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Golf Monthly

Sport

Jonny Leighfield

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Picks, Predictions And Odds

Tyrrell Hatton Golf Rory McIlroy Robert MacIntyre Championship (Event) the DP World Tour Dean Burmester Joe Dean Jon Rahm Matt Fitzpatrick

Rory McIlroy at the BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am.

The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is a unique event on the DP World Tour with three different links courses in operation, a cut after 54 holes instead of 36, and celebrity amateurs competing alongside the pros in a concurrent event.

St Andrews Old Course, Kingbarns, and Carnoustie will welcome a world-class field of golfers in rotation across the first three days, including Rory McIlroy and 14 players from the LIV Golf League - headlined by Major winners, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm as well as their colleague and two-time past champion, Tyrrell Hatton.

The Championship, which began in 1937 and offers up a $5 million prize purse, will culminate in the top-60 players and ties competing in the final round at St Andrews on Sunday where Matt Fitzpatrick will aim to defend his title.

McIlroy enters as joint-favorite for the event after coming so close at both the recent BMW PGA Championship and the 150th Open back in 2022 at St Andrews. Surprisingly, he has never won at the Old Course but stands a great chance of changing that this week.

Meanwhile, the other co-favorite - Rahm - is coming off a playoff defeat at the Open de Espana in his home country and won the 2024 LIV Golf League Individual title. The man who finished fourth, Hatton, is third favorite early on this week, having won twice here before with two further runner-up finishes on his resume in recent years.

Defending champion, Matt Fitzpatrick on the Swilcan Bridge with the trophy (Image credit: Getty Images)

Links golf - and this tournament in particular - often sees low scoring on the agenda, and with some fairly benign conditions forecast for the latter part of this week, players should have no real issues battling the weather as well as the course.

Below are the odds for the leading players, our favorite and outsider picks, plus all the key information on how to watch.

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Betting Odds

The odds to win are via FanDuel Sportsbook

Jon Rahm (+550)
Rory McIlroy (+600)
Tyrrell Hatton (+1100)
Tommy Fleetwood (+1200)
Brooks Koepka (+2000)
Shane Lowry (+2200)
Billy Horschel (+2200)
Robert MacIntyre (+2500)
Alex Noren (+3000)
Louis Oosthuizen (+3000)
Matt Fitzpatrick (+3500)
Thriston Lawrence (+3500)
Rasmus Hojgaard (+3500)
Patrick Reed (+4000)
Matt Wallace (+4000)
Talor Gooch (+4000)
Niklas Norgaard (+5000)
Dean Burmester (+5000)
Thomas Detry (+5500)
Peter Uihlein (+6000)

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Betting Picks

FAVORITE - Thriston Lawrence (+3500)

Lawrence looks to be the next breakout South African in a long line of world class players from his nation. He lost in a playoff recently at Wentworth, won on the Sunshine Tour last month, was second at the British Masters and he led The Open after 63 holes around six weeks ago. I love his game, it’s suited very well for links golf with that flat, fade off the tee and he’s both supremely confident and in-form right now. I’d be surprised to see him not up there come Sunday.

OUTSIDER - Grant Forrest (+15000)

Forrest had a strong Spanish Open, finishing T3 after a T5 at the Irish Open two weeks earlier. He was also T10 here last year. He’s had success on these courses before, winning the St Andrews Trophy as an amateur in 2014 before finishing runner-up in the Amateur Championship at Carnoustie in 2015.

FAVORITE - Robert MacIntyre (+2500)

MacIntyre is enjoying an incredible run of form in 2024 and I feel he is in a great position to claim a third title of the year. Back in July, he won his home open (Genesis Scottish Open) and, since then, has registered strong results in his last two events - T5 at the Irish Open and T12 at the BMW PGA Championship. I was thinking it would be either him or Rory, but with MacIntyre's love of links golf, I can see him challenging for the win.

OUTSIDER - Marcus Armitage (+40000)

Armitage finished runner-up in this event last year and has also produced a few top 10s in the tournament. What's more, barring a poor run at the Open de Espana, the Englishman was tied 10th at Wentworth following a tie for 17th at the Irish Open. Currently, he is just outside the top 70 in the Race to Dubai rankings so, with a strong week at an event he loves, he would make significant gains in the standings, which is why I think he'll perform well.

FAVORITE - Tyrrell Hatton (+1500)

While it's easy to pick Hatton on his past record in this event alone (and that was certainly a factor for me), the two-time champion has been playing some really strong golf from tee to green all season. His stats on datagolf.com state he has regularly gained strokes on the field in both distance and accuracy categories - which will be important this week - while his better results have come when the putter has played ball, although that hasn't always been the case. Aside from The Open, where he missed the cut in harsh conditions, Hatton has been no worse than T26th in any of the eight other events since May. Putt well and he has a great chance of winning at St Andrews again.

OUTSIDER - Joe Dean (+20000)

Dean is one of the hottest hands on the DP World Tour as we reach the sharp end of the season, having vaulted himself up to 25th on the Race To Dubai. He only secured his card last year and made a long-overdue debut start this term back in February. Since then, he has continued to go from strength to strength and has really found his feet on tour. With a T25th result at The Open in his back pocket and strong stats to suggest he is solid off the tee and on the green (never a bad combination), Dean could sneak it down the outside but is more likely to snag a top-10 in Scotland.