Luke Donald can best GB and Ireland rivals at The Open

Despite the fact that they are held to – as a rule – possess a greater affinity with links conditions than their rivals from further afield, Great Britain and Ireland golfers have failed to dominate the Open Championship as might be expected in recent years. In fact only one player amongst the top 10 in the betting to be the highest placed finisher from the home nations has posted more than one top 10 finish at the tournament in the last four years.

Given such inconsistent showings from the home guard, it’s hardly surprising to see the top GB and Ireland player market is an open betting heat, with no fewer than five practitioners  at single-figure odds, but none shorter than market leader and recent US Open king Justin Rose at 5/1.

Graeme MacDowell (6/1), Rory McIlroy (6/1), Lee Weswood (6/1) and Luke Donald (8/1) round out the fancied quintet and it’s the longest-priced of those that appeals most here.

Donald is the British player identified in the first paragraph who has posted two top-five Open Championship finishes within the last four years.

T5 placings in 2009 and 2012 amounted to his best ever results at any major and although the High Wycombe native oddly missed the cut in 2011 – the year that arguably amounted to the most successful of his career to date – he also had a highly respectable T11 in 2010 to his name.

Although he’s yet to win a tournament this term, the 2011 PGA Tour money list winner has been in effective form in America – where he does most of his campaigning – avoiding the cut in every event he has contested and posting top-10 finishes in three of his last six outings.

The most recent of those came in the US Open, where he held the lead mid-way through the third round before falling back to a T8 finish. Whilst his inability to hold form was a bitter pill to swallow, it was still by far his best career performance in the tournament.

Former world number one Donald, who has seen Adam Scott and Rose – two of his closest friends in the game – take the first two majors of the season, has spoken of the added motivation this gives him to break his own major duck.

If he’s to do so, the 8/1 about the most consistent British performer in recent Open Championships finishing best of the Great Britain and Ireland players at Muirfield could be worth backing.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.