The Bullseye – The Open Championship

What an awesome week that was in Scotland, with Bernd Wiesberger winning the Scottish Open for his second win of the summer. He was a staple in this article and my DFS teams last week. I was able to win a $3,180 satellite ticket thanks to Wiesberger, as well as hit a 40-1 outright bet. Just what we need the week before a major! The rest of my DK team was comprised of players in this article (Henrik Stenson, Andy Sullivan, Gavin Green, Paul Waring, and Edoardo Molinari), so I hope you all did well, too. Now we make the trip to Portrush, Northern Ireland and the Open Championship. This column will feature just my favorite European plays, as well as my pick to win.

Royal Portrush has long been touted as one of the best links courses in all of Europe. Due to political tension and violence, it creates a difficult sporting climate which has contributed to an Open not being played there since 1951. The center of this tension was what contributed to Rory McIlroy skipping the Rio Olympics, as he was unsure if he should play for Ireland or for Great Britain. But we can look past all of that this week and just focus on golf. Obviously, this is a big week for Northern Ireland, and the home crowds will be firmly behind Rory and Graeme McDowell.

This week, the course is set to play as a par-71, and just over 7,300 yards. There are some tees that could be moved around, but ultimately the course will play however Mother Nature dictates. Rain is in the forecast for most of the week, which goes against the firm and fast preferences of the R&A Tournament Director. Either way, this course will be immaculate. Portrush is a traditional links, coastal setting, but features wider fairways and fewer bunkers. The steep runoffs around the greens will create some problems as players scramble for pars, but overall, I think we’ll see a decent number of birdies. I also expect the rough to be up, with players struggling to advance certain shorts more than about 80-100 yards. Assuming the wind picks up and we get the threat of rain most of the week, I’d predict a winning score between -10 and -12 this week. As usual, the Open Championship isn’t an event where players can bomb and gouge their way to victory. Elite iron play and scrambling are the keys to success this week, as well as handling the elements. We tend to see older, more accurate players contend here (the average winning age of the Open is higher than that of the other majors). There’s still a fair amount of guesswork this week, since we’ve never seen an Open here in our lifetime. The 2012 Irish Open was played here, so we can look there for some pointers. The top-10 that week included Rory McIlroy, Francesco Molinari, Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Ross Fisher, and Padraig Harrington.

And now on to the picks!

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