Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy are the headliners of the British Open this week on the European Tour. It should be quite the spectacle too at the Colt Course which was only opened back in 2011. The woodsy, Northumberland course provides a setting for long-distance accuracy so those heavy hitters of the game are going to have to hone in their radars. While the two headliners of McIlroy and Garcia are gaining a lot of focus ahead of the action in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there is plenty of value to look beyond the two of them.
You have McIlroy who is likely going to end the year without a win, which would be the first time since 2008 that he has done that and Garcia who hasn’t produced a victory since winning the Masters earlier this year. Injury has disrupted both of their seasons really and McIlroy is heading towards an extended break to recover for next season, so as the market leader here, is well worth a pass in this one. Garcia has plenty of consistency behind him, but again in single figures like McIlroy is for the tournament at Close House, the Spaniard is worth a pass.
If you are set on backing one of them, it is more likely that Garcia will turn and roll out a win. He has the consistency behind him at least, if not the victories and he has missed the cut in just two of his tournaments over the last 19 months of golf. At the Tour Championship last weekend he went nine under par across the final three rounds and that’s consistency that McIlroy cannot match at the moment. But the Spaniard has produced only one top-five finish since the Masters victory in April.
Best Each Way Options
Matthew Fitzpatrick looks stacks of value in this one. He is a previous winner of the British Masters and he won his last tournament as well. He is going as only the fourth favourite in the British Masters outright, but at 22/1 with bet365 compared to the short 8/1 on Garcia, then Fitzpatrick checks a lot of boxes for the action in the northeast.
Eddie Pepperell will be carrying some form into the British Masters as well. He has a trio of top-five finishes in his last three tournaments so he could be peaking at the right time to launch an assault on a title in this one. You are looking at a 35/1 punt on him he represents fantastic each way value for the tournament based on form alone. An even bigger option is George Coetzee, who is outside of the top 60 but based on the current form has landed back to back top ten finishes. All three of them represent much better value than backing McIlroy and Garcia to win the tournament outright.