Open Championship 2025: Dave Tindall's five to watch in Betfair's Birdie Bonus market

• Dave picks out five players who could rack up early birdies

• Get a free bet for every first round birdie your Open selection scores. T&Cs apply

• Read Dave Tindall's 10-year trends piece here

---

Watch Golf...Only Bettor 2025 Open Championship preview

---

First round birdies = free bets with Betfair's Open offer

Betfair has a great free bet offer for the 2025 Open Championship.

Betfair's Birdie Bonus market hands out free bets for every birdie your win-only selection makes in the first round of the Open Championship.

What it means is that if you place a £5 bet or more in our Birdie Bonus market, each time the player you back to win the Open at Portrush picks up a shot at any hole during the first round you'll land a £1 free bet. 

So, the ideal is backing a player who you think can actually win the tournament but also rack up plenty of birdies in round one to give you some free bets to sprinkle over the rest of the week.

You can only back one player in this market although here are five options.

---

Dave Tindall's five players to watch 

Scottie Scheffler 

Despite winning at Augusta, Rory McIlroy has made slow starts in the majors this year: 72 in R1 at the US Masters and opening 74s at both the US PGA and US Open.

So if you're looking for free £1 bets from one of the likely winners, Scottie Scheffler could be a better proposition to hit the birdie trail in round one.

Scheffler had four birdies and an eagle on day one of US PGA while in his last two starts he's opened with a 62 at the Travelers (seven birdies and an eagle) and a 67 at the Scottish Open (three birdies and an eagle). No wonder the World No.1 ranks 2nd for R1 Scoring on the PGA Tour this season.

---

Ryan Fox

Obviously, free bets are only worth having if you think they'll land i.e. your player goes on to win the tournament.

But several good judges believe Ryan Fox is in that category of potential champions given that he's won twice on the PGA Tour this season and has a strong pedigree on the links.

Fox was 16th at Portrush in 2019 and on day one he came home in an astonishing 29, racking up six birdies in seven holes. The Kiwi, who ranks 16th for R1 scoring on the PGA Tour, also sprinkled seven birdies and an eagle in his opening 66 at last week's Scottish Open.

---

Viktor Hovland

Viktor Hovland is clearly a contender for the Claret Jug and the good news is that he could win you some free bets along the way due to being a strong starter.

The Norwegian ranks 18th for Birdie Average this season and has fired 66s in his last two opening rounds on the PGA Tour:  Scottish Open and Travelers Championship.

Talking of 66s, he's recorded one of those in each of his last three Opens. Hovland can go low on the links and he comes in off a tied 11th at the Renaissance Club. 

---

Ludvig Aberg

Which player had most par breakers in the Scottish Open last week? Answer: Ludvig Aberg with 22 (20 birdies and two eagles). Can he win The Open? Absolutely he can.

Twelve of those 22 came in the Swede's first two rounds in Scotland while his opening 70 in this year's Masters featured five birdies.

Aberg finished eighth at the Renaissance Club last week and with second and seventh in his two Masters starts and 12th at the US Open, he's already made an impression in the majors.

---

Justin Rose

Justin Rose has finished runner-up in two of the last four majors and that includes second place in the 2024 Open at Royal Troon where he was fourth after day one with a 69. He carded that same number on day one at Royal Portrush in 2019 when fourth with a round to play before a Sunday slide.

Rose has a great record for fast starts in Majors. Amazingly he banked the day one lead at Augusta for the fifth time in his career when setting out with a 65 back in May. He scribbled eight birdies on this card on that Masters Thursday which would have banked you 8 x £1 free bets at 80/181.00 that oh so nearly landed after he made the play-off before losing out to Rory McIlroy.

He arrives at Portrush on the back of a closing 63 that gave him sixth place in the Scottish Open and a big challenge this week would come as no surprise.  

---

Bookmark our Open category and come back for more tips, previews and guides

---

Now read Open Championship 2025: Dave Tindall's FOUR each-way picks from 30/1 to 90/1