Focus on Furyk for Open winner

Jim Furyk rates an outstanding bet at the 35-1 offered by Victor Chandler and William Hill to upstage his compatriot Tiger Woods and claim his first British Open championship at Turnberry’s Ailsa Course, starting Thursday.

The 39-year-old American, winner of the US Open in 2003, has an impressive record of top-tens in the four majors and comes into this year’s Open in fine form, recently claiming his seventh top-ten of the season in the AT&T National, where he ranked tied-first in putts-per-round for the week.

His assured touch on the greens will stand him in good stead this week, as will his reliability off the tee, with long rough awaiting those who miss the fairway. Furyk has hit 460 of a possible 653 fairways Stateside this year, a strike rate of more than 70 per cent.

Furyk has proven himself a fine player of links courses over the years, finishing fourth in the Open three times, and claiming his fifth top-ten in the championship when placing fifth to Padraig Harrington at Birkdale last year, his chances effectively ending with a third-round 77 in brutal wind.

Furyk tees it up with the defending champion and Geoff Ogilvy for the first two rounds (2.20pm start on Thursday).

Woods is a best-priced 13-5 with Sporting Bet to win his fourth Open title and a fifteenth major in all.

He has won three times since returning to the US Tour in February after reconstructive surgery on his left knee and will be encouraged by the Ailsa Course’s record of producing winners who were, at the time of their victories, recognised as the best in the game.

In bidding to join Tom Watson (in 1977), Greg Norman (1986) and Nick Price (1994) on Turnberry’s Open roll of honour, Woods may have to draw on a similar gameplan to that he employed at  Hoylake in 2006, when adopting a safety first approach by hitting mainly two- and three-irons off the tee.

Woods commences his challenge at 9.09am on Thursday alongside rising Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa and England’s Lee Westwood.