Sports Blog 20/07/2015: Golf Update – The Open Championship, Monday 20th July 2015

With the final afternoon of the 2015 Open Championship getting underway this Monday, a surprising figure is sitting atop the leader board.

Alongside Australia’s Jason Day and South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen is 22-year old Irish amateur Paul Dunne. All three men have a current score of -12 going into the final afternoon; a decent performance at the US Open means Day is a surprise leader, but only just, whilst Oosthuizen was runner-up at this year’s US Open and won the Open Championship beck in 2010, meaning his top-placing isn’t far off the money. For Dunne, however, this is the first time he has even made the half-way cut at a Major, let alone be sitting among the leaders at the final stage.

Yet compared to his top place colleagues, Dunne still has a fairly low Tournament Winner Leaderboard Index spread of 9-12 compared to Day’s 29-32 and Oosthuizen’s 30-33. The Leaderboard Index sees the winner receive 80 points, the runner-up 40 points, 3rd place 30, 4th place 25, 5th place 20, 6th place 15, 7th place 10, 8th place 5 and, of course, everyone else a big fat zero. Dunne also has a much lower fixed odds price, at 22/1 against Day and Oosthuizen, both at 3/1. Regardless, Dunne’s form is the kind of fairy-tale that brings a sport alive, and there will be more than a few golfing fans urging him on when he tees off at 2.30pm.



However, for all the chatter around the Irish amateur, Jordan Spieth is lingering one stroke behind in 4th. The young American is aiming to become the first player to win 3 majors in a calendar year since Tiger Woods’ managed the feat back in 2000. Going into the tournament as the hot favourite, Spieth faltered in the first round, sitting 2 strokes behind the then-leader Dustin Johnson (who was the top player after Day 2 before his chances of winning his first Major heartbreakingly disappeared with a +6 in the third round), before a similarly disappointing second round left him further off the pace. However, a recovery in the third round put the Masters and US Open winner back on track, and with the Open Championship still in his sights he goes into the final afternoon with both the best Leaderboard Index at 33-36 and the top fixed odds price at 12/5.

Outside that top 4, old Irish hand Padraig Harrington, who hasn’t won a Major since his 2008 PGA Championship victory but has importantly won the Open Championship twice, has a Leaderboard Index of 9-12 and is 10 under par. Two time Open Championship runner-up Sergio Garcia, meanwhile, is at an Index spread of 8-11 at 9 under par, the same score as amateur Jordan Niebrugge (Index spread of 2.5-3.5), and former Major winners Justin Rose (Index spread of 10-13), Adam Scott (Index spread of 12-15), Zach Johnson (Index spread of 6.5-8.5) and Retief Goosen (Index spread of 3.5-5.5).

Make sure to check Spreadex for all the Live Index action as the Open Championship comes to its thrilling close!