Open Championship 2025: Two picks from Dave Tindall in his early look at Royal Portrush

• Shane Lowry won the last time Royal Portrush hosted in 2019

• 16/117.00 Two-time Irish Open winner Jon Rahm looks a strong bet

• 125/1126.00 Rasmus Hojgaard won last year's Irish Open at RCD

Tournament: The 2025 Open Championship
When: July 17-20
Where: Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland
How to watch: All four days live on Sky Sports

In 2019, the Open Championship returned to Royal Portrush after a 68-year gap and what a week it was as Irishman Shane Lowry raced away from the field to win his first Major Championship.

Lowry's 15-under total was six clear of Tommy Fleetwood and included a third-round 63 on the famed Irish links.

Thankfully, we're back there again after just a six-year wait and Lowry is 28/129.00 to repeat his heroics.

Local hero Rory McIlroy was around 10/111.00 favourite in 2019 and famously missed the cut after a calamitous opening tee-shot that went out of bounds, sparking a mental spiral that ended in an opening 79.

His brilliant attempt at a rescue act fell just short, with his Friday 65 just one swish too many.

McIlroy is 8/19.00 to make amends this time.

This column hit the jackpot with a 33/134.00 winner at Troon last year as ante-post selection Xander Schauffele came home by two.

Schauffele went off at 10/111.00 in the end so that's the appeal of these markets: picking out someone at a nice price, watching their odds crash and then the real thrill of seeing them take victory.

Here are the stats from 2019.

2019 Open Championship

1. Shane Lowry (DD 12th, DA 22nd, GIR 1st, SCR 39th, PA 2nd)
2. Tommy Fleetwood (DD 48th, DA 16th, GIR 17th, SCR 1st, PA 18th)
3. Tony Finau (DD 10th, DA 55th, GIR 3rd, SCR 7th, PA 50th)
4. Brooks Koepka (DD 14th, DA 16th, GIR 34th, SCR 8th, PA 19th)
4. Lee Westwood (DD 17th, DA 4th, GIR 3rd, SCR 59th, PA 23rd)

Giving it a good hit off the tee certainly paid off, although finding fairways also was helpful. But the two strongest stats were GIR and scrambling. Beyond the top five, two of those in tied sixth, Tyrrell Hatton and Rickie Fowler, were fifth and eighth for greens hit so finding the putting surfaces in the right number is again likely to be key. Lowry ranked first, hitting just under 80%.

In 2010, the Harry Colt design underwent a revamp with five new greens, eight new tee boxes and 10 new bunkers all created.

Par was 71 for the 2019 Open and the course measured 7,317 yards.

Before the changes, McIlroy was part of Royal Portrush folklore having once shot 61 there as a 16-year-old.

What we can't possibly know this far out, of course, is the weather.

Back in 2019, Sunday's tee-times were moved forward due to the adverse forecast.

It played tough, Lowry shooting a 1-over 72, runner-up Fleetwood a 74 and J.B. Holmes going from third to 67th after a catastrophic closing 16-over 87!

Back Jon Rahm @ 16/117.00

Lowry, the 2019 Royal Portrush hero, had memorably won the Irish Open as an amateur on his own patch at County Louth in 2009.

So I'm going to start off by picking another former Irish Open champion, in fact a double winner of that event.

Jon Rahm romped to victory in the 2017 Irish Open at Royal Portstewart and added a two-shot success at Lahinch two years later.

I've also tipped the Spaniard for US Masters glory so am confident of a big year from the two-time Major winner.

The argument against Rahm at Augusta in April could be that he will have been playing 54-hole LIV Golf in the build-up so his competitive juices might not be flowing at full tilt.

I'm not really buying that but, if you do, it's logical to argue that he'll be at 100% by July having already contested 2025 Majors in April, May and June.

If he's won one of them or gone close, his current odds of 16/117.00 won't be there any longer so let's get on now.

Rahm was poor in the first three Majors last year but hit back in the Open at Troon to finish seventh.

He was 11th here at Royal Portrush in 2019 and has since added third at Royal St George's in 2021 and tied second at Hoylake in 2023.

In short, Rahm's Open record is flashing away at us. He looks to have a great chance of winning a Claret Jug soon.

Back Rasmus Hojgaard @ 125/1126.00

If using the Irish Open as a formline - and it makes sense - then why not back the current champion at a massive price.

It's incorrect to say that Rasmus Hojgaard was a shock winner at last September's edition but his price of 125/1126.00 for glory at Royal Portrush in 2025 almost suggests it hasn't been fully taken into account.

But it should. Hojgaard scored the victory over another legendary links at Royal County Down, winning with a score of just nine-under to show he had the minerals to battle tough conditions and his strong finish edged out a certain McIlroy.

That's five DP World Tour wins now for the 23-year-old Dane and he's the youngest to hit that number since Jose Maria Olazabal in 1989.

His huge price of 125s is obviously due to this being a Major and so far at this level he's done nothing: three missed cuts in six starts and a best of 60th.

But he did make the cut in both his Major starts in 2024 and it's only a matter of time before Rasmus gets on a leaderboard. Twin brother Nicolai has and, in fact, briefly led last year's Masters in round three. He's 110/1111.00 for this.

Nicolai surely felt the benefit of playing the PGA Tour regularly after winning his card for 2024 and that's something Rasmus will experience for the first time in 2025 after just missing out the season before.

He achieved his American dream by finishing runner-up to McIlroy in the 2024 Race to Dubai so the pedigree is absolutely there.

The 125s looks a fun each-way price to put in the bank now and hopefully he'll show up well in some big events and it will have fallen by July.

For reference purporses, here's the current market as 2024 comes to a close: 7/24.50 Scottie Scheffler, 8/19.00 Rory McIlroy, 9/110.00 Xander Schauffele, 16/117.00 Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, 20/121.00 Bryson DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood, 25/126.00 Brooks Koepka, Viktor Hovland, 28/129.00 Cam Smith, Shane Lowry, Tyrrell Hatton, 33/134.00 Justin Thomas, Robert MacIntyre, 40/141.00 Patrick Cantlay, Tom Kim, Tony Finau, 45/146.00 Hideki Matsuyama, 50/151.00 Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Sahith Theegala. Each-way terms: 1/5 Odds, 6 Places.

Read Dave Tindall's ante-post preview of the 2025 Masters