Keep in mind Ben Curtis (2002) or Todd Hamilton (2003). Keep in mind in 2010 it was Louis Oosthuizen, unknown then however to South Africans and European Tour obsessives. He gained by seven photographs at St Andrews.
It may very well be a veteran retainer we thought had missed his probability, like Darren Clarke in 2011. It may very well be one final time when all of it falls into place for a fantastic champion, like Ernie Els in 2012. It’s generally the final man standing when everybody else crashes, like Stewart Cink in 2009.
It’s not at all times the Jack Nicklauses, the Tiger Woods and the Rory McIlroys who win the Open. Typically it’s an unlikely determine coming via the ranks.
Typically it’s Paul Lawrie, a gifted however unheralded tour participant, who comes storming from 10 photographs again for a profession defining win. Okay, that was a document comeback and possibly a historic one-off. Nevertheless it occurred.
Selecting a sleeper in a 156-strong area is a little bit of a lottery. The Outdated Course at St Andrews might be like that at the perfect of instances, and significantly within the onerous, fiery and quick state it’s in for the one hundred and fiftieth Open.
Right here’s six contenders on the one hundred and fiftieth Open you gained’t discover in most individuals’s favourites listing, however are price keeping track of…
The New Zealander, son of All Black rugby legend Grant Fox, is the DP World Tour’s in-form participant of late.
Hits it a mile, and has a lot of robust performances on hyperlinks, notably within the Irish Open plus a 64 on the Outdated Course on the Dunhill.
He’s made the lower in all however considered one of his 5 Opens, and closed out in 2015 with a 67, which exhibits that he can play if it will get blustery. The one caveat is that he doesn’t win as a lot as he ought to, with three second place finishes this 12 months alone.
The 32-year-old has made his breakthrough over the past couple of years and is threatening to enter elite standing. He’s not precisely coming in below cowl, standing ninth within the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup and nineteenth within the World Rankings, with two wins this season already.
His hyperlinks pedigree is puppy-sized, however he’s making up for misplaced time. Final week he performed 54 holes in 24 hours, two rounds of the Scottish Open and a fast 18 at North Berwick making an attempt to get a really feel for the terrain.
He feels a bit like Jason Leonard did earlier than the Texan gained at Troon in 1997 – not skilled at hyperlinks golf, however with the correct type of sport to do nicely shortly.
It was maybe comprehensible that the Yorkshireman slumped after his 2016 Masters triumph. That was the fruits of 18 months of actually strong and elite play that included main at midway in…the 2015 Open at St Andrews.
