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British Open Prop Bets

VegasInsider Staff
VegasInsider Staff Sports Betting Expert
3 minute read
Golf Betting Preview – The Open Championship Prop Bets

This year's Open Championship is rapidly approaching and as excitement in the betting market continues to grow for the final Major of 2019, there are no shortage of opinions out there on who has a great chance to lift the Claret Jug come Sunday.

We already touched on the guys we believe will be among the leaders come Sunday here, but like we've done all year for the Majors, touching on a few props that are out there floating around at various sportsbooks is something we like to do as well. And while some of these are essentially piggy-backing off a few of the outright winner selections already made, it never hurts to try and cash a few tickets along the way of potentially hitting an outright winner.

So with Northern Ireland and Royal Portrush Golf Club about to take center stage for the rest of the week, let's get through a few prop bets that are definitely worthy of consideration.

72 Hole Tournament Matchup:

Marc Leishman (+119) over Paul Casey

Casey has not had a bad 2019 year by any stretch of the imagination – he's got one win and three other Top 5's in his last 10 starts on the American side of the pond , but he's made a point of taking more time off for this new condensed schedule, and for a guy that's tended to be a 'play all the time, grinder' type on Tour, I'm not sure this new blueprint will work the best for him.

The results have been there at times for Casey over the past few months, as his last start was a T5 at the Travellers, a week after finishing T21 at the US Open, but he's also sprinkled in a few more missed cuts then we are used to seeing from him, including two of them coming in the best of the best field at The PLAYERS and Masters respectively.

Furthermore, outside of a 3rd at the Open Championship back in 2010, his finishes at this Major over the rest of this decade read like this: T54, MC, DNP, T47, T74, MC, T11, T51. That's not exactly the type of finishes you'd expect from an Englishman who grew up dreaming about winning this tournament, and maybe it's time we start to classify him as more of a US-style, target golfer on Tour now.

At the same time, Leishman's virtues were outlined in that earlier piece this week here, and with weather forecasts now projecting even more wind for the players to deal with, the big Aussie's skill set could be even more of an advantage this week. Leishman's had similar time off between starts, but that's not exactly new for him, and if he gets that putter rolling, plus-money odds on him finishing better than Casey here is worth a unit.

Top 20 Finish

Sergio Garcia (+250)
Shane Lowry (+250)

Sergio is another guy who was already discussed earlier in the week, as he's always been a guy that loved this event no matter where the tournament was played on a given year, and as one of the best pure ball strikers today, he should be able to cast aside a rough year or so of results in big tournaments to become a factor again this week.

Lowry is another hometown boy this week like Rory McIlroy, but it's basically been an afterthought to many in terms of his potential this week compared to Rory. McIlroy is one of the favorites to win here so that does play a part in him being the one everyone wants to talk about, and four straight years of missing the cut at the Open Championship for Lowry doesn't do him any favors in that debate.

But Lowry is a guy who currently sits 3rd on the Race to Dubai list for the European Tour (their version of the FedEx Cup essentially) and he does own a win this calendar year on that tour as well. Those four missed cuts at the Open Championship the past four years have to serve as tremendous motivation for him to be at his best, especially in front of his home crowd, and it's not like his name hasn't popped at Majors before.

In six Major starts since the start of 2018, Lowry owns finishes of three missed cuts, a T12, T8 and T28, with those latter two coming in the last two majors this season. Windy, Irish conditions are not going to bother him in the slightest, and if he can put aside the hometown distractions and feed off the energy you know he'll be getting this week, a top 20 finish is well within his range.

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