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Open Championship picks: Expert picks, best bets for St. Andrews

By Cody Williams

ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND - JULY 4: The famous Swilcan Bridge on the Old Course, as preparations for the 150th Open Championship golf tournament near completion, on July 4, 2022, in St Andrews, Scotland. The 150th Open Championship will be played over the Old Course July 14-17, 2022. (Photo by Ken Jack/Getty Images)
ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND - JULY 4: The famous Swilcan Bridge on the Old Course, as preparations for the 150th Open Championship golf tournament near completion, on July 4, 2022, in St Andrews, Scotland. The 150th Open Championship will be played over the Old Course July 14-17, 2022. (Photo by Ken Jack/Getty Images) /
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Open Championship picks, British Open
Rory McIlroy (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images) /

Open Championship expert picks: Outright winner picks at St. Andrews

Rory McIlroy (+900)

That’s terrible value.

Rory can’t win at majors.

There’s too much pressure on him.

I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care. If it were down to one outright pick, I’d push all my chips in on Rory McIlroy unabashedly. Yes, I did that at the US Open and he broke my heart — again, I don’t care. If not for imploding on Friday in 2010, he would’ve beaten Louis Oosthuizen (and he still finished T3!) at St. Andrews then. And you could argue his overall consistency and form have never been better. The improvement he’s shown of late with his wedges has been beautiful and his distance on a firm, fast Old Course is going to be a lethal weapon. It’s time and I’m going to be backing him when it happens.

Xander Schauffele (+1200)

Can Xander Schauffele go 4-for-4 (if you include the JP McManus) in his last four starts? After winning the Travelers, the Pro-Am and then the Scottish Open, Schauffele isn’t just putting the can’t-win narrative to bed — he’s burying it 30 feet below the ground. This is the best form we’ve seen from him in some time and a switch seems to have been flipped. His odds have dipped dramatically (as they should) with his recent form but he’s playing too well and going to a course that could play to his well-round game, so it’d be foolish to not have some investment in him.

Sam Burns (+2500)

Much like Homa coming into this year, the narrative for Sam Burns is that he now needs to start contending at majors. And he’s started to show that with a T20 at the PGA and T27 at the US Open. Now he’s heading to the Old Course, which should reward his length off the tee, his prowess top-to-bottom with irons and wedges and his underrated ability to make crucial putts and/or not hurt himself on the greens. I’d like for the number to be a bit longer but this is still worth a look in the outright market.

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