and 17. He missed a 3½-foot par putt on the par-3 14th.
Over two rounds, Woods was 7 over on the par-3s, which ranked next-to-last in the field. He lost 3.77 strokes to the field in putting and 4.19 on approach.
"Yeah, anytime being out with Tiger is great," said Patrick Cantlay, who played with Woods and PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele in the first two rounds. "He's a great competitor and fun to be with. We had a great pairing, especially having my buddy Xander in the group. The three of us had fun."
Cantlay, who was 1 under after carding a 3-under 68 on Friday, was asked whether he had any sympathy for Woods' plight since returning to competition after serious injuries he suffered in a car wreck in February 2021.
"I wasn't out on tour [in the] early 2000s," Cantlay said. "I'm sure those guys don't have any sympathy after going through what they went through. I'm always pulling for him, as I think the rest of the world of golf is."

 

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Shane Lowry moves past cameraman's distraction to lead Open.​

TROON, Scotland -- Shane Lowry holds a two-shot lead at the 152nd Open Championship, but only after he survived a debacle involving a photographer and a spectator on the 11th hole at Royal Troon Golf Club on Friday.
Lowry, who started the round one stroke behind Daniel Brown, had a two-stroke lead over the relatively unknown qualifier and 2018 Open runner-up Justin Rose after posting a 2-under 69 to move to 7 under after 36 holes.
Lowry had a two-stroke lead over Brown, who shot a 1-over 72 on Friday, when he stepped to the 11th hole, which is known as "The Railway" and is considered the most difficult on the course because of the railroad running down the right side of the fairway and thick gorse protecting the left.
After safely hitting his tee shot 301 yards down the right side, Lowry was left with 176 yards to the pin. As Lowry prepared to hit his approach shot, he noticed a photographer standing several yards in front of him.
There was a cameraman there and he was walking up, and I asked him to stop or move back, and he just kind of stayed there," said Lowry, who is looking for his second major title after winning the 2019 Open Championship.
The photographer raised his camera, and the movement distracted Lowry, he said, causing him to smother his shot out of the high fescue. His ball shot across the fairway and landed in gorse on the left.
Lowry turned his frustration to the photographer, telling him, "Just get outta the way. Just get back there. F---'s sake."
"I did the hard part," Lowry said. "I hit my drive where you could find it, which is obviously a hard thing to do on that hole. I had a nice lie in the rough. I got a little bit distracted on the right just as I was over the shot, and I kind of lost a bit of train of thought. You're so afraid of going right there that I just snagged the club and went left."
Lowry informed the R&A rules official walking with his group that he was hitting a provisional shot in case his ball was lost. He hit a new ball onto the green, about 15 feet past the hole.
That's when the real drama ensued. As Lowry was walking up the fairway, he was informed that a spectator had found his original ball in the gorse. Since his ball wasn't actually lost, he had to take an unplayable lie and identify an acceptable spot to hit from.
"I hit a great provisional," Lowry said. "The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said no. So I assumed that was OK. Then we get down there and somebody had found it. So apparently we have to find it then or you have to go and identify it. I thought if you declared it lost before it was found, you didn't have to go and identify it."
Lowry asked for a second official to confirm the ruling. After a 20-minute delay, he took a one-stroke penalty for an unplayable lie and dropped his original ball on trampled rough, two club lengths from the previous spot in the gorse bush. His view of the 11th green was obstructed, and his fourth shot landed short of the green. Lowry two-putted from 33 feet.
The double-bogey 6 dropped Lowry into a first-place tie with Brown at 5 under.
I felt like through that whole process of that 20 minutes of taking the drop, seeing where I could drop, I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing," Lowry said. "I felt like [caddie] Darren [Reynolds] did a great job too. He kept telling me, 'We have loads of time. We don't need to rush this. We just need to do the right thing here.'"
Lowry carded pars on each of the next four holes. He reached the par-5 16th green in two shots and two-putted from 58 feet for a birdie. A 20½-foot birdie on the par-4 18th extended his lead over Brown to two shots.
"I felt like I went out there, I was in control of my ball [and] did all the right things for a lot of the round," Lowry said. "Then when I got in a bit of trouble, I feel like I really finished the round well. I'm pretty happy with the day. To be leading this tournament after two days, it's why you come here, it's why we're here."
Rose, who finished second in 2018 at Carnoustie Golf Links, had to go through final qualifying to make the field this year. He is making the most of his opportunity, carding a 3-under 68 on Friday, including a 41½-footer on No. 18 to get to 5 under and tie Brown for second.
It's Rose's best 36-hole position in a major since he had a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the 2021 Masters. He finished seventh at Augusta National that year.
An Englishman hasn't won The Open since Nick Faldo in 1992. When Rose captured the 2013 U.S. Open, he was the first golfer from England to do it since Tony Jacklin in 1970.
"Those are nice moments when it comes together and you can share the story of what it means, but you're never thinking of it, and we are pretty selfish from that point of view," Rose said. "Like we want it for us, and obviously it's great to share it with everybody that it's meaningful to, but in the moment you're just trying to get the job done."
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was five shots behind Lowry after posting a 1-under 70 for the second straight round. Scheffler's caddie, Ted Scott, labored through the round after battling a stomach illness Thursday night. He was seen lying on the ground and sitting between holes Friday.
"He seemed to feel better as the day went on," Scheffler said. "The doc here took good care of him, but he did not sleep very much last night apparently. We didn't know if he was going to be able to go this morning, but he fought it out. You saw him laying down probably quite a bit out there, which was pretty funny."
Scheffler was in a tie for fourth with Billy Horschel (68) and Dean Burmester (69). PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele (72), Patrick Cantlay (68) and Jason Day (68) were among a group at 1 under.

Troon Troubles Ahead?​

Leading at the halfway mark at Royal Troon hasn't paid off in a while, as the 36-hole leader has failed to win the past five Opens held at the course. Tom Weiskopf converted his three-shot lead after Round 2 in 1973 into a three-shot victory.

YEAR	PLAYER	LEAD	FINISH
2016	Phil Mickelson	1	2nd
2004	Skip Kendall	1	T-11
1997	Darren Clarke	2	T-2
1989	Wayne Grady	2	T-2
1982	Bobby Clampett	5	T-10
1973	Tom Weiskopf	3	1st

 

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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1814315725793771641

 

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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1814395789801648295

 

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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1814697784504950921

 

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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1814718716279488646

 

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Going to be a wild Sunday

 

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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1814730841399976277

 

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Some good odds on that board

 

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