Open Golf Betting 2009
The 2009 British Open Golf Championship is set to attract legions of online betting fans as much as the myriad of golf aficionadosn their veritable droves from all four corners of planet golf to one of the meccas of the British game, the Ailsa course at Turnberry in Scotland.
Naturally the tee-ing off of a sporting – and therein, betting - event of this magnitude represents a great opportunity for free bets fans to cash in on all the excitement and expectation centring around the world's best golfers going head-to-head over the famous South Ayrshire links from July 16th.By being able to bet on just about every feasible outcome of the four day tournament – the biggest on the annual golfing calendar bar one – Free Bets fans will be spoilt for choice when it comes down to placing money on the man they believe has the most likely chance of knocking Tiger Woods off his perch.
Tiger Woods Favourite for 2009 British Open Golf Championship
What's more, all the leading bookmakers are busy compiling a plethora of odds that cover inexhaustible aspects of the 138th #Open Golf Championship#, catering for just about every possible eventuality on every day of play. For example, which competitors posts the best score in the individual groupings they're in for the first two rounds of the tournament, first golfer to record a a double bogey, bogey, birdie, eagle or albatross, nationality of the winning golfer, which player will score the lowest single day/four day score, who'll make the half-way stage cut and even the colours the eventual victor will be sporting come the Sunday evening. Seriously. You name it, and free bet participants can bet on it.
In terms of outright winner odds, and not surprisingly a certain Tiger Woods seems universally favoured by the online bookmakers to add the 2009 British Open Golf Championship to his already impressive tally of professional wins, and is quoted on average as 5 – 2 favourite at this juncture. Defending champion Padraig Harrington has been installed as second favourite to reclaim the trophy, and can be backed at a price of 12 – 1. The Spaniard with the fighting spirit of Seve Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia is also available for the free bet fan at 12 – 1 across the online betting markets.
2009 British Open Golf Championship Fans Should check out the Outsiders
Elsewhere, and its the tale of emerging talent and the belief that two such golfing exponents could muscle their way into the Open Golf Championship reckoning over the later stages of the four day event. Promising young Irishman Rory McIlroy will gain much support at 20 – 1, whilst American Anthony Kim is worth an outside flutter at 25 – 1 according to many amongst both the golf and bookmaking communities. Otherwise Ernie Els historically ups his game going into the Open (25 – 1), Henrik Stenson is one to watch (25 – 1) and neither Phil Mickelson or Paul Casey should be overlooked by free betting connoisseurs with prices at 25 – 1 either.
Again, looking to youth that could easily cause an upset on their day – especially if it coincides with the 2009 Open Golf Championship – and England's Justin Rose and Argentina's Camilo Villegas are enticingly priced at 40 – 1. And of course, for those looking for another slice of nostalgia to compare with last year, you could once again put your faith in Greg Norman at 125 – 1. Stranger things have happened.
Revamped Royal Turnberry Provides Setting For 138th playing Of The Open Golf Championship
Turnberry, situated on the West coast of Scotland, plays host to the 2009 British Open Golf Championship, that tees off on July 16th this year. The famous old course today stands as much of a stern test to the world’s best golfers as it has done on the three previous occasions the Open has visited South Ayrshire. Party to some epic encounters – and both helping (yet not before hindering) some of the biggest names in the game on their way to lifting the claret jug – Turnberry provides a scintillating backdrop for the ritualistic pursuit of golf's holy grail. Essentially there’s always an extra frisson surrounding the Open Golf Championship when its cycle allows it to return to its collection of Scottish courses, and not just when it arrives in St. Andrews, literally the home of golf.
For all the labour intensive and surreally perfected beauty of some of the world’s most high profile golf courses, notably Augusta and the many American inland venues for the blue chip tournaments on the golfing calendar, along with the emerging courses constructed from more challenging and otherwise unnatural landscapes like those in the Middle East, to the puritans of the game, nothing can compare to the traditional links courses epitomised in Scotland and England’s North West coastline. Unfettled by man, if not by the ravages of time and tide, Turnberry like so many of its Scottish contemporaries serves as the ultimate golfing test, providing the fires that stoke the inner battle every golfer has to face up to if destiny is to call.
With commanding views over the Firth of Clyde, the Irish Sea is visible from every hole on the Ailsa course, a claim of which not all the classic links can match. Indeed, many of the holes flirt with the coast so much so that the water isn't necessarily classed as out of bounds should the errant drive be destined to pitch up in an uncompromising watery spot. Talked about as a 'marriage of golf and nature' the Ailsa course was designed by Mackenzie Ross in 1951 and in the experienced words of Colin Montgomery is simply “the finest links in the world”. Quite an endorsement from the great Scot who knows his way around links more than just about anyone else.
Challenging Ailsa Course Will Test The Best at British Open
Steeply undulating fairways give way to uncompromising rough, which in turn give way to the slickest of greens as those at the top of their game are often made to look distinctly amateur, especially if a prevalent wind rustles up and makes already hardy conditions even more fractious. Notorious for prompting low scoring rounds – and tournaments in general – the Open Golf Championship can make a mockery out of any player on its day, with links courses often responsible for destroying reputations as well as frayed tempers and equipment to boot.
However, the Ailsa course has taken on a new appearance since battles were last fought out here in 1994, and is so often the case with age, a few extra inches have been added to certain parts. Not least the 60 yards that mark out the already par 5 17th hole as a lengthy obstacle to get the better of. Those returning to the 16th hole for the first time in 15 years will also be faced with an extra 45 yards and a dog-leg to the right, having been previously fairly Roman road in construction. When all's said and done, an additional 250 yards has been added to the Turnberry course, to make it approximately 7,204 yards in total ahead of this year's Open.
With every hole being labelled with its very own distinctly Scottish name – from Ailsa Craig, Woe-Be-Tide, Tappie Toorie and Dinna Fouter to Tickly Tap, Risk-An-Hope, Ca' Canny and Wee Burn - there's no doubting either the proud heritage or true pedigree of the Ailsa course, unequivocally the perfect scene for the 2009 Open Golf Championship.
Turnberry Prepares To Write Another Chapter In Open Golf History In 2009
Greg Norman, who rolled back the advancing years during the #2008 Open Golf Championship# at Royal Birkdale, drove, chipped and putted his way to victory back in 1986 (courtesy of a stunning second round score of 63), whilst some nine years before that Tom Watson claimed the first Open to be hosted by Turnberry's Ailsa course by famously beating golfing legend Jack Nicklaus by the one shot in what was dubbed 'The Duel in the Sun'. Complete with what can only be described as 100% golfing trousers. 1994 was the last time none members of the Turnberry Golf Club got to witness one of the most challenging of the British links courses up close and personal, as Zimbabwean Nick Price calmly and efficiently went about the business of lifting the claret jug despite the close interests of fellow Open specialist, Sweden's flamboyantly-dressed Jasper Parnevik.
Whilst some of the golfing styles sported around the Turnberry links may have changed – for better or for worse – down the years, the quality of golf on offer hasn’t. and of course, those at the vanguard of today’s elite will inevitably fashion a golfing spectacle to please everyone’s tastes.
World's Best Golfers Will Descend On Scotland For 2009 Open In July
A staggering two-thirds of the 2009 Open Golf Championship field (156 players) will comprise of professional golfers who are for varying reasons exempt from the qualification procedure required to be invited to participate in golf's greatest tournament. For instance past Open winners receive a bye for previous endeavours. Which is great news for some of the almost forgotten men of the game whose games might have slipped if the spirits haven't. The revered likes of Nick Faldo, Tom Lehman, Sandy Lyle, Justin Leonard and John Daly.
Those players who have won the Open during the past 10 years, the first 50 names that head the official golf world rankings come week 21 in 2009, the first 10 players (and anyone sharing 10th place) in the 2008 Open Golf Championship (which would be fantastic news for Greg Norman after last year's golfing resurrection, were it not for the fact that he'd previously won the title and therefore was guaranteed another shot at it).
Elsewhere, those golfers who ranked in the Top 30 of the PGA European Tour final order of merit in 2008, anyone who has lifted either the US Open Golf, #US Masters# and/or US PGA Championships in the past 5 years, playing members of the #2008 Ryder Cup # team, last year's Senior British Open champion and the amateur champion of the 2008 Open Golf Championship.
for those still not in the melting pot, there's the 11th hour opportunity to gain admission to the course in a competing capacity by qualifying via the local courses. 12 spots are up for grabs for those finishing in the top four in competitions arranged to take place at Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Western Gailes golf clubs in the weeks leading up to the start of the 2009 Open.
Free Bets Fans Look Beyond Woods, Harrington And Mickelson For Open Golf Glory
Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson wont have it all their own way come July, and as if often the case the first and second round leader boards display unfamiliar names in the upper reaches, sometime even a regional qualifier or journeyman with local knowledge showing the household names the way to go. During the 1990s flamboyant Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik had a habit of upsetting the odds with a game that perfectly suited the demands that links golf threw up, another great exponent of links golf being former Turnberry winner Nick Price, who certainly knew his way round these type of courses. and more recently South African big hitter Ernie Els has been there of thereabouts for the four days.
Finally, one thing is for sure. You cant argue that there’s many more iconic sights in sport than when the BBC cameras home in on the man it is whose job is to engrave the winners name on the most revered prize in #golf# as he sits in his cabin as the few remaining combatants amble up the 18th fairway, late on a Sunday evening in a summer that’s casting lengthy shadows. Usually accompanied by the calmly resonating vocal tones of Peter Alliss, the trusted and admired voice of golf to a generation.
