Show me a man who doesn’t love The Open Championship, and I’ll show you a man who doesn’t love golf.

For golf fans, this is one of the best weeks of the year.

But this year feels a little different.

At least if you’re English.

It has the potential to be one of the greatest sporting weekends the country has ever had.

Now, full disclaimer: this entire theory could be dead by the time you read this. I’m also extending a rare moment of grace to our old adversaries across the pond.

Will It Come Home?

 

The English love golf.

They really love football.

The problem is, they haven’t won a World Cup in 60 years.

They also haven’t celebrated an English winner at Royal Birkdale. In fact, the last Englishman to win The Open anywhere was Sir Nick Faldo back in 1992.

This afternoon, England faces Argentina in the World Cup semifinal. Win that, and they’ll meet Spain in Sunday’s final.

Which sets up a pretty incredible possibility.

On Sunday, England could end two of its longest sporting droughts on the very same day.

The Scheduling Problem

 

There’s just one issue.

The World Cup Final kicks off at 8:00 p.m. ET.

The Open is expected to finish around 6:40 p.m. ET.

That doesn’t leave much time for tens of thousands of anxious fans to pour out of Royal Birkdale and find the nearest pub.

The R&A has already said it’s discussing moving Sunday’s tee times earlier to make it work.

And with that, here’s my completely irresponsible prediction:

England beats Argentina.

England beats Spain.

An Englishman wins The Open.

The people who live on that island go crazy.

One final note for the stat nerds: there is no ShotLink data available from the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, so we’ll be flying a little more blind than usual this week.

The Details

Previous Winners

How To Watch

Featured Groups:

Streaming coverage will be on Peacock.

Weekly Bets: 154th Open Championship

If you were apart of the RTL community, you’d have been tipped off to Tom Kim winning at +8600 last week.

Use code CADDYSHANKS2026 for 20% OFF.

Keith Stewart’s Picks

 

Matt Fitzpatrick (+2150 DraftKings)

I bet Tom Kim at the John Deere and the Scottish Open, and my persistence paid off. Matt Fitzpatrick finished T3 at the Scottish Open and showed us he’s ready for The Open. I’m almost excited he didn’t win in Scotland, because carrying the weight of winning it back-to-back is rough. The PGA TOUR’s leader on approach and scrambling, what better complement of skills for Royal Birkdale?  Following a T4 at Royal Portrush last year with three top 4 finishes in his last four starts, the planets are aligned for a major Sunday in England.

Justin Rose (+4300 DraftKings)

It all started in 1998 at Royal Birkdale. Justin Rose made his debut on golf’s global stage and finished T4 in The Open. Fast forward 28 years, and Rose is still a factor in major championships. Third place at The Masters, 10th at the PGA Championship, and 11th at the US Open, Justin has not finished outside the top 20 in his last four major starts! Ranked in the top 10 for approach, around the green, and T2G overall, the timing is perfect. A very firm Carnoustie in 2018 where Justin finished runner-up is a great comp. With all the attention on the other two English favorites, watch Rosey bloom at Birkdale.

Caddyshanks Picks

 

Scottie Scheffler (+750 Fanduel)

This season, the ironplay simply hasn’t been at the level we are accustomed to seeing from Scottie, but we stick with the strategy no matter what, and he’s the only American on our official card this week. However, I will have Jordan Spieth on my personal card this week, because I simply cannot help myself.

Tyrell Hatton (+3800 Draftkings)

Like I said above, I believe an Englishman will win this week, and Keith covered two great picks above, so we will hop on the Hatton rollercoaster. He’s finished in the Top 7 in 2 out of 3 majors this year.

Jordan Smith (+19000 Draftkings)

Jordan Smith is a name a lot of casual golf fans won’t know, because he’s a DP World Tour player, but he led at the Scottish Open last week, and he was putting the lights out. Oh, he’s also English.