Scottish Open Golf Betting Info
The natural warm up for next week’s Open is happening at Castle Stuart in Scotland this week for the Scottish Open. There is a great quality field in attendance at this one including the current world number one Luke Donald. Just to add to the occasion over the links course, there will be a strong Scottish contingent including Colin Montgomerie and Sandy Lyle. The top Scottish amateurs will also be in attendance and hopefully we will get four full days of quality play this year, as Saturday’s play last year was totally washed out by awful Highlands rain.
Scottish Open Golf Defending Champion and Betting Favourite
England’s Luke Donald took the title at the Scottish Open in 2011, and this week will be the 52nd week (non-consecutive) that Donald has held the world number one ranking. Donald’s big win this season came at the BMW PGA Championship back at the end of May. He did pick up the Transition Championship title as well out in the States after a play off. He missed the cut badly at the US Open but take that one result out of the equation and Donald is striking some very solid form at the moment. He had a little bit of a slow start to the season but is right on top of his game at the moment. Donald goes as heavy favourite, the only man in the field coming in a under double figures, and it is not as if it is a weak field either. There is no Lee Westwood or Rory McIlroy, the challengers to the world number one crown, and as Donald tamed the links course here last season he should be in line to widen the gap between himself with a win at Castle Stuart this week. He shot an amazing 63 on Sunday last year to take the title by four shots. Luke Donald is favourite at 8/1 with online bookmaker Bet365.
Other Contenders
Big field this week on the European PGA, and Padraig Harrington is going to be worth a look. The Open is coming up soon and this will be great preparation for that. The Irishman has the natural game to excel on the links courses and he sounds pretty pumped up for the Scottish Open. Harrington is in very good form at the moment and could well start challenging Donald for the number one spot. That is the quality that Harrington is playing with at the moment. He finished fourth in the US Open and then followed that up with a seventh at the Irish Open. He really at the top of his game at the moment, and has undergone some big improvements with his game and his confidence. A very good links player and he enjoys the challenge here and wants to continue his heavy momentum forward ahead of The Open where he should be a strong contender. He just looks as if he is fine tuning his game for a big win.
Scotsman Martin Laird will no doubt want to put in a good show this week. He is pretty much the ambassador for the event and while he is in the USA most of the time on the PGA Tour, he is a big fan of the event. This is one of the events that he makes sure that he comes back from, and standing at 31st in the world rankings, he is the highest ranked Scot. Showed up big at The Players one of two second places this season on the Tour. He only has three top tens from sixteen outings this season but has been producing a much tighter, consistent game over the last month or so (with the US Open an exception after missing the cut.
Along with Laird, fellow Scotsman Paul Lawrie is attracting a lot of interest in the Scottish Open golf betting market. Lawrie looked in May that he was just on the bubble of landing something big. He landed a third at the Volvo World Match Play and then followed up with a second in the BMW PGA Championships. He has been pretty consistent and did win out at the Qatar Masters earlier in the season. Out of the two, you would probably lean more towards Lawrie being the one to bring the title back home to a Scotsman, the first to do so since Colin Montgomerie did it back in 1999. The links at Castle Stuart are highly praised and should lead a good strong home charge.
Phil Mickelson is in the field as a late entrant, but something just looks awry with his game at the moment. He put in a T7 at the HP Byron Nelson Championship at the end of May, but since then things haven’t gone too well for him and he looks as if he is just struggling around the golf course instead of being relaxed. Naturally he is still one of the greatest players in the world, but is going to have to dig for a bit of form. The veteran presence of Ernie Els will also be at Castle Stuart this week and he is a three time winner in Scotland, including a double at the Scottish open in the early 2000’s. Els also went very well here last season, finishing each of the three rounds (as it was cut short because of weather) under 70. He is also carrying some great form with a couple of top tens in the BMW PGA and the US Open. Just about coming into top form again and is a proven contender on the links.
Louis Oosthuizen missed cuts at the Memorial and the US Open in June, and that equates to four missed cuts in the last six on the PGA Tour. Not great at all, but has shown up so well on the European side of things that he can’t be ignored, and there was that agonising play off loss in the Masters as well. The South African has won twice on the European Tour this season and when he is swinging well, it is a wonderful sight. He made his big name on the links of the 139th Open Championship back in 2010 of course. Big addition to the field and while he is hit and miss in form at the moment, has the ability to drive his way to victory.
Best Outside Bet
Martin Kaymer. Although the German certainly isn’t hitting the heights of the form that carried him to world number one, he has history on the links. He is a previous winner of the Scottish Open, back in 2009. He is here as an invite and is looking for his first win of the season. There is not going to be any pressure on him as he isn’t in great form, but a relaxed Kaymer. on the links could go well. Kaymer goes at 25/1 with Bet365.
Latest Scottish Open Golf Betting Prices at online bookmaker Bet365
Luke Donald 8/1, Padraig Harrington 14/1, Francesco Molinari 20/1, Ross Fisher 22/1, Nicolas Colsaerts 25/1, Ernie Els 25/1, Martin Kaymer 25/1, Phil Mickelson 28/1, Louis Oosthuizen 28/1, Paul Lawrie 30/1.
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