British Open returns to Hoylake with a wide-open field
No clear favourite, four major winners in form, and a course that has historically rewarded patience.
The Open returns to Hoylake next month with bookmakers struggling to identify a clear favourite — the widest pre-tournament market for any major this year.
Four major winners arrive in genuine form, but none of them dominating; a clutch of younger players are within a good week of their first; and the course, with its narrow fairways and unforgiving rough, has historically been a leveller.
Local knowledge will matter. Hoylake's prevailing wind sets up an entirely different golf course depending on the day, and the players who finish at the top of the leaderboard tend to be the ones who adjust fastest.
The weather forecast remains, as ever, a moving target. Long-range models suggest two settled days followed by a classic Open weekend of wind and intermittent rain — the conditions that, more than any other, separate the contenders from the field.
Whoever lifts the Claret Jug, the suspicion among pundits is that this Open will be remembered less for the winner than for the depth of the chase.
