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Open Championship Tips: Tommy two-Tone the Top 20 double pick

Matt Cooper
12 July 2022
4:00 min read

Tommy Fleetwood loves the home of golf.

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It's the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews this week and Matt Cooper has three combinations of selections in the Top Finish markets...

"The Englishman has vast experience of the Old Course from his 10 trips to the Dunhill Links – in fact, he’s landed eight top 20s there and averages 68." Back Tony Finau & Tommy Fleetwood for a top 20 double @ 7.2

It's Open week and that means plenty of frazzled discussion about the state of the golf course, the winning score, and whether or not the world's best will rip the layout to pieces.

This being the home of golf those latter fears are further exaggerated because with every visit to St Andrews the players are fitter, the equipment better, and the ball flies further.

The collective golf world therefore fears the worst for the Old Course, like the family of a youngster selected for the wrong race on sports day: is it all going to come horribly unstuck for our loved one, lapped and forlorn at the end of competition?

Rory McIlroy, as he always tends to be, was a voice of calm reason when he spoke to the media. He is also a frequently fine judge of a golf course so his thoughts deserve close consideration.

"Everyone's seen how firm and fast the fairways are," he started. "The green have a very firm first bounce, but they're receptive if you hit a well-enough-struck iron shot."

He added an excellent distinction between the Dunhill Links in autumn and an Open in summer: "At the Dunhill it's hit driver everywhere, get it as close to the greens as you can. The pin positions this week are very different. So, laying back, giving yourself full shots into some of these greens, playing the angles a little bit more, I think that's going to be really important this week.

"You can bomb it around here and get it close to the greens, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to make birdies from those positions."

Winning score? "Into the teens, but I can't see something in the 20-under-par range. With the way it's playing and how firm and fast it is, it's just going to get super tricky by the end of the week."

It seems that links savvy will matter this week so rather than focus on big-hitters who might make the Old Course tremble the combinations will focus on golfers who understand this form of the game.

Here are six golfers and a trio of ways to play them.

Tony Finau - top 20 @ 2.757/4

At first glance you might think I've turned on my conclusions and picked a big-hitter. Well, clearly Big Tony Finau does fit that description but he's also an accomplished performer on the linksland.

In fact, he's played five Open Championships and landed four top 20s, demonstrating that there is more to is game than anything one dimensional from the tee.

He's also ended the last three Opens ranked top three for Greens in Regulation. The reason he hasn't won is probably weak chipping, but we're only after a top 20 and we can be further emboldened by his two visits to the Dunhill Links - on both occasions he ended the week T10th.

Tommy Fleetwood - top 20 @ 2.63

The Englishman has vast experience of the Old Course from his 10 trips to the Dunhill Links - in fact, he's landed eight top 20s there and averages 68.

McIlroy has pointed out how that experience might be something of a red herring, but Fleetwood is smart enough to understand how to tweak his approach.

He finished second in the Open at Royal Portrush in 2019 and was tied fifth in May's PGA Championship, a first re-entry to major championship contention after that bruising experience in Northern Ireland.

I've also discovered that his coach believes him to be swinging the clubs brilliantly tee to green, while being sporadic on and around the greens. Back at a favourite haunt the approach work can get him involved at the weekend, which is all we need.

Back Tony Finau & Tommy Fleetwood for a top 20 double

7.2

Marc Leishman - top 30 @ 3.25

The Aussie is never happier playing golf than when the turf is fast and fiery, and there is a breeze ruffling the grass in the dunes.

He's referenced such conditions reminding him of home when he has played all over the world, but also on the linksland.

This week looks another neat fit and he has strong course vibes having been part of the play-off in 2015.

Those memories might spook him from launching a victory bid, but the conditions could easily fuel a fine performance.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout - top 30 @ 3.75

This week performance on and around the green could be key, either in maximising birdie opportunities (when the shorter or downwind holes can be attacked) or saving par.

And there are few golfers as adept as South African Bezuidenhout in that part of the game.

He warmed up nicely last week with T16th in the Scottish Open one of four top 30s in his last half a dozen starts.

He was also second at TPC Deere Run at the start of the month and three recent Open champions preceded their triumph with a top three there.

That might be a stretch, but a top 30 is within his grasp.

Back Marc Leishman & Christiaan Bezuidenhout for a top 30 double

12.0

Stewart Cink - top 40 @ 3.75

The 2009 Open champion warmed up for this week with T24th in the Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.

His wider career struggled in the aftermath of him denying Tom Watson at Turnberry, almost as if he knew the world wished that week had finished otherwise.

But in the Open he has chugged along, landing five top 40s in his last 10 starts and he was T20th on the Old Course in 2015.

Aldrich Potgieter - top 40 @ 8.0

I was at the Amateur Championship earlier this summer and was witness to the young South African's superb victory.

He'd struggled early in his nation's elite squad visit to the linksland of Britain, but had enjoyed an epiphany shortly before the biggest event of them all and it bore fruit in spectacular style.

When I first saw him in the semi-final I spent a few holes believing him to be his Irish opponent, such was his ease at hitting 2-iron stingers from the tee, sawn-off approaches and straight-iron short shots.

This week he has played practice rounds with Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen and Henrik Stenson and what sticks in my mind is that the SA Team management said he is a high quality learner - where others struggled to adapt and apply lessons, he thrived.

Back Stewart Cink & Aldrich Potgieter for a top 40 double

30.0

* Having difficulty working out the place returns? Fret no more - you can easily work out your returns with our new each way calculator.

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Watch Golf... Only Bettor, ahead of this week's 150th Open Championship below, presented by Sky Sports golf presenter Sarah Stirk with guests Dave Tindall from betting.betfair and Sporting Life's Ben Coley, with another Betfair tipster, Matt Cooper, joining them live from St Andrews.