The Open Championship 2024: Course details and current form stats

• Precision iron play required at Ayrshire course

• Rory 13/27.50 fifth at Royal Troon in 2016

• Stats favour Xander 10/111.00

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Tournament and Course Notes

• For the 10th time in club history, Royal Troon will be hosting golf's oldest major championship. Opened as a nine-hole venue in 1878, the course was extended to 18 holes 10 years later and staged its first Open 101 years ago. Laid out close to the Ayrshire coastline, and originally known simply as Troon, the Royal patronage was added in 1978 when the club celebrated its centenary.

• Since Royal Troon last hosted The Open in 2016, a number of changes have been made to the course. These include lengthening the par-five, sixth hole, to more than 620 yards. Nine new tees have been built, while the overall length of the course has increased by almost 200 yards.

• Deep fairway bunkers, many of which are not visible from the tee, puts a great emphasis on accuracy with the driver - and it certainly doesn't get any easier therein. The putting surfaces are some of the smallest on The Open rota, while coastal winds will make the task of hitting greens in regulation even harder.

• Length off the tee is unlikely to be the decisive factor this week, with many pros expected to hit irons on a number of par fours.

• And, because it will almost be impossible to enjoy pin-point precision from start to finish over four days, the players who eventually contend on Sunday afternoon will need to be extremely adept at scrambling pars from a variety of tricky lies.

• When Henrik Stenson won with a record-low 72-hole total of 264 in 2016, his stats were certainly impressive: Fairways Hit (5th - 73.2%), Greens in Regulation (1st - 77.8%), Fewest Putts (GiR) (2nd), Scrambling (7th). And 12 years earlier, when The Open was previously held at Royal Troon, winner Todd Hamilton was 11th in the Scrambling category.

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Scrambling on PGA Tour (selected names in top-20 @ 15/7/24)

1: Xander Schauffele
2: Hideki Matsuyama
3: Alex Noren
4: Scottie Scheffler
9: Tommy Fleetwood
10: Aaron Rai
11: Ben Griffin
12: Rory McIlroy
13: Si Woo Kim
14: Ludvig Aberg
15: Billy Horschel
17: Mackenzie Hughes
18: Christiaan Bezuidenhout
20: Alexander Bjork

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Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green on PGA Tour (selected names in top-20 @ 15/7/24)

1: Scottie Scheffler
2: Rory McIlroy
3: Xander Schauffele
4: Hideki Matsuyama
6: Tony Finau
7: Corey Conners
8: Collin Morikawa
9: Si Woo Kim
10: Aaron Rai
11: Ludvig Aberg
12: Justin Thomas
13: Davis Thompson
16: Alex Noren
18: Shane Lowry
20: Akshay Bhatia

Betfair Sportsbook

Stroke Averages

Lowest 10 In The Open (2017-23)
Average .... (Rounds)
69.08: Viktor Hovland (12)
69.08: Jordan Spieth (24)
69.32: Rory McIlroy (22)
69.54: Tommy Fleetwood (24)
69.67: Scottie Scheffler (12)
69.91: Jon Rahm (22)
70.00: Xander Schauffele (24)
70.05: Tony Finau (22)
70.06: Brian Harman (18)
70.40: Rickie Fowler (20)
70.40: Max Homa (10)
Min. No. of Rounds = 10
Only those entered this week are included in table

The Open Championship 2024: The Punter's Preview