Defending champion Tiger Woods takes up the gauntlet at Royal Lytham St Annes this week at a better price than many would have anticipated after his success in the US Masters at Augusta. His relative 'failure' at the US Open hasn't prompted the bookmakers to be generous: all but the serious punter will avoid him at 7/4.
The course is tight and won't necessarily favour the long hitters as the driver is unlikely to be overused. Two of Europe's finest, Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood, are available at extremely generous odds of 40/1 and 80/1 respectively. One suspects Monty's game is not far away, while Westwood should be getting some sleep at this stage.
Ireland's Darren Clarke is a very short price, honouring his recent excellent form, while Padraig Harrington at 50/1 will have his supporters if he can tighten up his driving. US and Scottish Open champion Retief Goosen (33/1) and the great Dane Thomas Bjorn (33/1) are the form players, while the champion when last the Open was held at Royal Lytham, Tom Lehman (33/1) will also have his supporters.
This column though has decided that former Open champion Justin Leonard has the right credentials at the right price (66/1) and if you're keen on an in-form European, then Bernard Langer is a very generous 80/1. And what of two former greats, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman, available at 100/1. Surely worth £1 of anyone's money.
7/4 T Woods
20/1 P Mickelson, S Garcia, V Singh 25/1 D Duval, D Love, D Clarke
33/1 E Els, R Goosen, T Lehman, T Bjorn 40/1 C Montgomerie, J Parnevik
50/1 P Harrington, S Hoch, M Weir
66/1 D Toms, J Leonard, A Cabrera, P Azinger, M Campbell, S Cink, J Daly, J Furyk, N Price, A Scott
80/1 F Couples, L Westwood, B Langer, JM Olazabal
100/1 N Faldo, G Norman
125/1 bar.
Odds supplied by Ladbrokes Ireland
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)