Brady Kannon has locked in his best bets for The Open, and the sharpest line in his card is a fade of Bryson DeChambeau at 40-1. The veteran handicapper is taking a negative view on DeChambeau even as Scottie Scheffler sits atop the market at +550.
That matters now because the 2026 championship is set for July 16-19 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, and the field will be priced around a course that starts on Thursday and plays to a par-70, 7,156-yard layout. Scheffler is the defending champion after winning last year's event by four strokes over Harris English, finishing at 17-under-par after a 7-under second round.
Kannon's record is why bettors are paying attention. He has more than 30 years in the business, has called eight major winners since 2013 and has hit six PGA winners, including Harris English at 110-1 in the Farmers Insurance Open in 2025 and Matt Fitzpatrick at 15-1 this year. On head-to-head bets since joining SportsLine, he is 49-44-5, a modest edge that still gives weight to the times he gets a longshot right.
His case against DeChambeau is built on form and fit. The U.S. star has missed the cut in all three majors this season, has missed the cut at The Open three times, and was out after the first two rounds at Royal Birkdale in 2017. Kannon said the numbers tell him DeChambeau is not drawing much betting attention and that oddsmakers do not seem especially eager to back him, then added that The Open may be the least suited of the four majors for his game. He also pointed to last year's 10th-place finish at Royal Portrush, where DeChambeau shot 78 in the opening round and was lucky to survive the cut.
The open question is whether Kannon's other top play will be the 80-1 longshot he described as having arguably the best season of his career, with eight top-10 finishes, or whether the sharper angle is simply to trust the fade of a player who keeps running into the same problem at this championship. Either way, the market has already drawn a clear line: Scheffler is the favorite, and DeChambeau is the one Kannon wants to oppose when The Open begins on Thursday.
