Super Spaniard Sergio is the pick of the press box

Masters champion Sergio Garcia gets a big vote of confidence from golf journalists, his score of six easily topping our media centre poll.
Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Jon Rahm and Rickie Fowler receive two apiece and there’s one for Adam Scott.
Here’s what they said ...

Derek Lawrenson
Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday
Nineteen years after Mark O’Meara won a Masters relatively late in life and followed it with an Open win at Birkdale, could history be about to repeat itself with Sergio Garcia? Armed with all sorts of good karma, the gifted Spaniard has a golden opportunity to match the American’s feat.

David Facey
The Sun
I thought this would be the Major where Sergio Garcia broke his duck, but now he has made the breakthrough I can see him lifting the Claret Jug at least once and Birkdale chould be perfect for his laser-straight hitting.

Mitchell Platts
Freelance
After ten Open top-ten finishes, I’m taking Sergio Garcia to become the ninth player, emulating Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus, Player, Watson, Faldo, O’Meara and Woods, to complete the same-year Masters-Open double. With Rahm and Cabrera Bello also in the mix, there could be much to give Spain cause to celebrate at the venue where Ballesteros’s star moved into its ascendancy in 1976.

Bill Elliott
Golf Monthly
Sergio Garcia for me. The irascible, mercurial, temperamental Spaniard has a fine Open record. He’s been in proper contention several times and has a flurry of top-tens to his credit. So we know he likes links golf and has the imagination and talent to back up that passion. Now he has a Green Jacket as well. What’s not to like?

Phil Casey
Press Association
Hopefully Rickie Fowler will have learned from being in contention at the Masters and US Open. He loves links golf and comes into the Open after giving further evidence of that at the Scottish Open.

Robert Green
Freelance
Jon Rahm has an evident liking for links golf and has had a great season. I’m tipping him to go one better at Birkdale than another Spaniard did 41 years ago.

Graham Otway
Freelance
Tommy Fleetwood has taken mental advice not to get ahead of himself out on the course and be content with ‘modest’ golf but he can still lift himself, as shown in the US Open and French Open. He looks in the form to land his first Major.

Tony Jimenez
Reuters
Adam Scott has long since served his Open apprenticeship and the smooth-swinging Australian could benefit from flying under the radar going into Birkdale.

Neil Squires
Daily Express
Jon Rahm showed his liking for links golf in lapping the field at the Irish Open and has the game to do similar damage at Birkdale. At 22 he’s already in the world top ten, having won on both sides of the Atlantic this year.

Andy Farrell
Freelance
At the start of the year I had Justin Rose down for the Masters and Sergio Garcia for the Open. Another duel like they had at Augusta would be fantastic, ideally with a reversal of the Masters result and the Englishman pipping the Spaniard to the Claret Jug.

Sal Johnson
GolfStats.com
I like Sergio Garcia not only because he is one of the greatest links players of all time but because he could follow the same steps as Mark O’Meara 19 years ago, winning his first Major at a fairly late age (41) and then following up at Birkdale three months later.

Dan Murphy
National Club Golfer
Sergio Garcia, although his odds are a little shorter than I would like. But with ten Open top-ten finishes in 16 years this is the time when boy becomes man.

Paul Trow
SGB Golf
The inscriber has been poised to chisel Justin Rose’s name on the Claret Jug ever since his precocious exploits at Royal Birkdale as a 17-year-old in 1998. Rose is now sparing with his schedule but when he does turn up, he’s ready to play.

Dick Turner
Freelance
Southport’s Tommy Fleetwood is brimming with confidence after the French Open and can be sure of plenty of support in his own backyard. After his fourth place in the US Open, he’s ready to win his first Major.

Martin Dempster
The Scotsman
Rickie Fowler has been knocking on the door in Majors and has shown in the past that he can not only win playing links golf, as he did in the 2015 Scottish Open, but can also handle the tough conditions the Open brings. It’s time for him to become golf’s latest first-time Major winner.