The Senior Open Championship is absent of the star of the seniors' circuit, Steve Stricker, as well as in-form Ernie Els, and Padraig Harrington is left with an excellent opportunity to go one better than when runner-up last year.
Harrington has played in six senior majors and only once been worse than fifth, winning the US Senior Open last year, and on the face of it is a fair price even at 5/2. He ought to take a bit of beating having shown himself to be competitive on the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour throughout 2023.
The issue is the forecast and the inherent unpredictability of links golf in general.
Clarke's Senior Open record reads 10-3-1, contending in all three appearances since his 2019 debut, and he placed on an exposed course in the Senior PGA earlier this year. Indeed he's been a factor of sorts in all four senior majors so far in 2023, with this by far the most likely scene of a second win.
The Senior Open has seven multiple champions in its less-than-40-year history and Clarke, whose putter was the culprit at Hoylake where he struck the ball pretty well, seems as likely as anyone to cope with conditions and threaten the favourites.
Thongchai Jaidee is a former Wales Open winner who was third in this at Gleneagles last year, but I'm not sure his form coming in compares. I could excuse a missed cut in the US Senior Open, but rounds of 82 and 79 on the Asian Development Tour a fortnight ago, back home in Thailand, have to be a worry.
Instead I like the look of RICHARD GREEN, who has gone 11-37-27-35 in the majors this year and fought back strongly from a disastrous second round at the US Senior Open recently.
Since then he's played nicely at Firestone but the form I'm drawn to is his successful title defence at La Moye, a coastal course in Jersey, six weeks ago. Green's two wins there and strong Open Championship record confirm that playing in the wind is a positive.
As mentioned, repeat winners are common and while Dodd would be a surprising one, he was 25th at Firestone last time behind Stricker, David Toms and Els, all of them electing not to play here, with Stewart Cink seventh and a host of others who've also chosen not to come over for this finishing in front of Dodd.
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