2015 British Open Betting Preview: Spieth Holds Top Odds for Tournament

With defending champion Rory McIlroy out of the 2015 British Open because of an ankle injury, all eyes will be on the 21-year-old Jordan Spieth as a large 9-2 betting favorite at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark over the rest of the field when play begins Thursday at St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland.

Spieth is coming off a win last week at the John Deere Classic and already has 12 top-10 finishes in the 19 events he has entered this year as he goes for a third straight major victory.

Tiger Woods was the last golfer to win the first two majors of the year, back in 2002, but he did not win the British Open again until three years later, after taking it for the first time in 2000.

Things have changed a lot for Woods since then, as he is a 25-1 shot to win it this year, although two of his previous victories in the British Open took place at St. Andrews. Last year, Woods finished 69th after shooting a six-over-par 294.

Spieth tied for 36th in his first career appearance at the British Open in 2014, but the upcoming PGA Championship may be his toughest obstacle in trying to complete the Grand Slam, since he has not made the cut in two years there. Golf bettors can get 16-1 odds if they think he will win both the British Open and the PGA Championship.

Dustin Johnson (11-1 on the British Open odds) was Spieth’s top challenger in the last major, the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. However, Johnson crumbled under the pressure again and finished in a tie for second place with Louis Oosthuizen, missing out on yet another opportunity to win his first major (after letting a similar opportunity slip away in the 2010 PGA Championship).

Oosthuizen won the British Open five years ago and would seem to be a better bet than Woods at 22-1.

Other contenders worth mentioning include Rickie Fowler (16-1), Justin Rose (18-1), Adam Scott (20-1) and Henrik Stenson (20-1). Fowler tied Sergio Garcia (33-1) for second place in the British Open last year, while Stenson was the runner-up in 2013, as Scott was in 2012.

Phil Mickelson (33-1) won the British Open in 2013 and also tied for second with Johnson in 2011, when Darren Clarke won the tournament.