The Open 2022

With just one week to go until the start of the Open Championship at St Andrews, we look at which way the bets have been going through oddschecker in 2022.

Rory McIlroy

RORY MCILROY is the most backed golfer for the Open 2022 through oddschecker so far this year, as the Northern Irishman bids to end his eight-year major drought. The 33-year-old has come close in all three of the majors so far this year, having followed a 2nd place finish at the Masters with 8th at the PGA Championship - where he led after the first day with a 65 - and T5 at the US Open. 

At the time of writing, one week out from the start of the championship at the home of golf, McIlroy (9/1) has taken 7.85% of the outright bets on the tournament.

Matthew Fitzpatrick

Ironically, the beneficiary of McIlroy's latest major near miss features second on our most backed list for the Open 2022. MATT FITZPATRICK struck a stunning approach from a fairway bunker to seal his first major success at the US Open last month, which has unsurprisingly seen his odds slashed for next week at St Andrews into a best price 20/1. 

However, the oddschecker community is seemingly undeterred; Fitzpatrick has featured in 6.41% of the betslips so far this year, including 8% of those placed since he holed the winning putt at the Country Club in Brookline.

Ryan Fox

Our golf expert Niall Lyons is probably still smarting from RYAN FOX failing to finish the job at the Dutch Open in May (final hole double bogey) having backed him as a 2pt winner. However, there is no doubting the golfing rise of the 35-year-old New Zealander in recent times. 

Ahead of this week’s Scottish Open, he has racked up six top-10 finishes in his last eight starts, four of those inside the top three. If he performs well at the Renaissance Club this week, expect the bets to keep coming for Fox (80/1) – so far backed in 5.05% of the betslips.

Scottie Scheffler

It’s something of a surprise that it’s taken us until fourth on the list to find world number one SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER (14/1). The 26-year-old was imperious from February to April, landing four wins from seven events including the Masters – his maiden major success. He was well set to add the US Open to his collection before two bogies around the turn on Sunday ceded control to Fitzpatrick. 

The slowdown in bets on the Texan resident probably owes to a slight slipping of his remarkable standards since Augusta – he has finished outside of the top 10 in five of his subsequent seven events including a missed cut at the PGA Championship. Since the start of the year, he has been backed in 4.65% of the betslips through oddschecker.

Will Zalatoris

Ironically, WILL ZALATORIS (25/1) was mighty close to missing out on this list of most popular bets for the Open 2022, having come up agonisingly short in each of the last two majors. He lost a playoff to Justin Thomas at the PGA Championship before burning the edge with a birdie putt on the 72nd hole at the US Open to miss out by a single shot. 

Despite these near misses, don’t be surprised if Niall Lyons goes back for more next week. Our golf tipster highlighted Zalatoris as one of five players (along with McIlroy & Scheffler) to hit all the key trends for identifying the Open winner. The 25-year-old has been popular with punters through oddschecker too, featuring in 4.61% of the outright bets dating back to the start of 2022.