The 140th Open Golf Championship enters its third round stage today at Royal St George’s, Sandwich, Kent, and with big gun Tiger Woods missing from the tournament and world ranked number one and two Luke Donald and Lee Westwood both missing the halfway cut the competition looks wide open.
- -4: D Clarke (NI), L Glover (US)
- -3: C Campbell (US), M Kaymer (Ger), T Bjorn (Den), MA Jimenez (Sp)
- -2: P Larrazabal (Sp), C Schwartzel (SA), D Love (US), T Lehman (US), G Coetzee (SA), D Johnson (US), A Hansen (Den)
The leaderboard (above) after round two has some big names on it but only Germany’s Martin Kaymer is currently ranked in the world’s top ten and many will fancy backing one of two top golfers fighting to get in amongst the leading pack by posting a sub par round today.
Four times major winner Phil Micxkelson is handily placed at one under and Northern Ireland’s recent US Open winner Rory McIlroy is on level par making them both attractive choices in the betting market. However my money is going on a 42 year old once ranked in the world’s top ten but currently way down in the rankings at 111. My choice is current joint leader Darren Clarke.
Clarke has struggled for form over recent years which can be put down to the sad death of his wife Heather from cancer in 2006, but this year there have been signs of Clarke’s form returning. In May this year Clarke won the Iberdrola Open to record his first European Tour Title since August 2008 and I feel he’ll want to win this one more than most.
Paddy Power offer 14/1 on a Clarke victory and I’m going to take that price with a small two point stake.
Paddy Power Open Championship Betting
Martin Kaymer 6/1, Rory McIlroy 8/1, Charl Schwartzel 12/1, Darren Clarke 14/1, Lucas Glover 14/1………….Sergio Garcia 22/1, Phil Mickelson 25/1
Darren Clarke won the Open Championship in great style and my two point stake picked up a whopping 28 points profit.