{"id":542835,"date":"2026-07-15T14:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/542835\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:55:14","slug":"open-championship-five-players-to-watch-at-royal-birkdale-this-week-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/542835\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Championship: Five players to watch at Royal Birkdale this week \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy (8-1)<\/p>\n

McIlroy<\/a> said his T7 finish at last week\u2019s Scottish Open<\/a> looked a lot better than it felt, but these are meagre grounds to overlook his challenge. His Masters victories have made him Zen, his schedule has kept him fresh and his background makes him comfortable on links. Victory this week would affirm his status as Europe\u2019s greatest-ever golfer. <\/p>\n

\"TommyTommy Fleetwood of England during a preview day at Royal Birkdale in Southport. Photograph: Peter Byrne\/PA Wire Tommy Fleetwood (14-1)<\/p>\n

Fleetwood<\/a> is arguably the best player in the game yet to win a Major, but he should contend this week if he can handle the pressure that weighs on the hometown hero. The concrete fairways of a baked-out Birkdale<\/a> will mitigate against his relative lack of length off the tee and should accentuate his ball-striking skills. <\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Gotterup on day three of the Genesis Scottish Open 2026 at The Renaissance Club. Photograph: Warren Little\/Getty Images Chris Gotterup (28-1)<\/p>\n

Since the start of 2025, only Scottie Scheffler<\/a> and McIlroy have more PGA Tour wins than Gotterup, who won last year\u2019s Scottish Open and then finished third at Royal Portrush. His first Major win is merely a matter of time, so maybe the time is already at hand.<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Burns during the US Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. Photograph: Kate McShane\/Getty Images Sam Burns (50-1)<\/p>\n

The stats show Open champions distinguish themselves on the green, and Burns is the best putter on the PGA Tour. He has also been threatening to win a Major for some time. Burns has been in the top seven at three of his last five Major appearances, finishing as runner-up to Wyndham Clark at the US Open.<\/p>\n

\"HaotongHaotong Li of China has performed well at The Open. Photograph: Sean M. Haffey\/Getty Images Haotong Li (225-1)<\/p>\n

If you are looking for a true outsider, Li finished third at Birkdale in 2017 and played well at Portrush last year, competing in Sunday\u2019s final group with Scheffler on his way to a tie for fourth place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy (8-1) McIlroy said his T7 finish at last week\u2019s Scottish Open looked a lot better than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,246957,98013,183848,246958,184085,105,857],"class_list":["post-542835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-open-championship","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-royal-portrush","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports","tag-tommy-fleetwood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}