Money comes for best of British to lift Claret Jug
PUNTERS were buying best of British on the last-minute Open Championship markets on Wednesday with Lee Westwood in constant demand with all the firms and Justin Rose the subject of one of the biggest single shop bets on golf of all time.
A Ladbrokes customer in Stockport reportedly walked in with £30,000 and plonked 15 each-way on Justin Rose at 33-1. If it comes off and Rosey picks up the Claret Jug at Royal Lytham on Sunday, the Magic Sign will be paying out £630,000.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest takeouts on a single shop bet we’ve seen,” said spokesman Alex Donohue.
Because of his victory in the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral in the spring, Rose stands at No. 1 in the Race To Dubai after only seven European Tour starts but his best Open finish remains the famous fourth place as a 17-year-old amateur at Royal Birkdale in 1998.
Not one Open top-ten has come the way of the lanky Hampshire star as a professional, so does this Ladbrokes punter know something we don’t?
Not surprisingly, he’s down to 25-1 with Ladbrokes now. “Rose and Westwood, for whom we have seen a £5,000 bet and several others of four figures, each take out more than £1m while Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy are far from friendless and would relieve us of at least £500,000 apiece, “ added Donohue.
“Punters seem to be concentrating on the home players because of the prevailing European conditions. We set out to get the big boys in the book and we’ve done that. We also pushed Tiger Woods out to 10-1, the highest price he’s been for an Open this century.”
Westwood is BetVictor’s biggest loser and the Gibraltar firm have cut the Worksop Wonder from 16-1 to 12-1 after “a handful of four-figure bets”. They also went 10-1 Tiger (from 9-1) and spokesman Charlie McCann said: “It looks like we’ll be cheering on a Woods and McIlroy Sunday shootout, which is unusual to say the least.”
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