Bookmaker Does Well as Unknown Wins British Open. Whenever an unknown player wins a major even it is almost always good news to the bookmaker. Louis Oosthuizen won the British Open in dominating fashion and he was listed as part of the field at the online bookmaker. Most gamblers won’t make a field bet so when the unknown wins, the bookmaker does well.
Bookmaker odds inexplicably favored Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the British Open although neither had much of a chance to win. Woods has not played well at all this year while Mickelson never plays well overseas. The British Open was wide open and Oosthuizen took advantage. His win was not a fluke either as he dominated the field, winning by seven shots. The best players in the world were in the field and he beat them all, and easily. He shot 65 in the first round, 67 in the second round and 69 in the third and then held it together in the final round to win going away.
Unknown players can win tournaments but rarely do they dominate as Oosthuizen did in the British Open. The last player to win a major by such a large margin other than Tiger Woods was Jack Nicklaus back in 1980. Oosthuizen came into the British Open ranked 54th in the world so he was not completely without a reputation. He has always been a player who has excelled playing in the wind and St. Andrews is windy almost all the time.
In recent years when there was a dominant performance in golf it usually came from Tiger Woods. That has not been the case this year and there are no indications that a great performance from Tiger is coming anytime soon. He was never in contention in the British Open and he has never been in serious contention in any tournament this year. He tied for 23rd at the British Open and has not won a major since 2008. Will the online bookmaker finally realize that Tiger shouldn’t be favored anymore?
There have been other players whose first win in a major was at the British Open including Stewart Cink who won last year. Other players who got their first major at the Open include Padraig Harrington who won in 2007, Todd Hamilton in 2004, Ben Curtis in 2003 and David Duval in 2001.