Open Championship dark horse picks: 5 sleepers who could win at St. Andrews

The 18th green is overseen by a near-empty grandstand during practice for The 150th British Open Golf Championship on The Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland on July 12, 2022. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images) /

1 of 3

Robert MacIntyre (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images) /

Breaking down our Open Championship dark horse picks for 2022 to look at the sleepers with a chance to hoist the Claret Jug at St. Andrews.

When you look at the history of The Open Championship, you more often than not see players who have been among the best golfers in the world at the time. They’ve contended or won recently, they’re in the Top 30 of the Official World Golf Rankings, and they’ve played well in The Open before.

But one of the beautiful things about this major championship is that we sometimes get a little bit of a shocker that pops up and ends up with the Claret Jug in their hands. So while Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth and others dominate headlines as we head to St. Andrews, we have to be ready to look at the live dark horses who could make noise at The Open Championship.

So while the best bets for the week might be a lot of the favorites, these five Open Championship dark horse picks are true sleepers that have the recipe, by one means or another, to compete and contend to win at the Old Course.

Note: All odds are courtesy of WynnBet. For more betting picks and advice, check out BetSided.

Dark horse Open Championship picks: 5 sleepers who could win

5. Robert MacIntyre (+6000)

It hasn’t necessarily been the best run of form for MacIntyre over the past couple of months. In fact, he’s made just one cut in his last four starts and hasn’t finished inside the Top 30 but once since The Masters worldwide. Luckily, that came at the Irish Open two weeks ago with a solid T13 finish.

A home-country favorite in Scotland, the pressure will certainly be on the lefty to show up but his performance at The Open in the past two tournaments suggests that he’s a live sleeper as he finished T8 and T6 in those two showings.

MacIntyre isn’t generating a ton of buzz because of his recent form but he’s played extremely well in this championship in the few times he’s played it and I like for him to produce another good showing at St. Andrews, a course that theoretically should suit his game.

Home/The Open Championship