British Open Round 1 Leader Odds and Prediction: Corey Conners Will Start Strong at Royal Troon

Iain MacMillan | Jul 16, 2024

Corey Conners enters this week ranking 10th in Round 1 scoring average on the PGA Tour. / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

If you don't have the patience to wait for all four rounds of this week's British Open to find out if you won a bet, have you considered betting on the opening round?

One of the options available is to bet on who will be the first-round leader. You can get the elite golfers at longer odds and you can target some dark-horse golfers who you think may start strong, but won't be able to keep it together for all four rounds.

Let's dive into the betting favorites to be leading after Thursday's round and then I'll give you my prediction.

British Open first-round leader odds

Here are the top 10 odds to be the first round leader via DraftKings Sportsbook:

• Scottie Scheffler +1600
• Rory McIlroy +2200
• Xander Schauffele +2500
• Collin Morikawa +3000
• Bryson DeChambeau +3000
• Ludvig Aberg +3000
• Jon Rahm +3500
• Tyrrell Hatton +4000
• Tommy Fleetwood +4000
• Brooks Koepka +4000

British Open first-round leader pick

Corey Conners +6000

A second Canadian is going to win a men's major sooner or later, but I don't think it's going to happen this week. With that being said, I think there's a great chance Corey Conners can get off to a hot start and be flirting with the top of the leaderboard at the end of the opening round.

Conners has had a bit of an underrated season. He enters this week ranked 14th on the PGA Tour in total strokes gained while playing some extremely consistent golf. He hasn't finished worse than T27 since the RBC Heritage in April.

Most notably, he has been truly one of the best ball-strikers on Tour, entering this week ranking fourth in strokes-gained approach behind only Scottie Scheffler, Tom Hoge and Tony Finau.

He's coming into this week off a strong T10 finish at the Scottish Open, a good omen for how prepared he is to play links golf. He hasn't thrived at the Open in the past, but he did have a T15 finish in 2021 and T28 finish in 2022.

Finally, for this bet we should always target golfers who have strong opening round and Conners fits that criteria. He ranks 10th on the Tour in Round 1 scoring average at 68.94, which also happens to be the lowest scoring average for all four rounds. He averages a score of 69.94 in Round 2, 70.39 in Round 3, and 69.18 in Round 4.

Give me the Canadian to be the first-round leader at this week's British Open at 60-1 odds.

Pick: Corey Conners first-round leader +6000

---

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

You can check out all of Iain's bets here!