2009 British Open Odds Are a Touch Outrageous, Favor Tiger Woods

You'll never believe this, I'm sure, but the favorite to win the 2009 British Open at Turnberry (starts Thursday, OMG, so excited!!!) is Tiger Woods. Go figure, right?

But it's not just that Tiger is favored so much as it is that he's getting the "05 Tiger at the Masters Treatment" really. Because, as you can see from our good friends at BoDog, he's the only guy even remotely near single digit numbers when talking about the odds to win; you can tell from the top five favorites:

Tiger Woods: 2/1
Sergio Garcia: 20/1
Padraig Harrington: 22/1
Rory McIlroy: 22/1
Paul Casey: 25/1

As you can see, it's Tiger ... and then everyone else. Interestingly, Sergio Garcia, a.k.a. "The Theoretical Best Player Never to Win a Major" is the next favorite, although I like to think much of that has to do with his name value and not his ability to choke face withstand pressure at a major.

Padraig Harrington, who has had some success overseas, and Rory McIlroy both seem like decent bets here, although given Paddy's recent play and Rory's youth, there's bound to be some trepidation on the part of bettors to roll with them. (Personally, I love McIlroy, especially considering his first-round pairing with fellow youngster Anthony Kim.)

There are also plenty of other names that stand out further down the odds-line that, were I gambling man (I'm not anymore, thanks for asking), I'd be interested in placing some money on. For instance, John Daly at 250:1.

No. Seriously. He's not going to win, I don't think, but he is at 250:1 and it would be a pretty mindblowing story (he's also been in Europe for a while now, as opposed to, say, Hooters, which should at least play well for his game at Turnberry.) Also, I'm a sucker for Big John, always and forever. And besides, Colin Montgomerie is at 175:1 -- you're telling me you'd rather have him than Daly? (Also of note: Daly fired 68-72-72-80 in 1994.)

David Duval checks in at 100:1; I know that it's a longshot to see him competing strongly in back-to-back majors, but ... is it? I like him there. I do.

Luke Donald doesn't seem that horrible at 80:1 either, and Adam Scott (40:1), Geoff Ogilvy (40:1), Lee Westwood (28:1) and Anthony Kim (33:1) all seem like pretty good value as well.

The truth, though, is the same thing as it was for the Masters and U.S. Open this year: if Tiger doesn't win -- and there is a decent chance he won't -- then it's going to be someone quasi-random.

One other interesting point of note: you can take a bet that gives you the "Big Four" (awkward in this case, yes) of Tiger, McIlroy, Sergio and Westwood and get them at +175 against the field: that's nearly 2:1 and you're picking up three extra golfers (well, 2.5 if you want to be accurate about Garcia) in addition to Tiger. Personally, I wouldn't touch it -- see paragraph immediately above -- but it's kind of spicy. Or kind of sad, when you consider who's topping the field at this year's British.