We will have plenty of coverage on the Open Championship, with The Post’s Mark Cannizzaro giving his picks and Action Network’s Michael Leboff following that up with his betting preview.
For now, we couldn’t help but throw some change on three golfers at enticing long shot odds.
The course is going to be tricky.
Royal Liverpool is a narrow Links-style course with heavily guarded greens.
So, you need precision off the tee and an elite approach game.
Here are three golfers with long odds who fit that mold.
Open Championship long shots
Tony Finau (60-1, PointsBet)
Yeah, 60-to-1 isn’t exactly a heavy “long shot,” but I have to include Finau at this number.
Finau hasn’t been playing all that well. He’s finished outside the top 20 in six consecutive tournaments since winning the Mexico Open.
But, eventually, a golfer becomes undervalued.
On tour this season, Finau is 11th in Strokes Gained: Total, sixth in Strokes Gained: Approach and fifth in birdie average.
He’s an elite golfer and ball striker who shouldn’t be sitting with the 20th-shortest odds.
And Finau loves this event.
In six starts at The Open, he’s never finished worse than T-28th while recording four top 20s, two top-nines and one third-place finish.
This is also a Links-style golf course, and Finau loves playing Links golf.
Corey Conners (80-1, Caesars)
Here’s another guy who loves Links-style golf.
He finished T-28th at St. Andrews in the 2021 version of this event and T-15th at Royal St. George’s in 2022.
He also posted a T-19th at last week’s Scottish Open, even posting a four-under final round in uber-windy conditions.
The Canadian is also an accurate driver – he’s posted 10 straight events gaining strokes off-the-tee, primarily from accuracy – and ranks top-10 on tour this season in Strokes Gained: Approach and Greens in Regulation rate.
Conners drives the ball accurately and is one of the best ball-strikers in the world, and he does it all through windy Links-style conditions.
Conners has already won on tour this year (Valero Texas Open) and has finished top 20 in seven of his past 10 events.
He missed the cut at the Masters and U.S. Open but was also in second place after 54 holes at the PGA Championship – he’s a big-time player that can win this event.
Sepp Straka (200-1, FanDuel)
Do you know who else played well at the PGA Championship?
Sepp Straka, who finished T-7th.
Do you know who’s won on tour recently?
Sepp Straka, who won the John Deere Classic two weeks ago (after a heroic and chaotic final-round 59).
Do you know who’s also an elite approach player?
Sepp Straka, who ranks 16th in Strokes Gained: Approach on tour this season.
Straka is worth a buy at this outrageously high number.
Outside of an elite approach game, good form and long odds, I’m very interested in Straka’s off-the-tee game.
On tour this year, Straka is 85th in Strokes Gained: Off The Tee and 100th in Driving Distance, but he’s 20th in Driving Accuracy (65.4%).
This tells me that Straka will keep it short and sweet off the tee while beating the field with his iron game – in other words, exactly what you need to do to win this event.
Straka is my favorite “true long shot” bet for The Open Championship.
