The 137th open championship gets underway at Royal Birkdale on Thursday, and it will be a hotly contested competition this year as everyone will feel that they now have a chance of winning now a certain Mr E Woods is not competing. My idea of the winner is still to be narrowed down, but this bet is a must have to start off with.

Els loves the open and has a fantastic recent record in the event. He has an amazing 8 top 10 finishes in the open championship in the last 11 years. This record can be put up against anyones and it will stand up and beat it. Els has had a reforming year in 2008 but is getting back to his best after swing changes and going back to his old caddie. He has a top 10 in the US open and top 10 in the Scottish Open at the weekend after a faltering start. He could well go on and win the claret jug for a second time this week, and is a decent bet to do so at around 16/1.

Harrington is in freefall since his marvelous victory last year. If you were going to crab him last year it was really tha fact that Sergio threw it away as opposed to Pod winning it, and he hasn't won since or looked like winning. He has been playing poorly of late, and there is now a recent injury scare on his wrist that he picked up on Saturday. He will almost certainly play in the competition, but it would take an act of god to see him performing well, and this must rate as a maximum bet for Els to beat him over 72 holes.

 Pick : Ernie Els to beat Padraig Harrington 72 hole match bet
 Odds : 1.91
 Stake : 10 / 10
 Bookmaker : BetFred

This is a fascinating matchbet as it pits 2 of europes flag bearers with each other over 72 holes of open golf. I'm going for the spaniard here at odds against as he has a better record in opens than Lee does. Miguel is no superstar when it comes to links golf, but he has posted 3 tops 20's in recent years against Westwoods horror show of 1 top 20 in the last 8 years of open golf. They have both had terrific years so far this year with Miguel winning the Hong Kong open at the turn of the year and then the biggy at Wentworth the PGA ( worth a cool 750,000 euros ), he then went close last week in Loch Lomond which says to me he is ready to go full tilt for the pursuit of his first major title. This year has been a breakthrough for him in the majors as well though as he has a Tied 8th at Augusta and then went 2 places better at Torrey Pines when he was T6th.

Lee meanwhile has also had a great year and lies 4th in the order of merit due to top 5's in a staggering 7 tournies and he too has had his best major finish with a 3rd in the US open and a decent enough 11th in Augusta.

But it's back to the overall putting stats that sees Lee in 93rd and Miguel in 34th that clinch it for me, as the links style greens certainly need a deft touch, and I'm going for Miguel to outgun Lee over 72.

 Pick : Miguel Angel Jiminez to beat Lee Westwood 72 hole matchbet
 Odds : 2.10
 Stake : 8 / 10
 Bookmaker : William Hill

This match bet is a real clash of the titans !!

Vijay Singh is an open regular who has great links form. 2nd in 2003, 5th in 2005, and an amazing 9 top 20 finishes. He was 18th when the open was last played at Birkdale 10 years ago, and has not played since coming a very good 5th in the Travelers championship over in the states in June. Every pro and golfing hack will tell you that the fijian is the hardest worker in the professional game, and he is without fail the last man on the practise tee and green at every tournament. You can bet your bottom dollar that he has been playing all types of "linksy" shots at all types of linksy courses in all types of weather to get him used to what conditions will be like this week.

He was the last player to be world number 1 when he knocked off Tiger a few years ago when he was going through his swing changes, and even at 45 years of age he will still think he can be at that position again. Jim Furyk comes to the open in some good form, with a decent 3rd last time out in the AT&T, but before that he was 36th, 36th, 39th, and a missed cut, hardly the sort of form you need going into a major.

His form at the open is one of 2 types, either very good, as when he was 12th last year, 4th in 2006, and 4th in 97 & 98, or awful, as when he missed 5 cuts in a row between 2001 & 2005. Now Jim is a bit if a funny so and so and i read a recent report where he was saying that he wasn't looking forward to shaping his shots around the links course and that he didn;t know where some of the shot sthat he required to do well here would be coming from. Well, in my book that sounds like a bloke low on confidence, and I'm having Vijay to see him off in 72.

 Pick : Vijay Singh to beat Jim Furyk 72 hole match bet
 Odds : 2.10
 Stake : 8 / 10
 Bookmaker : Skybet

My second maximum bet of the Open Championship, and i really can't see this one getting beaten either !!!

Geoff Ogilvy has been tipped up in todays Racing post by their expert golf correspondant Jeremy Chapman to win the event at a very tasty 33/1. He has a very good chance of winning the event, as he has the right game and the right temprement for an Open championship, and he is on very good form.

He missed the cut last year in "Pods Open", but in the previous 2 years he was 5th and 16th. Don't forget, he was the US open champion in 2006 and he has the makings of another major win in him with his current form. He won the Doral Open this year in March and has had top ten finishes in the USopen again and the memorial. He has not played for a good few weeks now and has been honing his game ready for this weeks challenge.

Monty on the other hand has had a torrid time this year, and is without a win for a few years now. His open record is pretty poor in th elast 6 years all bar a 2nd place 3 years ago, he has missed the cut the last 2 years. He missed the cut last week in Loch Lomond and has only a 2nd place in France to his name with any decent form to cling onto.

I can easily see Monty missing another cut again this week, and with Geoff surely going to go close, although this is a short price, it has be worth taking.

Pick : Geoff Ogily to beat Colin Montgomery 72 hole match bet
Odds : 1.62
Stake : 10 / 10
Bookmaker : Coral

Stewart Cink is having a wonderful season. He won th eTravellers Championship last time out 2 weeks ago, and has been working tremendously hard to improve his Open championship record which includes a very good 6th last year. Cink has also finished 3rd in this years Masters, and has found a real desire to win at the game again. He is a fairways and greens man, and with the course being very penal for those wayward off the tee this year, this will be a real asset to him this week. 6th in GIR and 23rd in putts per GIR he will find his way round this tricky par 70 course with a lot more ease than an out of touch Justin Rose.

A lot has been made of Justin returning to the scene of his most memorable introduction to the game of golf. He was a 17 year old kid when he came here 10 years ago and finished 4th in the 1998 open when he chipped in from 50 yards on the 72nd hole. He then turned professional and missed something like 20 cuts on the trot. He has obviously grown as a professional since then, and turned into a very good player, but his ability to turn good starts into wins has to be questioned. He has been leading the Masters for the last 2 years and come relatively nowhere afterwards.

his form this year has been very mundane, and he is no match for the ultra consistent Cink over 72.

Pick : Stewart Cink to beat Justin Rose in 72 hole matchbet
Odds : 1.91
Stake : 8 / 10
Bookmaker : Bet365

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