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Written by: Matt Fargo
We hit our third Major of the season with the 145th edition of The Open Championship taking place from Royal Troon located in South Ayrshire, Scotland. This is the 9th time Royal Troon has hosted The Open Championship which will be tied for seventh most among all venues to host. Established in 1878, Royal Troon is a par 71 that stretches out to 7,190 yards and set against the rugged coastline of the western coast of Scotland, weather can play a big role.
The last Open Championship that was contested at Royal Troon was back in 2004 when Todd Hamilton defeated Ernie Els in a playoff. Hamilton became the sixth straight American to win at Royal Troon going back to 1962 when Arnold Palmer rolled over the field by six strokes. Since 1998, there have been seven playoffs to determine the winner including last year when Zach Johnson prevailed over Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen at St. Andrews.
American players had won three straight Majors after Webb Simpson's victory at the 2012 U.S. Open but the American's went 0-4 in the next four. Since then though, U.S. players have captured seven of the last 12. History could be on their side as since 1995 at St. Andrews, Americans have won 13 of the 21 Open Championships. However, just three of the last nine winners have been Americans, Stewart Cink in 2009, Phil Mickelson in 2013 and Johnson last year.
While the thought is that the Majors are dominated by the world's best players, that has hardly been the case. Of the last 30 Majors, there have been 22 different winners with Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Martin Kaymer, Bubba Watson and Jordan Spieth being the only two-time or more Major winners over that stretch. We have seen first time Major winners to start 2016 with Danny Willett winning the Masters and Dustin Johnson winning the U.S. Open.
The field is a loaded one as usual highlighted by World No. 1 Jason Day and now World No. 2 Dustin Johnson. In total, 82 of the top 85 players in the world will be playing this week with Daniel Berger (shoulder), Brooks Koepka (Ankle) and Jaco Van Zyl sitting out. Rory McIlroy is back at The Open Championship after missing last year because of the ankle injury he sustained in a soccer game.
There are four clear cut favorites this week with Jason Day (+770), Dustin Johnson (+805), Rory McIlroy (+940) and Jordan Spieth (+1,055) leading the way. There are just six other players coming in at less than +4,000 with just two being previous Major winners. Adam Scott (+2,150) and Justin Rose (+3,005) are those two and the other four are Sergio Garcia (+2,340), Henrik Stenson (+2,605), Rickie Fowler (+2,735) and Branden Grace (+3,005).
EXPERT PICKS:
Fargo's The Open Championship Winners Package (Five Winners)
https://experts.covers.com/Matt_Fargo/PickPack/68e075d974724a99af3b7e272be8cda5
Matt is coming off a WINNER 4 weeks ago with +1,310 Dustin Johnson and looks for another top finish this week! For the season, he has posted 5 winners with Brandt Snedeker (+1,600), Hideki Matsuyama (+2,000), Adam Scott (+1,900) and Charley Hoffman (+2,400) being the others! In 36 tournaments last year he nailed the Winner 11 times for +38.1 Units!
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