Tiger Woods has not won a major championship in over five years and starts the 2013 British Open coming off an elbow injury, and yet the game’s biggest star and No. 1 player in the world remains an overwhelming favorite at Muirfield. This is always the case with Woods, and barring a catastrophic stretch of golf, it always will be. He’s the biggest public name in the sport, and the oddsmakers, regardless of form or injury, will always tab him with the lowest odds.
British Open odds 2013: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson only Americans among favorites at Muirfield
The world No. 1 is still a heavy favorite at the Open, despite recent injury issues and a month away from the competitive golf.
Stuart Franklin
Tiger is an 8/1 favorite just two days before the start of The Open Championship, with the next closest competitors double that at 16/1. Woods has stated all week that the elbow injury which led to the blow up at Merion is no longer bothering him, but one wayward drive into the high rough or fescue at Muirfield could cause the elbow to flare up on a punch out. After setting multiple personal worst scoring records at the U.S. Open last month, Tiger arrives at a course that brutalized him that last time he played a major here. Woods shot an infamous 81 in the third round of the 2002 British Open, battling horrendous conditions that pelted the Scottish coast at Gullane.
But despite the majors drought and flame out at the U.S. Open, Woods is still having the best season on Tour, and by a wide margin. His four victories shot him back into No. 1 in the OWGR early in the year, and if not for one bad break ball off the flagstick at No. 15 at Augusta, that major drought may have ended at the Masters. The elbow injury does seem to throw that momentum towards a major win back into doubt, but there’s no way anyone else was going to pass him as the favorite.
Behind Tiger with the next lowest odds are the year’s first two major winners and last week’s winner at the Scottish Open. Justin Rose and Adam Scott have long been two of the best players in the world, elite talents who were still searching for that first major win. Many predict that the breakthroughs this year will lead to multiple other majors, and given their recent success, they’re easy favorites. Phil Mickelson, who’s notoriously struggled on the links of the Open Championship, clinched his first ever Euro Tour win last week to the north at Castle Stuart. That success on a similar layout has Mickelson citing some newfound confidence on the firm and fast setup at Muirfield, where he’s 16/1 with Rose.
After those four top names, there’s a spate of Euro and international golfers favored, with only Brandt Snedeker and Dustin Johnson better than 40/1. Here are the full odds for the field just two days before the first ball is struck:
| Player | Odds |
| Tiger Woods | 8/1 |
| Justin Rose | 16/1 |
| Phil Mickelson | 16/1 |
| Adam Scott | 20/1 |
| Graeme McDowell | 22/1 |
| Lee Westwood | 25/1 |
| Rory McIlroy | 25/1 |
| Sergio Garcia | 25/1 |
| Ernie Els | 28/1 |
| Jason Day | 28/1 |
| Luke Donald | 28/1 |
| Brandt Snedeker | 33/1 |
| Charl Schwartzel | 33/1 |
| Dustin Johnson | 33/1 |
| Henrik Stenson | 33/1 |
| Matt Kuchar | 40/1 |
| Rickie Fowler | 40/1 |
| Ian Poulter | 50/1 |
| Louis Oosthuizen | 50/1 |
| Martin Kaymer | 50/1 |
| Nicolas Colsaerts | 50/1 |
| Branden Grace | 66/1 |
| Hunter Mahan | 66/1 |
| Jason Dufner | 66/1 |
| Matteo Manassero | 66/1 |
| Padraig Harrington | 66/1 |
| Thomas Bjorn | 66/1 |
| Webb Simpson | 66/1 |
| Bill Haas | 80/1 |
| Bubba Watson | 80/1 |
| Francesco Molinari | 80/1 |
| Jim Furyk | 80/1 |
| Keegan Bradley | 80/1 |
| Paul Lawrie | 80/1 |
| Richard Sterne | 80/1 |
| Thorbjorn Olesen | 80/1 |
| Zach Johnson | 80/1 |
| Alexander Noren | 100/1 |
| Angel Cabrera | 100/1 |
| Billy Horschel | 100/1 |
| Jamie Donaldson | 100/1 |
| Martin Laird | 100/1 |
| Nick Watney | 100/1 |
| Peter Hanson | 100/1 |
| Shane Lowry | 100/1 |
| Bernd Wiesberger | 125/1 |
| Bo Van Pelt | 125/1 |
| Brooks Koepka | 125/1 |
| Chris Wood | 125/1 |
| Fredrik Jacobson | 125/1 |
| George Coetzee | 125/1 |
| Jordan Spieth | 125/1 |
| K.J. Choi | 125/1 |
| Mikko Ilonen | 125/1 |
| Ben Curtis | 150/1 |
| Carl Pettersson | 150/1 |
| David Lynn | 150/1 |
| Geoff Ogilvy | 150/1 |
| Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano | 150/1 |
| Graham Delaet | 150/1 |
| Harris English | 150/1 |
| Jonas Blixt | 150/1 |
| Marcel Siem | 150/1 |
| Miguel Angel Jimenez | 150/1 |
| Robert Karlsson | 150/1 |
| Ryan Moore | 150/1 |
| Stephen Gallacher | 150/1 |
| Stewart Cink | 150/1 |
| Tim Clark | 150/1 |
| Boo Weekley | 200/1 |
| Brian Davis | 200/1 |
| Camilo Villegas | 200/1 |
| Fred Couples | 200/1 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | 200/1 |
| Jimmy Walker | 200/1 |
| John Huh | 200/1 |
| John Senden | 200/1 |
| Kevin Streelman | 200/1 |
| Lucas Glover | 200/1 |
| Marc Leishman | 200/1 |
| Marc Warren | 200/1 |
| Rafael Cabrera -Bello | 200/1 |
| Richie Ramsay | 200/1 |
| Russell Henley | 200/1 |
| Thomas Aiken | 200/1 |
| Thongchai Jaidee | 200/1 |
| Alvaro Quiros | 250/1 |
| Brett Rumford | 250/1 |
| Bud Cauley | 250/1 |
| Danny Willett | 250/1 |
| Darren Clarke | 250/1 |
| Kyle Stanley | 250/1 |
| Robert Garrigus | 250/1 |
| Scott Jamieson | 250/1 |
| Scott Piercy | 250/1 |
| Brendan Jones | 300/1 |
| D-A Points | 300/1 |
| Gareth Maybin | 300/1 |
| Gregory Bourdy | 300/1 |
| Johnson Wagner | 300/1 |
| Josh Teater | 300/1 |
| Justin Leonard | 300/1 |
| Ken Duke | 300/1 |
| Kiradech Aphibarnrat | 300/1 |
| Luke Guthrie | 300/1 |
| Michael Thompson | 300/1 |
| Tom Watson | 300/1 |
| Vijay Singh | 300/1 |
| Yong-Eun Yang | 300/1 |
| Kyung-Tae Kim | 350/1 |
| Marcus Fraser | 400/1 |
| Tom Lehman | 400/1 |
| Ashun Wu | 500/1 |
| Daisuke Maruyama | 500/1 |
| David Duval | 500/1 |
| Eduardo De La Riva | 500/1 |
| Estanislao Goya | 500/1 |
| Garrick Porteous | 500/1 |
| Hiroyuki Fujita | 500/1 |
| Hyung-Sung Kim | 500/1 |
| Mark Brown | 500/1 |
| Mark Calcavecchia | 500/1 |
| Niclas Fasth | 500/1 |
| Oliver Fisher | 500/1 |
| Satoshi Kodaira | 500/1 |
| Scott Brown | 500/1 |
| Shingo Katayama | 500/1 |
| Shiv Kapur | 500/1 |
| Steven Tiley | 500/1 |
| Thaworn Wiratchant | 500/1 |
| Toru Taniguchi | 500/1 |
| George Murray | 750/1 |
| Justin Harding | 750/1 |
| Ben Stow | 1000/1 |
| Darryn Llloyd | 1000/1 |
| Gareth Wright | 1000/1 |
| Grant Forrest | 1000/1 |
| Jimmy Mullen | 1000/1 |
| John Wade | 1000/1 |
| Kenichi Kuboya | 1000/1 |
| Makato Inoue | 1000/1 |
| Mark O'Meara | 1000/1 |
| Matthew Fitzpatrick | 1000/1 |
| Nick Faldo | 1000/1 |
| Oscar Floren | 1000/1 |
| Peter Senior | 1000/1 |
| Rhys Pugh | 1000/1 |
| Richard Mcevoy | 1000/1 |
| Sandy Lyle | 1000/1 |
| Stephen Dartnall | 1000/1 |
| Steven Fox | 1000/1 |
| Steven Jeffress | 1000/1 |
| Todd Hamilton | 1000/1 |
| Tyrell Hatton | 1000/1 |
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