The Open Championship: Recent history points beyond top of market

The average prices of the last 10 winners of the Open Championship suggest it could pay to look beyond the top of the market for this year's champion.

Last year's winner, Collin Morikawa averaged 42.041/1 on the Betfair Exchange before he held aloft the Claret Jug on Sunday afternoon at Royal St George's.

The 25-year-old is 32.031/1 in the pre-tournament betting - a price at which Steve Rawlings has backed him - as Morikawa bids to become the first player to retain the title since Padraig Harrington in 2008.

The data on the last decade's winners says that's the kind of price bettors should be considering. Francesco Molinari in 2018 was backed at 38.037/1 while Henrik Stenson averaged 34.033/1 in 2016.

The only player to average under 20/1 en route to victory was Jordan Spieth (pictured above) - who gets Dave Tindall's vote this time - in 2017. Texan was 17.016/1 for his wire-to-wire win.

Rory McIlroy, who is the current favourite to win this year's 150th edition at 11.521/2, averaged 19.018/1 when he won in 2014.

Two players were triple figure prices - Zach Johnson, who averaged 142.0141/1 in 2015 and Shane Lowry 100.0099/1 four years later.

Johnson's win is interesting because it was the last time The Open was held at St Andrews - the venue for this week's edition.

If we were looking to back a player at similar odds we'd be putting our moneny on Marc Leishman or Seamus Power who are both 140.00139/1.