2013 Open Championship

[Shaggy]

Starts Thursday at Muirfield. Bit of ****ter that it clashes with the 2nd Ashes Test...in fact cricket will take priority for me, but still looking forward to seeing some golf.

Anyone picked out a few to back?

[Chazza]

Tiger Woods 15/2
Adam Scott 20/1
Justin Rose 20/1
Phil Mickelson 20/1
Graeme Mcdowell 25/1
Rory McIlroy 28/1
Lee Westwood 28/1
Sergio Garcia 28/1
Luke Donald 33/1
Ernie Els 33/1
Jason Day 33/1
Henrik Stenson 33/1
Rickie Fowler 40/1
Dustin Johnson 40/1
Charl Schwartzel 40/1
Brandt Snedeker 40/1
Ian Poulter 50/1
Martin Kaymer 50/1
Matt Kuchar 50/1
Billy Horschel 66/1
Branden Grace 66/1
Padraig Harrington 66/1
Jason Dufner 66/1
Louis Oosthuizen 66/1
Hunter Mahan 66/1
Nicolas Colsaerts 66/1
Jim Furyk 66/1
Matteo Manassero 66/1
Thomas Björn 66/1
Angel Cabrera 80/1
Bubba Watson 80/1
Francesco Molinari 80/1
Webb Simpson 80/1
Zach Johnson 80/1
Chris Wood 100/1
Richard Sterne 100/1
Jamie Donaldson 100/1
Shane Lowry 100/1
Paul Lawrie 100/1
Fredrik Jacobson 100/1
Keegan Bradley 100/1
Peter Hanson 100/1
Thorbjorn Olesen 100/1
Martin Laird 100/1
Nick Watney 100/1
Bill Haas 100/1
George Coetzee 125/1
Ryan Moore 125/1
Tim Clark 125/1
Harris English 125/1
Mikko Ilonen 125/1
Brooks Koepka 125/1
Jonas Blixt 125/1
Stephen Gallacher 125/1
Alexander Noren 125/1
Bo Van Pelt 125/1
Bert Wiesberger 150/1
K J Choi 150/1
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano 150/1
Marcel Siem 150/1
Robert Karlsson 150/1
Carl Pettersson 150/1
Stewart Cink 150/1
Miguel Angel Jimenez 150/1
Scott Piercy 150/1
Kevin Streelman 150/1
Jordan Spieth 150/1
Thomas Aiken 150/1
Geoff Ogilvy 150/1
Darren Clarke 150/1
John Senden 200/1
Brian Davis 200/1
Rafael Cabrera Bello 200/1
Ben Curtis 200/1
Alvaro Quiros 200/1
Michael Thompson 200/1
Yong Eun Yang 200/1
Rory Garrigus 200/1
David Lynn 200/1
Thongchai Jaidee 200/1
John Huh 200/1
Hideki Matsuyama 200/1
Richie Ramsay 200/1
Marc Leishman 200/1
Marc Warren 200/1
Boo Weekley 200/1
Russell Henley 200/1
Jimmy Walker 200/1
Graham Delaet 200/1
Camilo Villegas 250/1
Bud Cauley 250/1
D A Points 250/1
Kyle Stanley 250/1
Fred Couples 250/1
Vijay Singh 250/1
Danny Willett 250/1
Scott Jamieson 250/1
Gregory Bourdy 250/1
Justin Leonard 250/1
Ken Duke 250/1
Scott Stallings 250/1
Josh Teater 300/1
Brendan Jones 300/1
Lucas Glover 300/1
Luke Guthrie 300/1
Gareth Maybin 300/1
Brett Rumford 300/1
Marcus Fraser 400/1
Kyung-Tae Kim 400/1
Tom Lehman 400/1
Kiradech Aphibarnrat 400/1
Oliver Fisher 400/1
Steven Tiley 500/1
Elliot Saltman 500/1
Toru Taniguchi 500/1
Thaworn Wiratchant 500/1
Hiroyuki Fujita 500/1
David Duval 500/1
Daisuke Maruyama 500/1
Mark Calcavecchia 500/1
Mark Brown 500/1
Ashun Wu 500/1
Eduardo De La Riva 500/1
Tom Watson 500/1
Scott Brown 500/1
Johnson Wagner 500/1
Peter Senior 500/1
Garrick Porteous 500/1
Shiv Kapur 500/1
Hyung-Sung Kim 500/1
Shingo Katayama 500/1
Satoshi Kodaira 500/1
Estanislao Goya 500/1
Richard McEvoy 500/1
Niclas Fasth 500/1
Rhys Pugh 750/1
Kenichi Kuboya 750/1
Justin Harding 750/1
Darryn Lloyd 750/1
Todd Hamilton 750/1
Tyrell Hatton 750/1
Oscar Floren 750/1
George Murray 750/1
Mark OMeara 750/1
Steven Jeffress 1000/1
Steven Fox 1000/1
Stephen Dartnall 1000/1
Ben Stow 1000/1
Gareth Wright 1000/1
Grant Forrest 1000/1
John Wade 1000/1
Jimmy Mullen 1000/1
Matthew Fitzpatrick 1000/1
Nick Faldo 1000/1
Sandy Lyle 1000/1
Makato Inoue 1000/1

Paddy power paying out on the top 7.

[Assassin]

I have backed

Michelson, McDowell and Stenson

[Shaggy]

Oosthuizen looks big at 66/1.

[Buzzo]

Surely Tiger will win another one sooner or later?

[Assassin]

Oosthuizen looks big at 66/1.

I saw that. Also, Martin Laird at 100/1 would be a good each way bet. He played well in the Scottish open

[RichC]

Had a few quid on Oosthuizen and Jason Day

[Chazza]

The Open 2013: Magical Muirfield set to test the best in 142nd Open

Mention Muirfield to golf's great and good and you get misty-eyed musings on a magical links course. Others can't see past an anachronistic club that refuses to admit women members.

On the golf side, Muirfield counts among its Open champions some of the game's biggest names - Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els. Somehow, the cream always rises to the top at Muirfield.
"It is really one of the great golf courses of the world," Player told BBC Sport.

"The design is highly intelligent. It has got more variety of shots than any course I know. The rough is good and the bunkering is absolutely exquisite."
The course, home to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, lies 20 miles north east of the Scottish capital on the southern coast of the Firth of Forth. The layout, flanked on two sides by woods, offers what most describe as a "tough but fair" challenge.

The holes span out in two loops of nine from the clubhouse, unlike a more typical "out-and-back" links that only returns at the 18th. The front nine runs clockwise, bordered by low stone walls, while the second nine goes back out anti-clockwise inside the first. No more than three holes in a row follow the same direction.

The prevailing wind is from the west, but can just as easily swing south or east. In the infamous storm on the Saturday of the 2002 Open, the gale blew from the north east.

"The course has great balance. What I like about it is you play downwind, you play into the wind, you have crosswinds from every direction," added Player, who won the first of his three Opens there as a 23-year-old in 1959.
Muirfield is so revered it has been used as a blueprint for golf design across the world. Nicklaus, who won his first Open there in 1966 to complete a career Grand Slam of all four majors, named his signature course in Ohio "Muirfield Village". Watson, Player and others admit to copying elements of Muirfield into their own course designs.

"The Open courses have all got their own character, but it's got to be one of the best," said BBC commentator Ken Brown, who played in the last group with winner Watson at Muirfield in 1980. "It's not flashy, but everything about it is classy and just right. The challenges are right in front of your eyes, there are no tricks about it and not many blindshots.

"There are a few undulating fairways but compared to Royal St George's it's billiard-table flat, so you are less likely to get flukey bounces.
"The fairways are not generous, but rather a friendly width."
Muirfield's "signature hole" is arguably a group of holes, the short ones - the 4th, 7th, 13th and 16th.

"They are some of the best par threes you're ever going to find," added Brown, who insists this week's Muirfield set-up is the "best-condition course I've ever seen for an Open Championship".

"That was one of designer Harry Colt's specialities. He had the ability to frame them, make them interesting, with nice putting surfaces," explained Brown.
"There are some absolute beauties at Muirfield and the 18th is a wonderful finishing hole in a beautiful setting."

The man at the helm is course manager Colin Irvine, who will be in charge for his second Open at Muirfield and fourth at the course in all.

Irvine's men, along with Open organisers the R&A, have been working on the layout for a couple of years. Fifteen holes have been tweaked, with some new tees and tightened bunkering. Some 158 yards have been added since 2002, giving it a total length of 7,192 yards at a par of 71.

"We're known for our rough here, it's one of our main defences along with the bunkers, but it looks thicker than it is," Irvine told BBC Sport.

"Spring was quite cold so things were slow to grow. You can't force it on but we've had a decent enough summer and had some heat and some rain in between so it's been quite a good growing season overall.

"If you just roll off the fairway you'll be able to find it and hit it, no problem. Stray deeper and it could be a different story."

Player certainly hopes so. "We have too many players at the top of the game who are wild hitters and struggle to hit the fairway. The tee is the one place you are guaranteed a perfect lie. There is not enough premium on driving, it's all on putting and the short game."

The modest-sized greens are only gently undulating but drop-offs and deep pot bunkers call for accuracy. At night, they will be guarded by a squad of ever-alert Gurkhas.

"They won't sleep. It is their job to protect that bit of turf," said Irvine, whose crew of about 30 greenstaff will be on the course from 04:00 BST every day of tournament week.

"The last time the Gurkhas almost stopped the greenkeepers getting on."
The Honourable Company claims to be the oldest golf club in the world, dating back to 1744, when it was based in Leith. It moved to a new course at Muirfield in 1891 and hosted its first Open the following year. Tony Jacklin describes Muirfield as "special", despite having his heart broken there by Lee Trevino in 1972. But it has also been branded "stuffy" and "snobby" over the years.

"In days gone by Muirfield got a reputation for all the wrong reasons - for that tyrant who was secretary. He was a horror story," Jacklin told BBC Sport.

The "tyrant" was Captain PWT "Paddy" Hanmer, a retired Naval officer who ruled with an iron fist from 1968-1983. His mission in life, it seems, was to keep non-members - and particularly Americans - off the course.

Jacklin was part of the gang, along with a piper, wandering around with Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw, who were playing a couple of holes with old hickory clubs late on the Sunday evening after the 1980 Open.

"Hanmer got wind of it - he was having dinner in Gullane somewhere - and came to find us," said Jacklin.

"He was shouting, 'be in my office at 0600 tomorrow'. And Watson and Crenshaw had just finished first and third in the Open.

"He was as infamous as the club was famous. That's not what Muirfield deserves to be remembered for."

Hanmer may be long gone, but Muirfield is still a bastion of tradition. However, current secretary Alastair Brown, who is from a marketing background, rather than the military, insists the club's public persona has softened.

"We always had an image which was slightly aloof and slightly not interested in the outside world and I think we've tried to change that without abandoning everything of the past," said Brown.

"Paddy was a great secretary but it was a different era, more authoritarian in those days. Muirfield is a very approachable place. We've opened our doors to more visitors than ever before."

But it is the refusal to admit women members - although they can play as guests - that will receive the most column inches this week. Brown, though, insists Muirfield is "more accessible than probably most of the clubs in our peer group in terms of ladies getting [to play] golf".

"I would feel better if I had ladies in the club but that's their [Muirfield's] prerogative, it's their choice," added Player.

"But what I love are the traditions they still have. You go into the clubhouse to have lunch and you've got to wear a tie. There are no hats allowed inside - everyone these days wants to wear jeans and sneakers.

"I'm of the old school. I just love the ambience of the place and long may it continue.

"It's run as a golf club should be run. I love Muirfield."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/23244955

[Chazza]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/23281076

Some of the rough

[Gibbo]

Got £20 on Tiger and a tenner on Rory.

[PTP]

forgot all about this!

another weekend of great sport in the sun ahead!! - love it, tho find it frustrating when it's so sunny, i feel like i should be out and active, not in watching sport

i'll flick between the two but reckon i'll mostly watch the ashes thurs/fri/sat and then the golf sunday for the final day - however you just know both are going to be intense at exactly the same time!!! - laptop and tv will both be on

Not picked any bets but will have a little look tonight,.

My dad is going up there tomorrow....he's only missed one open in the last 30 years!

[Chazza]

That is some dedication.

Does he just go and watch or to steward/help out?

[Liverpool]

no real favourites so some decent prices for the top players

[Pablo]

Have a feeling this one will be Tiger's.

Might stick some small stakes on some big outsiders though just in case .

Can't wait for this!

[Pedenj]

Tiger will play like he did in 2006 you'd imagine - the conditions could be set up for him to have a very big 4 days.

Was at Hoylake in 2006 and it was a masterclass in course management.