The Open Championship Golf In-Play Betting Tips: Two picks for moving day

It's moving day at The Open Championship and there is a crowded pack trying to chase down solo leader and world no. 1 Scottie Scheffler. Our star tipster Jamie Worsley has picked out three players he fancies to win their two-balls at Royal Portrush. Check out his The Open Championship 2025 in-play Betting Tips below...

The Open Championship Odds

Following a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days, we’ve reached the halfway stage of the 153^rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush. Due to calmer conditions allowing for lower scoring on this receptive course on Friday, a familiar name has ascended to the top of the leaderboard as we head into the weekend, spelling trouble for the rest of the field.

Leaderboard after round two:

1^st – Scottie Scheffler (-10)

2^nd – Matt Fitzpatrick (-9)

T3 – Brian Harman (-8)

T3 – Haotong Li (-8)

T5 – Rasmus Hojgaard (-5)

T5 – Tyrrell Hatton (-5)

T5 – Robert MacIntyre (-5)

T5 – Harris English (-5)

T5 – Chris Gotterup (-5)

This was supposed to be the major that Scottie Scheffler hasn’t quite figured out yet, but the world No. 1 fired eight birdies in a superb seven-under 64 on Friday – to add to his 68 on Thursday – and now leads by one thru 36 holes. He currently ranks first in the field in both approach and putting and found greater accuracy off the tee yesterday. If this continues over the weekend it’s going to take an almighty effort from someone to deny him claiming his fourth major title, and third leg of the Career Grand Slam.

Matt Fitzpatrick has maintained his recent upturn in form this week and having carded a five-under 66 yesterday, he’ll play alongside Scheffler in our final group. The Englishman is a major champion himself and there’s nobody in the field playing better golf from tee-to-green this week. He’s a great, gritty competitor when in contention and I think he’ll be relishing today’s headline pairing.

A shot further back in 3^rd is the duo of 2023 Open Championship winner Brian Harman, and China’s Haotong Li – the field’s current 1^st and 2^nd-ranked ball-strikers in Northern Ireland. Harman showed he’s not to be underestimated when dominating this event at Hoylake in 2023 by six shots, and I don’t expect him to fade away here. Meanwhile, Haotong’s a player with bags of ability who has found himself in similar positions before, and as an aggressive golfer who likes to attack, he’ll be a fun watch if able to stay in the mix over the weekend.

The quintet of players in 5^th place includes well-fancied Brits, Tyrrell Hatton and Robert MacIntyre; Chris Gotterup continues to enjoy his time on the links after winning in Scotland last week; Harris English finds himself near the top of a major leaderboard yet again after finishing 2^nd in the PGA Championship; whilst Rasmus Hojgaard’s affinity with this part of the world is well on show, after he won at Royal County Down in last year’s Irish Open.

Rasmus’ twin brother Nicolai sits one shot further back in 10^th position, and another stroke behind in 12^th is home favourite Rory McIlroy. Ordinarily, making up a seven-shot deficit over the weekend wouldn’t be beyond him but with Scheffler as the man at the top, it’s going to take a seriously impressive weekend display for Rory to claim the Claret Jug for a second time.

No doubt one of the performances of the second day came from Bryson DeChambeau. He made zero birdies in a seven-over 78 in the first round but completely turned that around yesterday, collecting seven birdies in a six-under 65 to make the cut by one.

We had several big-name casualties who couldn’t manage the turnaround that Bryson did. This includes former Open champions Cam Smith and Collin Morikawa, five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, and highly-touted Ryan Fox.

SELECTIONS

The conditions for the third round are forecast to be calm and clear early doors, but from around 11:00 onwards it is predicted to be similar to the first two days. Rain will come and go throughout, and the wind may be a little stronger than yesterday, though not quite as difficult as the opening round, blowing at a constant 11-12mph and gusting at around 20mph.

I’m happy to wait and see how the third round develops without dipping back into the outright market and have instead picked out three 2-ball selections to give us some added interest in round three.

3 pts Marc Leishman & Aaron Rai to win their 2-balls – Double @ 2.36/1

Marc Leishman to beat Oliver Lindell

Marc Leishman booked his first Open Championship appearance since 2022 thanks to a 3^rd-place finish in last year’s Australian Open. He’s played solidly so far, recovering from a slow start on Thursday with a positive showing yesterday, and if his irons are in the same form today, he should have the beating of Open Championship and indeed major championship debutant, Oliver Lindell.

Leishman only got going late on in his first round, making two birdies in his final five holes to get to +2. However, he did carry that momentum into Friday, shooting a three-under 68 which included five birdies, and in which he looked great from tee-to-green, ranking 14^th.

Lindell scored a shot better in the opening round than Leishman, largely due to his quality on the greens. He fired the same number as the Aussie yesterday, again relying predominantly on what is usually an unreliable putter – an area in which he ranks 3^rd overall this week, but is outside the top 100 on the DP World Tour this season. In addition, it should also be noted that as one of the last out, he finished his round in some of the easiest and most scoreable conditions of the week on Friday.

Leishman has been considerably better over the opening two days from tee-to-green, ranking 22^nd to Lindell’s 99^th. Not only that, but with three top-six finishes to his name, he’s a proven Open Championship performer and I expect him to come out on top in this 2-ball, against a talented but very much inexperienced player at this level.

Aaron Rai to beat Rickie Fowler

Aaron Rai has hit the ball considerably better than Rickie Fowler over the first two days, with Fowler largely depending on his short game. However, it did not get him out of trouble yesterday and unless he finds greater accuracy on Saturday, I’d fancy Rai to win this 2-ball.

These two players are tied in 26^th place after two rounds on -1, each opening with a two-under 69 on Thursday and following with a 73 on Friday. They’ve got to this point using different skills. Rai has relied on his precise ball-striking, ranking 7^th in driving accuracy, 11^th in approach, 22^nd in greens-in-regulation, and 25^th off-the-tee. In contrast, Fowler has leaned heavily on his quality around the greens, ranking 11^th, but he is outside the top 90 in both approach and greens-in-regulation.

Although Fowler historically has a larger catalogue of links form with tonnes of quality performances, it’s 11 years since he finished 2^nd at Hoylake. The Englishman, meanwhile, is no links slouch, having won the Scottish Open in 2020 and has made two of three cuts in The Open, including a debut 19^th at Royal St George’s in 2021.

By any time metric during the last two years, Rai has been a better golfer than Fowler and I expect his straight hitting to help him better his playing partner’s score on moving day.

2 pts Marc Leishman, Aaron Rai & Christiaan Bezuidenhout to win their 2-balls – Treble @ 6.23/1

Christiaan Bezuidenhout to beat Harry Hall

Harry Hall has enjoyed a good start to his Open Championship debut, sitting inside the top 20 on -2 after 36 holes. However, he’s gained over six strokes with the putter thru those first two rounds and with Christiaan Bezuidenhout showing much more all-round quality, he looks the play in this 2-ball.

Bezuidenhout was one of those five players to share the first-round lead on Thursday, firing a four-under 67. This was engineered by quality in every area, as he ranked 8^th on the greens and 15^th from tee-to-green. He did go backwards yesterday with a two-over 73 due to inaccurate ball-striking, but that’s usually a strength of his game and I’d be confident of him bouncing back in that regard today.

Hall has shot the same two rounds but in reverse, opening with a 73 and bouncing back with a 67. He made the worst possible start on Thursday, triple-bogeying his second hole and while he somewhat steadied the ship after that, he ranked as the second-worst player in the field in approach. Although he improved his iron play yesterday, he still struggled to find greens and with the driver also becoming more volatile, it was the putter that did all of the hard work, ranking 2^nd on the greens in round two and gaining 3.67 strokes.

The problem Hall has is that his strengths with the short game are well matched by Bezuidenhout, who has excelled on and around the greens throughout his career. However, the South African is also a stronger iron player at his best and along with usually being much more dependable off the tee, he looks the play to me here.

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