The Open specials: Best bets from the alternative markets

You can get 6/1 for any English winner in The Open specials.

Winning margin

Louis Oosthuizen strolled around the Old Course to a seven-shot victory in 2010 with Lee Westwood a distant second.

Since then, Shane Lowry’s six-shot win at Portrush aside, we’ve had one, two or three shots separating the top two and a Monday finish with a three-way play-off in 2015.

The forecasts suggest there will be little advantage for starting late or early with fine weather expected for most of the week.

That should mean low scores and plenty of them. A one-shot winning margin is 12/5, two is 7/2 but we like the look of three at 6/1.

The Open hasn’t been decided by a play-off since Zach Johnson outlasted Marc Leishman and Oosthuizen on that Monday seven years ago. It is 7/2 there is one this year.

Top Scottish player

Home fans would love to see one of their own lift the big prize but just three players are flying the flag with Robert MacIntyre, Paul Lawrie and David Law (pictured below) teeing it up.

MacIntyre is 4/7 to beat his compatriots but is not in the form he was in when sharing eighth place last year and has missed the cut in three of his last four events.

Lawrie, the 1999 champion at Carnoustie, is 11/2 but we like the look of Law at 9/4 after he booked his ticket with a strong finish at the Irish Open. Law is a graduate of Lawrie’s foundation and relishing his major debut.

He said: “I’ve never played a major before so to do it at St Andrews for the first time will be unbelievable.”

The Open specials also include McIlroy to be the top Irish player at 5/6 while Joohyung Kim is 6/1 to top the Asian list.

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All odds and markets correct as of date of publication