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2025 Open Championship prediction & best bets: Home heroes to delight Portrush punters
Follow our golf betting tips as the Open Championship takes place at Royal Portrush
Open Championship Betting Tips
- Rory McIlroy to win - 7/1 BetMGM
- Shane Lowry to finish in the top five - 6/1 William Hill
Royal Portrush is the venue for the 153rd Open Championship, which gets underway on Thursday, and it’s a course that the Irish duo of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry know very well.
Northern Irishman McIlroy played the course as a kid, having grown up just 60 miles away in Hollywood, while Lowry won the Open the last time it was held at the course in 2019.
McIlroy arrives ‘home’ with all four majors now secured after finally winning the Masters with a play-off win over Justin Rose at Augusta in April, and he would love to add a home victory to his list.
Betting sites have both Lowry and McIlroy priced up like viable contenders for the Claret Jug, but can either make home advantage count?
Open Championship betting preview: Can Rory enjoy home glory?
The current world No 2 failed to make the cut in 2019, failing to recover from a difficult start with a quadruple-bogey eight on the opening hole after hitting his tee shot out of bounds.
He goes into the tournament after finishing second at last week's Scottish Open and golf betting sites make him the second favourite to win his second major of the year, behind world No 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler has won three of his past nine tournaments, including his third major at the US PGA Championship in May, and he has finished in the top 10 in the other six.
His best Open finish came last year when he finished in a share of seventh at Royal Troon, and the 29-year-old has never recorded a top-five finish in this tournament so could be worth opposing.
We all love a fairy tale, and we expect McIlroy to deal with the emotion and crazy support he’ll receive better this time around, so we’re backing him for glory on his home course.
Open Championship prediction 1: McIlroy to win - 7/1 BetMGM
Lowry to be in the mix again
If previous form counts for anything, then backing Lowry to finish in the top five is worthy of consideration.
Back in 2019, he finished 15 under par, six shots clear of Tommy Fleetwood, and he finished sixth at last year's Open Championship, which was his second top-six result at a major in 2024.
He’s 30/1 on betting apps to become a two-time Open champion and 11/2 to finish as the highest placed former winner, just behind McIlroy and last year’s winner Xander Schauffele.
The 38-year-old is currently 18th in the world rankings and finished 42nd at The Masters, but missed the cut at both the US Open and the PGA Championship.
But we all know how everything fell into place on this course six years ago, and if he can channel that feeling again, then he could be a dangerous player.
Open Championship prediction 2: Lowry to finish in the top five - 6/1 William Hill
Open Championship Free Bets
The Open Championship is one of the highlight of the British sporting calendar and various betting sites are marking the occasion by offering free bets.
One of our favourite free bet offers is the bet £10, get £10 promotion from LiveScore Bet.
Bettors with a LiveScore Bet account just need to wager £10 or more on the Open Championship on a selection with minimum odds of evens to qualify for the free bets.
LiveScore Bet will credit users with a £5 free sportsbook bet and a £5 free Open bet within 24 hours of placing their qualifying wager.
Punters who haven’t got a Livescore Bet account can join and claim £30 in free bets, £20 of which can be used to bet on the Open.
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