The Open Championship Golf In-Play Betting Tips: Sam to Burn on Friday?

The Open Championship is underway with a five-way tie at the top at -4. Moving onto Friday and our tipster Jamie Worsley has picked out one golfer he likes the look of for Day 2 at Royal Portrush. Check out his The Open Championship 2025 in-play Betting Tips below...

The Open Championship Odds

An entertaining first round of the 153rd Open Championship drew to a close in the fading twilight at Royal Portrush yesterday. The course was the star of the show, aided by perfect, wet-and-windy links conditions and leaves us with an exciting, tightly-packed leaderboard at the start of today’s second round.

Leaderboard after round one:

T1 – Jacob Skov Olesen (-4)

T1 – Haotong Li (-4)

T1 – Matt Fitzpatrick (-4)

T1 – Christiaan Bezuidenhout (-4)

T1 – Harris English (-4)

T6 – Matthew Jordan (-3)

T6 – Scottie Scheffler (-3)

T6 – Sadom Kaewkanjana (-3)

T6 – Tyrrell Hatton (-3)

A variety of questions was asked of these players on day one, and we were left with an eclectic quintet who best answered those questions, tied for the lead at the start of today. Young Dane and 2024 winner of The Amateur Championship, Jacob Skov Olesen was the first man to -4 and was closely followed by China’s Haotong Li – who won us a share of the first-round leader prize money at 125/1. Matt Fitzpatrick also came through earlier in the day – thanks to a spectacular slam-dunk birdie from the right-hand side of the 16^th green – and of the later starters, it was South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Harris English led the way.

Four players sit one shot off the lead, including Open Championship specialist Matthew Jordan, talented Thai Sadom Kaewkanjana, and the ever-lively Tyrrell Hatton. However the standout name among those early leaders is of course world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who ominously managed a three-under 68 despite severely struggling to find fairways throughout the day.

Lee Westwood rolled back the years to sign for a round of 69 and was on target for tying that clubhouse lead before a couple of late bogeys. Meanwhile, there were few major casualties among the main runners and riders this week, with Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm both sat inside the top 20 on -1. Defending champion Xander Schauffele is just one shot further back, alongside the well-fancied Robert MacIntyre. And while +2 is less than ideal, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, and Tommy Fleetwood are all close enough to get into the mix today.

The biggest disappointment was perhaps the performance of Bryson DeChambeau, who didn’t make a single birdie in his seven-over 78, though it was hardly a surprise in an event that he hasn’t managed to get to grips with as yet. In addition, 2021 Open Championship winner Collin Morikawa, multiple major champion Brooks Koepka, and the in-form Ryan Fox will all need to find major improvements just to make the cut - all sitting on +4.

SELECTIONS

The conditions aren’t forecast to be quite as difficult today, but there’s still a few spots of rain about and enough breeze to keep the players honest. That being said, it is reasonable to expect to see slightly better scoring.

There’s no reason to be going back into the outright market at this stage, with the majority of selections still well within reach. Therefore, I’ve concentrated on one golfer I expect to fire on Friday

0.5 pts Sam Burns Second-Round Leader each-way (1/5 - 4 places) @ 60/1

2 pts Sam Burns Second-Round Leader Top 10 @ 3/1

You can find all Jamie's latest Golf Betting Tips over on our dedicated golf Insights hub.