The Open Golf 2015

[Tony2005]

Back to the "Home of golf" for this years open and St Andrews usually sees some great golf over the four days and a few surprise winners..


For me at anti prices these could be worth a quid or two.


LUKE DONALD @ 80/1......E/W 6 Places...Playing a lot better the last month and could be way over priced if continuing this on a course that doesnt favour the big hitters but the short iron and putting guys which is where Donald comes into his own .


G McDOWELL @ 145/1......E/W..hasnt done much lately but will like it round here and his gritty style could keep him in contention till the end.


S GALLAGHER @ 12/1...Top 10 finish...a true Scot that has played many rounds here and could well do ok here this year..


B LANGER @ 3/1....Top senior..Poor field for this and in reality only Jimenez can stop the German winning ...i just think Langers steady game can land this bet.


More to follow after the first two rounds...

[bennythedip2]

'Arnold Palmer, still The King' (By: Ben Coley > SL)


After Arnold Palmer's team won Wednesday's Champion Golfers' Challenge, the stage is now set for The 144th Open Championship.


"Don't you just love it?"

The 1999 Open champion had just rolled in a curling 20-foot putt, enough to secure first place for Team Palmer in the Champions Golfers' Challenge. Minutes earlier his captain, Arnold Palmer, had walked onto the green to a standing ovation. His role now confined to a non-playing capacity and indeed happy to keep his distance from the cup, The King looked somehow smaller than he used to, lost momentarily on the vast canvas that is the 18th green. But golf looks after its icons and the 85-year-old was soon embracing Darren Clarke, Bill Rogers and Lawrie before their victory - decided by aggregate age - was confirmed to those watching.

Afterwards, Arnie spoke to the BBC's Rishi Persad, who as usual found just the right tone. Brief, delicate, respectful but never patronising, he allowed 'the great man' to dictate the course of a chat which lasted just 65 seconds, a minute or so you sense Persad will remember.

"I look at these stands and they were full of people when we started...the enthusiasm, the desire, everything..." said Palmer, his throat drying as he searched for the right words. His eyes left Persad, rolling instead across the undulations of a place which has played such an important part in his adult life. He went on. "The golf course... it looks so magnificent. The only thing I'm sorry for is it isn't 1960."

Persad let him go - "Arnold Palmer, still The King!" - and with five words disappeared any notion of over-indulgence on the part of the R&A.

Even those in the plush greenside hotels, who one suspects may not all know the finer details of golf's handbook, were on their feet to salute a collection of the sport's greatest players. Tiger Woods, whose focus remains a 15th major title and a third at the Old Course, posed for a photograph along with his captain Tom Wieskopf and team-mates Nick Price and Mark O'Meara. Tony Jacklin celebrated Tom Lehman's birdie like it mattered. Pomp and ceremony of the highest order.

St Andrews played fair. The sun was low, the shadows long; benign conditions which if repeated for four days would see records disappear. And yet as the focus shifts to Thursday and beyond, it seems the Old Lady is about to up the intensity. While they should tee-off in sunshine in the morning, come the afternoon gusts are expected and there's a chance that the weather on Friday afternoon could match that of five years ago, when Rory McIlroy's challenge was blown away in 80 strokes.

McIlroy's absence from this 144th Open Championship is a great loss. Until last July many believed that if he were to win a Claret Jug it would have to be here, and returning as defending champion following that romp at Hoylake last summer would've made him a dangerous animal, one capable of eating alive Jordan Spieth's grand slam bid.

Never, though, does an Open at St Andrews rely on one man. They say Ben Hogan didn't even make it to the Old Course, after all. And so when Thomas Bjorn, Greg Owen and Rod Pampling tee this latest renewal off, the world number one will begin a welcome break from the spotlight. It shifts instead to Spieth, under way shortly after half-past nine with Hideki Matsuyama, whose every move will be followed by a horde of reporters from his native Japan, and Dustin Johnson, whose three-putt at Chambers Bay helped keep the wheels turning on Spieth's quest for an unprecedented clean sweep.

Little more than 20 minutes later, Woods takes to the stage. With Louis Oosthuizen alongside him, the last three Opens at St Andrews are accounted for. Jason Day, one of the most prolific contenders in major championships since Oosthuizen's masterclass, somehow slips in unnoticed despite a display of Woods-like defiance at the US Open just one month ago.

What of Woods? At Augusta he appeared free from the day-to-day malaise in which he's slumped on the PGA Tour. Never mind reps, never mind trajectory, never mind release patters - once he went back to the place he loves, instinct took over. If it happens again at St Andrews - and this appears more likely now than it did in the spring - then Woods may end day one, day two or even day three in the mix. Some wrongly consider the majors played when Woods was sidelined to have somehow meant less. It would be fitting therefore were Tiger himself to undermine that point of view by capitalising upon McIlroy's absence.

Whatever it is that lies in store over the coming 72 holes and more, one man will earn a place alongside some of golf's greatest players. The Old Course at St Andrews has a habit of rewarding its most able guests. What part the weather plays who can tell? How sound a preparation Spieth has chosen remains to be seen. But the quality of the champion won't be in doubt. All we can do now, with bets placed and agendas set, is wait for another puzzle to unravel.

Don't you just love it?

[Dobie2089]

My overall bets :

ROSS FISHER @ 150/1

KEVIN KISNER @ 100/1

MATT KUCHAR @ 55/1

MATSUYAMA @ 40/1

JAMIE DONALDSON @ 150/1

MARTIN KAYMER @ 33/1

E/W 6 PLACES & 7 PLACES


And 1st day 3 ball accumulator :

FISHER

OOSTHUIZEN

JIMENEZ

MANNASERO

CINK

86/1 @ BET 365

[bennythedip2]

Spieth solid as Johnson leads

For all the talk of history, the 144th Open Championship bore remarkable similarities to the US Open played just a month earlier as Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth renewed their rivalry at St Andrews.

Jordan Spieth was out in 31 but struggled a little coming home on his way to a round of 67

As he did at Chambers Bay, Johnson carded an opening 65 to claim the lead, with Spieth this time a shot closer thanks to a five-under 67 which made a mockery of concerns about a lack of preparation in his bid for a third straight major.

With the course initially defenceless before the wind strengthened, 1999 champion Paul Lawrie, England's Danny Willett, Jason Day, Retief Goosen, Zach Johnson and Robert Streb all shot 66, with US Open runner-up and 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen one of four players to match Spieth's score.

Sweden's David Lingmerth even raised hopes of the first 62 in major history with a record-equalling front nine of 29, but Tiger Woods duffed his approach to the first into the Swilcan Burn and limped to a 76, his worst score as a professional in the Open at St Andrews.

However, attention was rightly focused on match 17, with Spieth chasing the third leg of an unprecedented calendar grand slam and Johnson trying to claim a first major title after his latest near-miss.

Somewhat mischievously paired together by the R&A, the American duo matched each other almost shot for shot in covering the front nine in 31 and reaching six under after 12.

Spieth proved he is human after all with bogeys on the 13th and 17th - where he found the famous Road Hole bunker - before holing a curling birdie putt from 20 feet on the last.


"I'm very pleased with the start," said the 21-year-old, who is aiming to match Woods and Ben Hogan in winning three majors in a season. "I saw a 65 in our group and if DJ keeps driving it the way he is, then I'm going to have to play my best golf to have a chance.

"It's hard to argue with somebody who's splitting bunkers at about 380 yards and just two-putting for birdie on five or six of the holes. I don't have that in the bag, but I've played enough golf with him to where I believe in my skill set that I can still trump that crazy ability that he has.

"I expect when he stands on the tee it's going to be up there miles and down the fairway. I also expect that I can birdie each hole when I stand on the tee. It just happens to be a little different route."

Spieth and Johnson took the same route to the green on the 72nd hole at Chambers Bay, but while Spieth made birdie, Johnson three-putted from 12 feet to finish a shot behind.

"I think he played extremely well at Chambers. It's not like he really messed up," Spieth said. "It just was an unfortunate last hole for him. I certainly expect him to be a guy to beat every single time you play. He's got as much talent or more than anybody. You just have to outplay him."

Spieth's decision to compete in the John Deere Classic last week and only arrive in St Andrews on Monday had been questioned, but the world number two had no such qualms.

"I wanted to come off a competitive tournament," said Spieth, who won the tournament for the second time in three years. "I could have played the Scottish Open but I wanted to go somewhere I was comfortable playing and figured I could get in contention and feel the nerves, and that's what happened.

"Our game plan worked out perfectly and Michael (Greller, his caddie) has walked two or three extra rounds already. He also was out here at 4:00 something this morning walking the course and the pins. It takes a little extra work but, all in all, we had full and complete trust in our knowledge."

Johnson insisted on Monday there were no mental scars after Chambers Bay and set out to prove his point with an eagle from six feet on the fifth and five birdies in a flawless round.

"Nothing bad happened at Chambers Bay, so I wasn't disappointed, really," the 31-year-old said. "I did everything I was supposed to. I couldn't control what the ball was doing on the greens there.

"There's really no bad feelings from that, only good. I played really well and then it carried over to today. Any time you shoot 65 it is very pleasing. I thought I played well today, I made two key par putts on 16 and 17."

The 502-yard par-four 17th failed to yield a single birdie and played at an average of 4.833, with 84 bogeys, 12 doubles and six "others", which included a nine from 1989 champion Mark Calcavecchia.

[bennythedip2]

Spieth ready for final charge (July 20 2015, 12:22 BST)

Jordan Spieth's bid for the third leg of an unprecedented calendar grand slam remained firmly on track after a breathless third round of the 144th Open Championship.

But the Masters and US Open champion could be denied a place in the record books by an equally remarkable performance after 22-year-old Irish amateur Paul Dunne claimed a share of the lead at St Andrews.

Days after being mistaken for Spieth by fans seeking autographs due to their identical clothing, Dunne carded a flawless 66 on the Old Course to finish 12 under par alongside playing partner Louis Oosthuizen - who won the 2010 Open at St Andrews - and Australian Jason Day.

Spieth also shot 66 to lie just a shot behind, with 2007 and 2008 champion Padraig Harrington on 10 under after a superb 65.

Nine players were tied for sixth on nine under, including another amateur in American Jordan Niebrugge, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott, along with England's Danny Willett, who led outright after 10 holes but drove out of bounds on the 14th.

University of Alabama student Dunne - whose coach Alan Murray is also his caddie this week - is the first amateur since the legendary Bobby Jones to lead the Open after 54 holes, the American going on to lift the Claret Jug at St Andrews in 1927.

Three years later, Jones became the last amateur winner of the Open to date at Royal Liverpool and went on to complete the "Impregnable Quadrilateral" of Amateur Championship, Open Championship, US Open and US Amateur titles.

Dunne, who came through final qualifying at Woburn for the second year running, was in the second group out on Thursday and joked after birdies on the first two holes that he hoped someone had taken a screenshot to prove he had led the Open.

Three days later he had no such worries and could turn his attention from trying to win the silver medal for leading amateur to the Claret Jug.

"I don't see why not," said Dunne, who is a lowly 80th in the world amateur rankings. "I mean, I'm well capable of shooting the scores that I need to win if everyone else doesn't play their best.

"Whether it happens or not, I can't really control. I can just go out and try to play my game and see where it leaves me at the end of the day. Hopefully I play great again and post a good number.

"It's surreal I'm leading The Open, but I can easily believe that I shot the three scores that I shot. If we were playing an amateur event here, I wouldn't be too surprised by the scores I shot. It's just lucky that it happens to be in the biggest event in the world!

"Hopefully I can do it again tomorrow, but whether I do or not, I'll survive either way."

Spieth is looking to become the first player to win the first three majors of the year and just the third to win any three in a single season - Ben Hogan won the Masters and US Open in 1953 but missed the US PGA to compete in, and win, the following week's Open at Carnoustie, while Tiger Woods won the US Open, Open and US PGA in 2000 and completed the 'Tiger Slam' in the 2001 Masters.

"It hasn't come up in my head while I've been playing yet," said the 21-year-old, who would also replace Rory McIlroy as world number one with victory.

"I can't speak for tomorrow given it's the last round and if I have a chance coming down the stretch, if it creeps in, I'll embrace it. I'll embrace the opportunity that presents itself.

"I don't look at it as a negative thing, I look at it almost as an advantage. Why should it add more pressure in a negative way? If it adds more pressure, it just makes me feel like this is something that's a little more special, let's go ahead and get the job done.

"I know it's easier said than done, but when you say added pressure, most people associate that with negativity or something that can hinder what's comfortable. For me, I think it could be advantageous. You hit the ball a little bit further, you can really get your mind around a more specific target and block out other things."

American Dustin Johnson, who three-putted the 72nd hole in the US Open last month to finish a shot behind Spieth, found his overnight lead intact when he teed off at 3pm, but struggled to a third round of 75 in ideal conditions.

The big-hitting 31-year-old was only two off the lead when he finally carded his first birdie of the day on the 15th, but bogeyed the last three holes to fall five behind.

"I don't feel like I played that bad, it's definitely frustrating," the world number four said. "I'm going to have to put together a special round together tomorrow to have a chance."

Dunne will not be entitled to any prize money, however well he performs on Monday.

The rules of the R&A state: "An amateur golfer must not play golf for prize money or its equivalent in a match, competition or exhibition.

"However, an amateur golfer may participate in a golf match, competition or exhibition where prize money or its equivalent is offered, provided that prior to participation he waives his right to accept prize money in that event."

A top prize of £1.15million is on offer to the Open champion, providing he is a professional.

[bennythedip2]

An emotional Zach Johnson defeated Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman in a play-off for the Open Championship on Monday after Jordan Spieth agonisingly failed to keep his grand slam dream alive.

.Spieth needed a birdie on the 18th hole at St Andrews to join Johnson and Leishman on 15 under par, but saw his approach spin back off the green into the Valley of Sin and narrowly missed the birdie attempt.

Johnson had set the clubhouse target after a closing 66 that was matched 40 minutes later by Australian Leishman, whose total of 130 for the third and fourth rounds - he carded a flawless 64 on Sunday - equalled the lowest 36-hole total in major history.

Oosthuizen, who won the 2010 Open at St Andrews, still had two holes to play and after a crucial par save on the 17th, the South African birdied the last from five feet to make it a three-way aggregate play-off on the second Monday finish in Open history.

Johnson and Oosthuizen both birdied the first as Leishman three-putted from long range and Johnson edged ahead with another birdie on the second.

All three players bogeyed the 17th and Oosthuizen missed from 12 feet for birdie on the 18th to force sudden death, leaving Johnson to lift the Claret Jug, eight years after victory in the Masters.

"I feel blessed to be the champion," said the 39-year-old, who fought back tears after the win and was quickly congratulated by Spieth, eight days after finishing a shot behind his Ryder Cup team-mate in the John Deere Classic.

"I feel honoured to be part of the history of this game and to don my name on that trophy, especially with the names before me. Humbling and surreal are two words that come to mind. I am fairly speechless right now. Dreams have been realised and goals accomplished.

"I can't play any better than what I did. I had a lull on Friday and Saturday but nothing significant, but stayed in it and waited for the opportunities and made a few."

Johnson began the final round three shots behind leaders Oosthuizen, Jason Day and Irish amateur Paul Dunne, but birdies on the second, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth took him to the turn in 31.

Australia's Adam Scott matched that front nine and the pair also birdied the 10th, but as Scott's challenge collapsed on the back nine, his compatriot Leishman moved to the front.

Leishman, who had also covered the front nine in 31 and birdied the 10th and 12th, briefly held a two-shot lead when Johnson bogeyed the 17th, his right foot slipping on his second shot as a rain shower passed through.

But as Johnson rolled in a long birdie putt on the 18th, Leishman was failing to get up and down from a bunker on the 16th and the 31-year-old from Warrnambool could not find a decisive birdie of his own on the last.

Spieth's chances of a third consecutive major victory looked to have disappeared after he four-putted the eighth - sending his first putt off the green - to fall three behind, but the 21-year-old birdied the ninth and 10th and holed from 50 feet on the 16th for another to tie the lead.

Johnson, preparing for a possible play-off on the practice ground, heard the roar and checked his phone to confirm what had happened but it was then Spieth's turn to bogey the 17th after mishitting his approach and coming up well short of the green.

The Masters and US Open winner pulled his drive on the 18th near the grandstands on the right-hand side of the first fairway and had to back off his second shot due to noise from spectators taking pictures.

And after regaining his composure the world number two - who would have overtaken the absent Rory McIlroy in the rankings with a victory - saw his approach spin back off the green into the Valley of Sin, from where Costantino Rocca famously holed 20 years ago to get into a play-off with John Daly.

However, this time there were no heroics and the birdie attempt slipped just past the hole, while playing partner Day left his birdie attempt to also get into the play-off inches short.

"I can't describe the magnitude as to what he (Spieth) was going through because I've never been in that position certainly," added Johnson, who moves from 25th to 12th in the world rankings. "We haven't really seen that with the exception of Tiger.

"Truthfully he could be sitting here. But to have a champion like Jordan take the time on 18 to give me best wishes speaks volumes as to what he is. He's a phenomenal talent, and I'm telling you right now, he's a better person than he is a golfer."