The Open Championship Odds 2013: Long-Shots Worth Taking a Chance On

It doesn’t matter what Vegas says about a golfer’s odds of winning The Open Championship because the champions are usually long shots.

Sure, Tiger Woods has won the tournament twice and he’s one of the favorites to win it all again this year. But the last few winners have been far from contenders. While Ernie Els had already won the tournament once in his career, he wasn’t expected to make much noise last year.

In 2011, Darren Clarke came out of absolutely nowhere to make a name for himself at Royal St. George’s. The year prior to Clarke’s victory, Louis Oosthuizen took home the Claret Jug. I’m pretty sure the average golf fan didn’t even know how to correctly pronounce his name before that week at St. Andrews.

That being said, while there are some golfers who don’t have the best odds at winning, they are those who are worth betting on. They may just surprise everyone by winning The Open Championship.

Complete Open Championship Odds

*All odds are courtesy of Bovada and are up to date as of Tuesday, July 16 at 1:10 p.m. ET.

Golfer	Open Championship Odds
Tiger Woods	8-1
Justin Rose	16-1
Phil Mickelson	16-1
Adam Scott	20-1
Graeme McDowell	22-1
Lee Westwood	25-1
Rory McIlroy	25-1
Sergio Garcia	25-1
Ernie Els	28-1
Jason Day	28-1
Luke Donald	28-1
Brandt Snedeker	33-1
Charl Schwartzel	33-1
Dustin Johnson	33-1
Henrik Stenson	33-1
Matt Kuchar	40-1
Rickie Fowler	40-1
Ian Poulter	50-1
Louis Oosthuizen	50-1
Martin Kaymer	50-1
Nicolas Colsaerts	50-1
Check out Bovada for complete odds for this year's Open Championship.

Rickie Fowler, 40-1

Rickie Fowler is still seeking the first major tournament victory of his young career. He’s never finished better than in fifth place at one of the four biggest competitions of the year on the PGA Tour. That just happened to come in 2011 at The Open Championship, when he shot even par and finished five strokes off the leader.

While Fowler is still without a win on the tour this season, he has played well. He’s only missed the cut twice in 16 events and has finished in the top 10 on four occasions. He was great at the U.S. Open around a month ago, ending the fourth round at seven over and in a tie for 10th place.

Fowler shot six under at the Travelers Championship (T-13th) and then 18 under at the CVS Caremark Charity Classic (T-4th)—and unofficial event. The last PGA Tour event he played was the AT&T National, when he shot one under and finished in a tie for 22nd. He’s hoping to pick up his second win on the tour this week at Muirfield.

The 24-year-old will be participating at The Open Championship for the fourth time in his career this week. He’ll need to be accurate on the greens in order to have a chance at winning. He has only hit 96 percent of his putts from inside five feet, which is the 111th best on the tour.

Bubba Watson, 80-1

The second-most-notable lefty on the PGA Tour is salivating at the chance to add another major victory to his resume. At the moment, Bubba Watson only has one win truly worth bragging about—the 2012 Masters. Since, Watson hasn’t been very impressive at any of the major tournaments.

Watson has only finished in the top 20 of a major one since winning at Augusta National. That top-20 finish came last year at the PGA Championship. This year, he was a disaster at the Masters—finishing tied for 50th—and fair at best at the U.S. Open—finishing tied for 32nd.

The lefty shot 10 under at the Travelers, which was good enough for fourth place. He also tied for fourth at the CVS Caremark Charity Classic. Watson recently tied for 30th at The Greenbrier Classic. He’s been cut at The Open Championship twice, but has played the weekend the last two years.

Watson ranks fifth on the PGA Tour this season in driving distance, but needs to be more accurate with his pink driver this week at Muirfield. He has a 59.3 driving accuracy percentage, which is the 127th-best among other golfers on the Tour. If he’s accurate with his biggest club, the rest of the field should watch out.

Keegan Bradley, 80-1

It appears that Keegan Bradley is only good when he hits the links at the PGA Championship. The 27-year-old won the major tournament in 2011 and finished tied for third place last year. The Open Championship hasn’t been his cup of tea in the past, but he’ll definitely look to conquer the course by giving it his all.

Bradley has had a very inconsistent season thus far. He’s played in 18 events and finished in the top 25 nine times. He’s also been cut four times, including at the U.S. Open, where he was 12 over after two days. His best tournament of the year came back in May when he finished in second at the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

Bradley played well at the John Deere Classic this past weekend, but it wasn’t even close to finishing toward the top of the leaderboard. He was four under after Thursday and Friday, and then shot two under after Sunday’s play concluded. Despite being six under, he tied for 61st place.

If Bradley is going to win his second major tournament, he’s going to need to take full advantage of the par fives. On the year, he’s the third-best on the tour at making birdie or better on the long holes. If he keeps that up and plays well on the par threes and fours, he should be among the leaders come Sunday afternoon.