2023 British Open Power Rankings: Can Rory Roar to Major Title?

All the best golfers in the world will tee off at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on Thursday in the final major of the 2023 season. Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, and Brooks Koepka are the favorites in the available British Open odds across our best sports betting apps, and they are all featured in our British Open power rankings.

Rory McIlroy hoisted the Claret Jug the last time the Open Championship was held at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in 2014, and he’s the favorite ahead of the 2023 edition. 

This will be the 13th time the venue has hosted the championship, and all eyes will be turned to the final major of the 2023 golf season. The field is loaded with each of the top-12 golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) teeing it up in Hoylake, but only one player can be the Champion Golfer of the Year.

British Open power rankings

10. Wyndham Clark

Confidence is scary and Clark is in form. His sterling short game should suit him particularly well at Royal Liverpool, and he took down two star-studded fields in six events prior to last week’s Genesis Scottish Open. His T-25 showing at The Renaissance Club also served as a solid tune-up.

Just note, Clark doesn’t haven’t a long-standing, major-championship pedigree and this will be just his second appearance in The Open. 

9. Tony Finau

Good luck figuring out Finau.

He fired nine top-10 finishes across a 13-major stretch earlier in his career but has fallen off the map at the biggest stops since the 2021 PGA Championship. Finau also heads to Royal Liverpool without a top-20 result since winning the Mexico Open in late April.

Still, he’s played the weekend in all six trips to The Open and isn’t showing on many radars. Join me in conjuring up a contrarian collective.

8. Tommy Fleetwood

The Englishman has flashed at The Open and enters in solid form with six top-20 results in his last eight events. The stretch also includes a T-5 finish in the U.S. Open. Fleetwood is still looking to take down his first PGA Tour event, but he's a proven player on links-style tracks and exudes experience entering his ninth Open Championship.

7. Jon Rahm

While Rahm is rightfully trading among the betting favorites, I think his win at the Masters was the final leg of a peak stretch. Though, perhaps a mini-break following his missed cut at the Travelers Championship will help.

Rahm has topped out with a T-3 at the 2021 Open Championship, but finished T-34 last year and he only has two top-10 showings in a major since the beginning of 2022.

6. Cameron Smith

Fresh off a win at LIV Golf London, Smith heads to Royal Liverpool as the defending Champion Golfer of the Year. We all know his short-game chops are the envy of his peers, and when the wedges are dialed, Smith is A birdie-making, par-saving machine.

It’s his tee game that worries me. Smith ranks 36th in driving accuracy on the LIV circuit and he’s lost strokes off the tee in two of the first three majors.

5. Rickie Fowler

Even when searching for his game, Fowler always found it at The Open. He also turned in three solid rounds at The Scottish Open before fading Sunday.

Now, he heads back to the scene of his T-2 finish in 2014 flirting with career-best form. Fowler’s eye-opening U.S. Open further affirms he’s back, and there are no shortcomings in his current game. After all, he’s surged to 10 top-20 finishes in 12 events dating back to The Players Championship.

4. Viktor Hovland

Hovland is one of Esten McLaren's top British Open picks.

The fan favorite didn’t care for Los Angeles Country Club and still gained strokes across the board en route to a 19th-place finish. Add top-10 results in each of the previous three majors and Hovland is on a bright-lights heater. His work around the greens still garners grimaces, but if he continues to put himself in position to win, his elite ball-striking will triumph.

Few can string together circles on a scorecard at Hovland’s pace, either.

3. Brooks Koepka

Imagine a T-17 finish in a major championship checking out as a major disappointment. Koepka gained strokes across the board in the U.S. Open, but he was never in the mix. 

Between Koepka ranking third in birdies per round (4.74) on the LIV tour and carding a combined -18 in the first three majors of the year, I’m again viewing him as a top contender in Hoylake.

2. Rory McIlroy

Before winning the Genesis, McIlroy had five consecutive top-10 showings dating back to the PGA Championship. He's rounded into top form, and is gaining strokes on the greens again. His approach game has been on point, and the tee game is never in doubt.

I expect Rory to be in the race Sunday, and if he is truly firing on all cylinders, he’ll hoist the Claret Jug for the second time. Of course, the first was at Hoylake, too.

Winning back-to-back weeks is tough, though.

1. Scottie Scheffler

I’ve been the first to highlight Scheffler’s putting struggles, but it hasn’t kept him from contending week in, week out. He’s rattled off nine top-10 finishes in 13 majors since 2020, too.

Additionally, among the statistics he paces the PGA Tour in are scoring average, bogey avoidance, birdie-to-bogey ratio and greens-in-regulation percentage. Step 1 to contending in major championships is limiting mistakes and Scheffler does just that with the best tee-to-green game in the business.

British Open odds 2023

(odds as of July 19 at 2 p.m. ET)

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