The Open
Sentimentally, St Andrews is the favoured venue for all the players and there won’t be a dry eye in the house as one of Scotland’s adopted sons, Tom Watson, makes his final Open appearance. Watson asked for and was granted an additional year’s exemption to close the curtain on his Open career at the home of golf. (Cue the obligatory Swilcan Bridge photo opportunity).
Louis Oosthuizen was the last winner at St Andrews in 2010 and Tiger Woods on the two occasions (2000 and 2005) before that. McIlroy of course, shot an opening 63 in 2010 but was brought back to earth with an 80 in howling winds in round two.
The bookies’ favourites are likely to be:
Rory McIlroy - the last three winning margins in Opens at The Home of Golf have been blowouts; seven strokes, five and eight respectively. McIlroy won his first two majors by eight strokes and has the game and gravitas to make it back-to-back Opens and join the greats as an Open winner around the Old Course.
Lee Westwood - while we’re talking sentimentality, a Westwood win would be akin to Darren Clarke’s 2011 triumph. The Englishman was the distant runner-up to Oosthuizen in '10 and knows the Old Course like the back of his hand.
Sergio Garcia - Like Westwood, major success has eluded Garcia, despite the Spaniard contending regularly at the game’s biggest events. A fine exponent of the links game, Garcia pushed McIlroy all the way at Hoylake last year. Long overdue.
Victor Dubuisson - the course record holder at St Andrews with a 62 in the 2012 Alfred Dunhill Championship, Dubuisson finished with top-10s in the last two majors in 2014 and starred for Europe in the Ryder Cup on debut at Gleneagles. As his 62 shows, his game is well matched to the Old Course and he seems at ease, almost carefree, competing against the best players in the world.
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