AIG Women's Open Golf Betting Tips 2022
What could be more inspirational to British sport, women’s sport in particular, than that pulsating triumph by our footballing Lionesses so don’t be surprised if the home contingent in the AIG Open play above themselves at Muirfield this week.
We’re getting used to European winners in what is now the final Major on any of the world tours as links golf seems to bring them to the fore.
Georgia Hall flew the flag for Britain at Royal Lytham in 2018, 500/1 outsider Sophia Popov did the honours for Germany at Royal Troon in 2020 and last year Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist just held off Hall and Scandinavians Magdalene Sagstrom and Nanna Koertz Madsen at Carnoustie.
And while it says Swedish on Nordqvist’s birth certificate, Anna is very much an honorary Scot having married former Scottish amateur champion Kevin McAlpine lat year - she met him while he was caddying for Lexi Thompson in the US.
Nordqvist prevailed at Carnoustie last year to win her third Major title.
She enjoyed huge Scottish support last year and will do so again when the AIG Open goes for the first time to Muirfield, a club that barred women members for more than 200 years until the fear of perhaps losing the Open Championship forced a rethink and the first women members were finally invited in 2019, two years after the rule change.
The all-star field, headed by the world’s top two, Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda, will find it an unrelenting but fair test where par is always a good score. Many would call it the best links on the Open roster and top of the list of the best golf courses in Scotland. For the women it will play as a fast-running 6728-yard par 71 and while there will be a decent breeze up to 17-18mph at times during the first two days, the warm dry spell in Scotland is set to continue.
Those with long memories will recall Sir Nick Faldo grinding out 18 straight pars in the final round to claim the first of his six Majors in 1987. It is a Faldo-type golf course as Nick proved again five years later.
And we may be hailing another Brit or Irish champion on Sunday. Hall has a great links pedigree with her third at Kingsbarns in 2017, first in ‘18 and second last year. She posted her first top-ten of the year at Evian and is a far more fearsome competitor here than in the States.
Georgia Hall won her maiden Major in 2018 at Royal Lytham & St Annes
And what about Leona Maguire, the pride of County Cavan? The unbeaten heroine of the Solheim Cup, obviously a big-occasion player, 13th to Nordqvist in Scotland last year and trending the right way, having opened her account in the States earlier this year and then going down only after a playoff in the Meijer in June? Pity her recent form isn’t better but it’s a profile I like and a price, 60/1, I like too.
It is interesting that of 17 Women’s Opens played on links this century only three have been won by Americans and only one of the four Majors has gone their way this year. The younger, superior Korda is by far their best chance but her only British Open top ten, in 2019, came at Woburn. Although time is very much on her side, Nelly has yet to do better than last year’s 13th on a links.
Lydia Ko has somewhat surprisingly been made favourite but after watching her underwhelming performance on the Dundonald Links on Sunday, the New Zealander can be opposed. She has posted six ordinary finishes on her last six Open visits following her one top-ten, third at Turnberry in 2015.
The other Ko, Jin Young, has looked out of sorts recently and the main threat from South Korea may well be Hyo-Joo Kim, third at Evian and at the Scottish. She was seventh in the 2017 Open, one of four top-25s from five appearances.
But the winner may be staring us in the face in the shape of little Ayaka Furue whose course record 62 at Dundonald on Sunday was wondrous to behold. There’s not much of her but the 22-year-old Japanese packs a punch with amazing iron play and confident putting. The 40/1 on offer after her Scottish triumph has to be risked. She may be a rookie as far as the LPGA Tour is concerned but she has already won seven times in Japan, which is not a weak tour.
Furue's stunning 62 at Dundonald propelled her to victory at the Women's Scottish Open.
It is not as if we didn’t get warning Furue was a bit special as she had posted her first LPGA top ten in the previous week’s Major in France. It would be a worry if a seriously windy week was in store on what will be a longer and more severe test. But have no doubt she can handle herself anywhere.
Evian winner Brooke Henderson is passed over as she hasn’t registered an Open top-ten in seven attempts but Minjee Lee is far more difficult to dismiss. Winner of the US Open and runner-up in the PGA, the Aussie is having her best year (also won Founders Cup) but 43rd at Evian and 18th at the Scottish suggests she may have peaked already.
Nordqvist won’t be going quietly though. The defending champion is a proven links campaigner (six top-12s before last year’s win) and a proven big-occasion player with three Majors and a fine Solheim Cup record.
AIG Women's Open Golf Betting Tips 2022
- 2pts each-way Georgia Hall at 25/1
- 1pt each-way Leona Maguire at 60/1
- 1pt each-way Akaya Furue at 40/1
- 1pt each-way Anna Nordqvist at 45/1
- 1pt each-way Hyo-Joo Kim at 14/1
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