Tiger the huge British Open favorite – shocker! :WagerWeb Entertainment

Tiger the huge British Open favorite – shocker!

15 July 2009 196 views No Comment

How dominant is Tiger Woods in the golf world? WagerWeb.com actually offers some prop bets to bet on the field minus Tiger’s result.

That’s dominance!

Woods is a massive +165 WagerWeb.com favorite to win golf’s third major of the year this weekend at Turnberry in Scotland. No one else is below +1700, although Phil Mickelson likely would have been if he was playing this week.

Tiger got to Turnberry early to practice, because it’s the rare major course he had never played — it’s the first Open contested here since 1994. The three British Open winners at this course are Tom Watson in 1977, Greg Norman in 1986 and Nick Price in 1994. And Woods sees similarities between those three.

“I think you look at the guys who were some of the best ball-strikers,” Woods said, “and at this golf course you can understand why. . . . You’ve got to hit some really good shots and you’ve got to understand why the last three champions are some of the best ball-strikers. You have to do that here.”

Indeed, only an accurate, not necessarily long, driver of the ball will win this week on a course with menacing rough. In each of those previous three Opens at Turnberry, the winner turned out to be either the No. 1 player in the world or the one who was headed toward that honor. Woods is the obvious No. 1 now.

Another trend: Woods (2005-06) and Padraig Harrington (’07-08) became the first players to win consecutive Open Championships back to back since Bobby Jones (1926-27) and Walter Hagen (’28-29). Then Jones came back to win again in 1930.

Tiger also will be doubly motivated: He wants to win his 15th Grand Slam event to tie good friend Roger Federer, who recently won No. 15 at Wimbledon. And for the first time since 2004, Woods does not hold a title in one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. He has won three times elsewhere this season since his return from major knee surgery, most recently at the AT&T National this month, but wasn’t really a big contender at either the Masters or U.S. Open despite top-10 finishes.

Tiger’s three previous British Open victories came at St. Andrews in 2000 and 2005 and at Royal Liverpool in 2006. In all three cases, conditions were unusually benign and the courses unusually dry and fast. But rain is forecast this week.