There are a number of no-brainer favorites to win the 151st British Open this week at Royal Liverpool.
With each one of them, though, there is a caveat.
Rory McIlroy is the betting favorite, and why shouldn’t he be?
Not only is he one of the best players in the world, ranked No. 3, and in contention at almost every tournament he plays, but also, when the British Open was last played at Hoylake in 2014, he won the Claret Jug.
The problem for McIlroy has been winning a fifth career major championship. That has become a bit of ***** a thing ***** for McIlroy, who keeps coming close and falling short.
His last major championship victory came in the 2014 PGA Championship, a month after he won the British Open at Hoylake.
He has felt the burden of pressure grow more and more heavy with each one he doesn’t win.
McIlroy has won 15 times since his last major championship, so he has done everything in the game except add to his Grand Slam total, and that has been gnawing at him.
Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 ranked player in the world and has won six tournaments in the past two seasons, including the Players Championship this year and the 2022 Masters.
Like McIlroy, Scheffler is in contention in nearly every event he plays.
He seemingly never has a bad week, with 17 consecutive top-12 finishes, including top-fives in his past six tournaments.
The problem?
The British Open is the major in which Scheffler is weakest. In fairness, he’s played in just two Open Championships, finishing tied for eighth in 2021 and tied for 21st last year.
Jon Rahm is ranked No. 2 in the world and has won four times this year already, including the Masters in April.
But Rahm hasn’t won since Augusta, a whole three months ago, and weirdly has slipped somewhat from the radar on the what-have-you-done-lately meter.
Rickie Fowler hadn’t won a tournament since 2019 until he validated his consistent 2023 season with a victory at the Rocket Mortgage Challenge last month.
Fowler, it should be noted, finished tied for second to McIlroy in that 2014 Open at Hoylake, and he always has embraced the British Open’s difficult conditions.
Is it possible Fowler has been liberated enough to break through and win his first career major championship at age 34? Things seem to be trending in that direction considering that he had at least a share of the lead for the first three rounds of the U.S. Open last month before faltering in the final round.
What about Brooks Koepka?
All he has done in majors this year is finish runner-up at the Masters and win the PGA Championship while playing in just three PGA Tour-sanctioned events — because he’s a member of LIV Golf and is banned from the other events. Koepka has four top-10s in his past six starts at the British Open.
Speaking of LIV Golf, the man who possesses the Claret Jug until he returns it to the R&A on Monday is Cameron Smith, who won last July at St. Andrews.
Like his LIV compatriot Koepka, Smith has played well in the majors this year, finishing in the top 10 in each of the past two of them. Smith, too, won the most recent LIV event, last week in London.
Jordan Spieth is a universal favorite for most. He has played well this season, but hasn’t won. He’s a past British Open champion in England, having won in 2017 at Royal Birkdale. But he has won just twice anywhere since.
There are two formidable Englishmen who could be a factor — Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood.
Hatton, who can run hot when frustrated, trails only Scheffler and Rahm in total strokes gained this season on the PGA Tour and has been trending.
Fleetwood has been close of late, with a playoff loss to Nick Taylor at the Canadian Open and a final-round 63 at a U.S. Open.
Yet Fleetwood, who’s still searching for his first PGA Tour victory, has not proven himself to be a closer on Sundays.
Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland have been in the mix at majors this year.
Schauffele, who opened the U.S. Open with 62, but never continued that push, has won seven times on the PGA Tour but is still seeking his first major.
Hovland, who played in the final group in Open Championship at St. Andrews last year, nearly won the PGA Championship in May at Oak Hill before succumbing to some bad luck with an embedded ball in a bunker and Koepka.
Want a long shot?
How about Min Woo Lee (50/1), who won the 2021 Scottish Open and is coming off a tie for fifth at the PGA Championship and a top-10 at the Travelers?
