Open Championship 2024 Each-Way Tips: Picks from 33/1 to 66/1

• 33/134.00 Shane Lowry has the form to land a second Claret Jug

• 50/151.00 Tom Kim has hit the ground running with links golf

• 66/167.00 Aaron Rai (12 Places) can cash in on his late qualification

• Pick your places on Open each-way bets with the Betfair Sportsbook

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Golf Only Bettor - The Open Championship Preview

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Royal Troon witnessed one of the greatest Open Championship finishes of all time in 2016 when Henrik Stenson ousted Phil Mickelson in an epic final-round duel.

Stenson shot 63 to finish at 20-under, Mickelson's 65 gave him second spot on 17-under and it was a mighty 11 shots back to J.B. Holmes in third.

The scores of Stenson and Mickelson were freakish to be honest and a better guide to what this course tends to throw up is the fact that five of the previous six Troon Opens were won with scores from 10-under to 12-under.

The outlier was Tom Wason't 4-under in 1982 although the current weather forecast - a mix of sun and drizzle, temps in the mid-60s and winds of around 10-12mph - doesn't point to anything like that.

As for the state of Royal Troon this year, Gareth Lord, who caddied for Stenson in that incredible win eight years ago, gave this insight on the 19th Uncut podcast: "A couple of the lads went about a month ago, I believe. And the rough is knee-high. Because it's been hammering down in the UK. I believe, they've got it right where they want it."

That's a stark contrast to Hoylake last year which had witnessed a dry summer so the rough was down.

However, Lord concludes: "We need a bit of wind, otherwise they'll murder it." Hmmm.

What we can also glean from past editions is the importance of scrambling.

Scrambling was a standout stat in 2016 with the first seven home ranking 7th, 1st, 4th, 3rd, 17th, 2nd and 15th in that category.

Winding further back, six of the first seven in the 2004 Open at Troon won by Todd Hamilton after a play-off with Ernie Els finished in the top 12 for Scrambling while 1997 Troon winner Justin Leonard ranked 2nd for Scrambling that season so it was a big strength of his game.

Royal Troon has been lengthened to 7,385 yards for this year's event while remaining as a par 71.

Accuracy off the tee will be pretty important given the vagaries of the knee-high rough and bunkers dotted everywhere.

Indeed, in 2016 Stenson was 5th for Driving Accuracy, Mickelson 15th and fourth-placed Steve Stricker 6th.

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Back Shane Lowry (8 Places) @ 33/134.00

For the American players, it's hard not to see it as a negative if they didn't play in the Scottish Open.

But Shane Lowry skipping The Renaissance Club shouldn't make any difference at all to the popular Irishman's chances.

Lowry swerved it in 2019, prepping elsewhere and going on to score that brilliant and emotional win in front of the Irish crowds at Royal Portrush.

Links golf is in his blood so the urgency or need to play the Scottish Open is diminished.

His build-up to this year's Open is similar to that of five years ago in terms of overall current form.

In 2019 Lowry had finished eighth in the US PGA Championship four starts earlier and 28th at Pebble Beach in the US Open. This time he's coming in off sixth at the US PGA where he equallied the lowest round in Major championship history, a 62, and 19th in the US Open at Pinehurst.

His one start since the US Open was ninth at the Travelers, now a Signature event, while Instagram and some reports in the Irish press show that he headed to Royal Troon a couple of weeks ago to get a close-up look at the course for a couple of days.

Keeping things light with a trip to Wimbledon, he also spent last week back home getting more links reps at Hogs Head in Waterville.

Lowry didn't make the cut at Royal Troon in 2016 when still perhaps raw from letting a winning chance go in the US Open at Oakmont but all other evidence suggests his game stacks up extremely well.

He's 14th in Total Driving this year, ranking 16th in Driving Accuracy, and the eye test tells us he's a wonderfully creative chipper even if his stats around bland PGA Tour courses suggest otherwise.

Lowry, who was ninth in the 2014 Open, followed up his Portrush victory with finishes of 12th and 21st in his next two tilts at the Claret Jug.

And with 11 top 25s in his last 15 Majors and one already tucked away in the bag, he's very much at ease at this level.

He's had three top sixes in that run which is why I'm inclined to play him in the market paying 8 places to secure the bigger price of 33/134.00.

Quite simply, with plenty of Open winners over the age of 35 (Stenson was 40 when he won at Royal Troon), the 37-year-old Lowry is in his prime years in terms of adding more Claret Jugs.

This looks a great chance to hoist aloft a second.

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Back Tom Kim (8 Places) @ 50/151.00

I've been backing Tom Kim for the last few months and it's paid off with fourth at the Canadian Open and second place at the Travelers Championship where he was pipped in a play-off by World No.1 Scottie Scheffler.

I also pulled the trigger in the Scottish Open at probably too short a price in hindsight (he was cut to 20s when the preview was sent out) but here he's 50/151.00 with 8 Places and that's just too tempting.

While Kim didn't manage another each-way return in Scotland, the Thomas the Tank Engine fan did finish like a train (Sunday 64) to take 15th.

That added to previous finishes in the event of third (2022) and sixth (2023) so no wonder he waxed lyrical about loving the Scottish air in his nostrils.

Putting some pieces together, we want a straight hitter to avoid the knee-length rough and bunkers, a sharp scrambler and someone who can really rack up the birdies if the winds stay calm and the players, as Gareth Lord says above, do indeed "murder it".

Feed those into a model and Kim's name will start flashing brightly.

Kim ranked 1st for Scrambling at the Travelers three starts ago and he's in the top 25 for Driving Accuracy this season.

As for the accusation that he's a short hitter, his average drive of 297.8 is only just over a yard under Tour average.

Troon is hardly the longest track either and as well as all those good performances in the Scottish Open, he's also proved it in the Open itself of course.

That came at Hoylake last year when despite battling a foot injury he closed 68-68-67 to finish in a four-way tie for second place.

A check of his stats there and he ranked 2nd for Scrambling and 8th in Driving Accuracy. A repeat of those will go down very well at Troon.

The very special talents such as Jordan Spieth and Collin Morikawa have shown that Opens can be won at a tender age.

Kim deserves to be seen in that bracket having become the first player to win twice on the PGA Tour before the age of 21 since Tiger Woods.

Now with three titles, they were won with -20, -24 and -20 so if Troon does yield itself to a birdie barrage, Kim can definitely cash in.

Some players take a long time to to find their feet in Majors. But Kim is already an Open runner-up, owns an eighth in the US Open and has finished outside the top 30 just once in his last seven Majors.

Don't think the 22-year-old is too young or inexperienced to win one of these.

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Back Aaron Rai (12 Places) @ 66/167.00

For some each-way value, Aaron Rai jumps off the page after he made it into the Open field at the 11th hour after a storming finish at the Scottish Open.

The Englishman's closing 63 was enough to secure tied fourth and earn him one of the three available spots on offer for Royal Troon.

Rai seems to have been an ever-present on our screens over the last month or so and one initial thought would be that he'd bee too fatigued.

But Troon will only be his fourth week in a row and he also had the week off before the US Open so hopefully there'll be enough in the tank.

With that niggle put to one side, we can focus on his stellar form over the last couple of months.

Rai, who had already shown his class with seventh in March's Houston Open and fourth in May's CJ Cup Byron Nelson, has now reeled off five straight top 20s.

His latest three starts show second place in the Rocket Mortgage Classic, seventh in the John Deere and now fourth at the Scottish Open, a tournament where he showed his links skills when winning in 2020. He was also ninth at Gullane in 2018.

If avoiding trouble and scrambling well are desired assets this week, Rai absolutely ticks those boxes. He's 1st for the season in Driving Accuracy and has ranked in the top 10 for Scrambling in his last two starts (10th overall this season).

One other huge component in his recent flurry of big finishes is the putter.

"It's been a really good stretch," he said at The Renaissance Club. "I've been a bit amiss on the greens, but that's really improved in the last month or so and that's been the biggest change in the results."

The final question to answer is can he play Majors?

There are certainly enough signs of promise to think Rai can make a real impression at Troon.

Rai was 19th on his Open debut at Royal St George's in 2019 and in this two Majors this year (just the fourth and fifth of his career), he's posted 39th in the US PGA and 19th in the US Open.

Having not been in the Open field until this week and it still looking unlikely before he teed off on Sunday morning, Rai hasn't had much thinking time. And that could be a good thing.

Instead, he can make the drive across Scotland, get his prep in and hopefully just let things happen.

One of the form players of the summer, I'll back him at 66/1 (12 places).

I did think about Louis Oosthuizen as another possible longshot at similar odds.

The 2010 St Andrews winner has shown some good form on the LIV Tour and his Open record includes a second (2015) and a third (2021).

At the top end, I've already put up Xander Schauffele at 33s in my ante-post preview while Rory McIlroy came out top in my trends preview.

I'd love to see a McIlroy win - he's 9/1 in the enhanced 'win only' market - but I'll stick with my each-way trio of Lowry, Kim and Rai.

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Now read Dave's Open 10-year trends preview here.

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