iBet: Bet against favourite Rory McIlroy

British Open Golf

Lay Rory McIroy for a top five finish at 2.7 to one with Betfair

We are already against world No1 Luke Donald to finish in the top five at Royal St George’s and I’m going all in and am also laying the favourite, Rory McIroy, on value grounds. Don’t get me wrong, both are superb golfers and both could win, but in my opinion neither should be so short for a top five finish. You only have to look at the last decade’s Open results to see how hard it is for short priced players to make it into the top five. McIlroy and Donald go off at around 9-1 and 12-1 for the tournament, and a look at the stats shows that the only players to have started at shorter than 25-1 to have made it in the last ten years are Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson. McIroy may have prepared exactly how he wished to for this test by taking a rest, but with no Tiger he may not be prepared for the media frenzy that will surround him for all four days and he may lose focus. There is no way anyone is going to run away with this even like the Northern Irishman did in the US Open. It will be very tight at the top and a bad tee time or unlucky bounce could be enough to blow anyone off course. It’s going to be extremely difficult to make the top five and I don’t think anyone in the field should be shorter than 5-1 to do so.

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