Spanish pair capable of recreating Seve’s Open heroics

It's almost 30 years since we had a Spanish winner of the Open when Seve Ballesteros was in his prime.

Now the Spaniards have, in Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm, two contenders with live chances of emulating the great Seve, and on the same Royal Birkdale links that introduced us to golf's Special One as an extraordinarily gifted teenager in 1976.

He had just played an exquisite chip-and-run between two bunkers to share second place with Jack Nicklaus in the year Johnny Miller won his only Open.

Ballesteros had been paired with Miller in the last match out but they rarely spoke. For one thing, Seve had little English; for another he spent most of his time visiting parts of the course no other golf professional had trod, whereas Miller was compiling one of the most beautiful rounds in Open history.

Ballesteros had only to wait three more years to net his first Open but for Garcia, ten times a top-ten finisher from his latest 16 attempts (this will be his 21st Open), it has been two decades of frustration.

Seve cracked the Major code by the time he was 22, for Garcia it took until he was 37.

But the less talented Mark O'Meara was 41 when he pulled off the Masters-Open double in 1998.

These days Garcia, Open runner-up twice, to Padraig Harrington in 2007 and Rory McIlroy in 2014, in the top six in the last three years, and happy off the course, is a new man. The old moody Sergio has gone. With that Masters triumph, the monkey is off his back. His wedding follows the Open and he now has a treasured Green Jacket to give him a warm glow.

Never in dispute were all the shot-making tools and links expertise needed to win a second Major. But he has to bring a putter that works.

With question marks against most of those ahead of him in the betting, especially McIlroy, the door is wide open for a buoyant Garcia, who is a bigger price than he should be.

In contrast, the oddsmakers have extracted every bit of juice out of Rahm. Yet this affable giant, in his first full year on tour, ran away with the Irish Open on a links, adding to a spectacular early-year success at Torrey Pines and good finishes almost everywhere he has played.

Not 23 until November, Rahm makes golf look absurdly easy and is the greatest talent we have seen since the Tiger Woods, who won a Masters by 12 shots in 1997 and a US Open by 15 in 2000.

There are temperament problems with Rahm but he is working on them and these flare-ups after a bad shot at least show he cares.

Adam Scott gets the third vote. He should have won an Open by now but blew a four-shot lead with four to play to let Ernie Els in at Lytham in 2012 and was one ahead going into the last nine the following day when Phil Mickelson won at Muirfield.

He is notably happy with his tee-to-green game and has the best caddie in the game, Stevie Williams, to kick his butt when required. Much will depend on how he putts and what sort of start he makes. Like everyone else, if he gets the worst of the draw, just making the cut will be a feat, never mind winning.

Rickie Fowler, the only American selected, is the fourth choice. A winner on both main tours this year, he has taken over Garcia's mantle as the best player not to have won a Major.

Fair enough, he sometimes struggles to finish the job but there have been significant improvements in his game which bring with them a greater consistency. And having finished second and fifth in past Opens and won a Scottish Open, Fowler and links golf look made for each other.

Birkdale 2008 was the scene of Ian Poulter's best Open - he finished runner-up to Harrington - and his good showing at Dundonald will doubtless inspire a flurry of bets as he was also runner-up in the Players Championship in May. He and form horse Tommy Fleetwood, so impressive these last few months, look England's best hopes.

Defending champion Henrik Stenson's game is not quite where he wants to be but it is worth mentioning that his Birkdale third in 2008, behind Harrington and Poulter, was his first decent showing at an Open.

There are plenty of good reasons, not least tempting 16-1 quotes, to back Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth but the DJ steamroller has slowed since his pre-Masters fall and Spieth is not putting as confidently as when almost winning all four Majors in 2015.

Mickelson has been reluctantly dumped. He hasn't won a tournament of any sort since his Open triumph four years ago although last year's performance in chasing Stenson all the way would have won most Opens.

Harrington led to halfway at the Scottish Open and is my best outsider. His short putting can be as woeful as it was in Saturday's 79 but he made his share when shooting 66 for a share of fourth place on Sunday.

Recommendations
S Garcia
2pts each-way 20-1 Hills
J Rahm
1.5pts each-way 18-1 Betfred, Betway, Ladbrokes
A Scott
1pt each-way 28-1 Sky Bet
R Fowler
0.5pt each-way 16-1 general
P Harrington
0.5pt e-w 66-1 Betfred, Ladbrokes