There was a reasonable amount of difference in value among the various betting houses for this week's British Open. Both Paddy Power and Boylesports are paying out on the first six places at a quarter of the odds and both have Tiger Woods favourite to win the championship at 3 to 1; Ladbrokes a little shorter at 5 to 2.
All three have Darren Clarke as the most likely Irish player to finish close to the top of the leaderboard but still at 28 to 1 from Paddy Power and 25 to 1 from both Ladbrokes and Boylesports, the Dungannon man is well down the field in terms of being thought of as a winner.
Woods, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh are the three most likely players to lift the trophy on Sunday according to all three betting houses with Boylesports favouring Ernie Els as second favourite at 8 to 1 and Paddy Power going for Els at 9 to 1.
Paddy Power also offer a number of novel bets, many of them on Tiger Woods. Tiger not to win the Open is 1 to 5 while Tiger to win by exactly one shot is 14 to 1. The American winning via a play-off is priced at 12 to 1.
The hole-in-one prices are soaring for a number of players including the main Irish interest, Clarke. For Clarke to score an ace over the next four days, or Lee Westwood or Luke Donald you can get 125 to 1 while John Daly provides an even better price at 150 to 1.
A hole-in-one by any player during the Open is priced at 13 to 8.
Typically one of the more interesting bets revolves around Woods.
Paddy Power are giving odds of 8 to 1 for Tiger not to visit a bunker for the entire 72 holes of the 2005 British Open and if he misses the cut the bet is void. Incidentally, you can get Tiger to miss the cut at 7 to 1.
OutrightWinner
Boylesports
3/1 Tiger Woods
8/1 Ernie Els
12/1 Vijay Singh
16/1 Retief Goosen
16/1 Phil Mickelson
18/1 Sergio Garcia
. . .
25/1 Darren Clarke
Paddy Power
3/1 Woods
9/1 Els
14/1 Singh
16/1 Mickelson
20/1 Garcia
22/1 Goosen
. . .
28/1 Clarke
Ladbrokes
5/2 Woods
8/1 Els
14/1 Singh
16/1 Mickelson
16/1 Goosen
20/1 Garcia
. . . 25/1 Clarke
Top British and Irish
9/2 Clarke (Boylesports)
9/2 Clarke, Luke Donald
(Paddy Power)
14/1 Clarke (Ladbrokes)
Top USA
6/4 Woods (Boylesports)
11/8 Woods (Paddy Power)
5/4 Woods (Ladbrokes)
Top European
(without British and Irish)
2/1 Garcia (Boylesports)
5/1 Garcia (Paddy Power)
5/2 Garcia (Ladbrokes)
Leader after first round
8/1 Woods (Boylesports)
8/1 Woods (Paddy Power)
N/A (Ladbrokes)
Nationality of winner
Boylesports
10/11 USA
9/4 Rest of the world
5/1 Britain and Ireland
7/1 European (without British or Irish) Paddy Power
11/10 USA
7/1 Rest of the world
9/2 Britain and Ireland
13/2 European (without British or Irish)
Ladbrokes: N/A
