Open Betting: Three reasons to back Tiger Woods

The Open / Paul Krishnamurty / 07 July 2009 / Leave a Comment

The world number one has banished doubts about his form and fitness in recent weeks and is now in a prime position to make a sustained assault on the Open Championship. Paul Krishnamurty explains why...

He's now fully back to his best after injury

Any doubts that Tiger would not fully recover his best form after an eight-month injury lay-off have been firmly laid to rest. Sunday's victory in the AT & T National was his third title in eight strokeplay events since returning, and he hasn't finished outside the top 10 in any of them. Most encouraging has been his improved accuracy off the tee in recent weeks. The general rule over the past decade has been that when Tiger drives it straight, he wins.

He lacks any obvious rivals

Going into the year's first two majors, all the focus was on Tiger's rivalry with Phil Mickelson; a battle won by the latter on both occasions. However, with Mickelson missing the Open and tournament specialists Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Ernie Els all badly out of form, Woods appears totally dominant. The market perfectly illustrates this year's 'Tiger vs the Rest' narrative, with Woods trading at [3.1] ahead of next best Garcia at [25.0].

Turnberry usually produces great champions

The last three Opens to be played at Turnberry have been won by world-class players at the peak of their powers. Tom Watson won the second of his five Open titles in 1980, and Greg Norman won the first of his two in 1986 during his best ever season. Nick Price was the world's leading player during his victorious year of 1994. The logical extension of that trend is a fourth Open, and 15th major title for Tiger Woods.