Open Championship 2013 – Four past top 10 finishers to watch out for

Links golf is all about keeping a cool head and managing your round so it’s little surprise that 10 of the last 13 winners of the Open Championship had previously posted a top 10 finish in the event.  Last year’s surprise winner Ernie Els was no exception, having won at Muirfield in 2002 and the Big Easy – a 40/1 shot for this year’s tournament – is among news.coral.co.uk’s four past top-tenners to watch this time around.

Tiger Woods – 5/1

No conversation about the Open would be complete without three-time winner Woods, who is back to something like his best this term, with three tournament wins from five events before a T4 in the Masters that would’ve been a T3 but for a two shot penalty incurred for an illegal ball drop (and could’ve been far greater but for the psychological toll that mishap may have had).

Adam Scott – 33/1

The Australian highlighted the rise of the antipodean golfer as one of three Aussies in the top five when winning the Masters and after leading two of the three rounds at Royal Lytham St Annes in 2012 only to drop five on a disastrous final day he has unfinished business at the Open. With that hard won links course knowledge and a new-found major-winning confidence Scott has every chance of going one better this year.

Brandt Snedeker – 33/1

Snedeker surprised many with his excellent T6 performance in the Masters at Augusta, coming as it did on the back of two missed cuts following his return from a rib injury. Prior to that he was enjoying a breakout season with four top three finishes in five starts. With a T3 finish in last year’s tournament in the memory bank – during practice for which he holed a driver from the tee on the par four sixteenth – he should be pushing for a place this time around.

Ernie Els – 40/1

The lumbering South African may be having a quiet season this term, but that’d be no different to last season when he won this tournament at Royal Lytham St Annes. “The Big Easy” has muscled his way into the top 10 in nine renewals since the year 2000. Els also has the heartening knowledge of what it’s like to win an Open Championship at Muifield, taking his first claret jug here in 2002.