Open Championship 2026 Royal Birkdale

I remember well the Summer of 1998 I was dating a young lady by the name of Julia and I had a tenner e/w on Mark O’Meara to win the Open @ 50/1 – she wasn’t best pleased that I wanted to watch the golf but on the Saturday we went out for the day – radio commentary on of course and the Sunday we didn’t see each other. Back then I was “gainfully” employed and the winnings could pay for a week or two for two on the Med – I was excited.

A very early digression – why had I backed O’Meara? – well he had won the Lawrence Batley Invitational (old timers will nod) @ Birkdale and he shared an Open tradition of winners at this particular course of A being American and B being rather fond of Pebble Beach, indeed O’Meara won that event 5xOther winners @ Birkdale include Johnny Miller who won Pebble 3x, Tom Watson 2x and Jordan Spieth who won @ Pebble the year he won @ Birkdale.

It makes perfect sense to back Wyndham Clark @ 33/1 ew as he won @ Pebble in 2024 and is in such a rich vein of form, he even produced his best ever Open performance last year when finishing tied 4^th.

Colin Morikawa seeks to emulate Spieth in winning both events in the same year and of course he is already an Open champion interestingly beating Spieth @ Royal St Georges. Again he appeals @ 33/1 ew having found some form last week.

The other one to note is 2021 Pebble winner Daniel Berger who was 27^th @ Birkdale in 2017 derailed by a 2^nd round 76 and was t8th @ Royal St Georges in 2021. I’ve had a play @ 400/1 on Betfair and a nibble 150 ew 6 places but maybe best to wait for the extra places?

Some of you may wonder what happened to Julia, well a few weeks later I caught her shagging someone else and she didn’t see a penny of my winnings!