2024 Open Championship picks, field, predictions, odds: Golf expert backs Brooks Koepka at Royal Troon

Just three golfers have notched top 15s at each of the year's first three majors. While two of them -- Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau -- have major wins to show for it, the other in Collin Morikawa does not. However, he enters the 2024 Open Championship as a British Open winner, courtesy of his 2021 Open win. So, with past success at this event and a strong recent run in majors, is Morikawa one to back with Open Championship 2024 bets?

He's listed at 10-1, according to the latest 2024 Open Championship odds, and that trails just four others. Scottie Scheffler is the 4-1 favorite, followed by Rory McIlroy (8-1), Ludvig Aberg (9-1) and DeChambeau (9-1). Schauffele sits just outside the top five with 13-1 odds. Play begins at Royal Troon Golf Club at 1:35 a.m. ET on Thursday. Before making any 2024 Open Championship picks or bets, you need to see the Open Championship 2024 predictions and best bets from golf insider Patrick McDonald .

McDonald joined CBS Sports as a golf writer in 2022 after stops at NBC Sports and RyderCup.com. Covering the sport from a broader perspective, McDonald still likes to dip his toes into the betting pools on a weekly basis between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and more. Featured weekly on the Early Wedge, he has given out numerous winners already in 2024, including Jake Knapp (50-1) at the Mexico Open and Xander Schauffele (20-1) at the PGA Championship. Anyone who has followed his lead is way up.

Now, McDonald has focused his attention on the 2024 Open Championship field and has locked in his best bets, top sleepers and favorites to avoid. You can only see them here .

Top 2024 Open Championship expert picks

One shocker from McDonald: The expert is fading Morikawa (10-1), who is priced too short to back in such a deep and talented field. His odds have shortened leading up to the 2024 Open Championship, but the expert thinks there are "too many ifs" at that value to back him.

Morikawa won his Open Championship debut in 2021 and enters this year's event with top-15 finishes in the first three majors of 2024. However, he has missed the cut at the British Open each of the last two years. Morikawa also ranks 66th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: putting (0.151) which puts him at a disadvantage navigating the fast greens at Royal Troon. See who else to fade here .

On the other hand, McDonald loves the value on Brooks Koepka (25-1). He's proven himself as a big-event golfer as his five major wins since 2017 are the most in the sport and even more than the next two golfers combined as no one else has more than two. Even when he doesn't win, he still finds his name near the top of the leaderboard as his 11 top 5s at majors since 2017 are also the most. He missed playing at Royal Troon in 2016 due to an ankle injury but has four top 10s over his last seven Open Championship starts.

Koepka has been impressive this season as he had a 54-hole win in Singapore in May, and that was sandwiched in between a pair of ninth-place finishes. He also has impressive metrics on that tour, ranking among the top quartile of golfers in both driving distance (309.9 yards) and GIR percentage (70.37%). Both of those marks would rank among the top 20 on the PGA Tour this season. Koepka having just the 10th-shortest golf odds for The Open 2024 seems unfathomable, so he's a longshot to jump on for this week. See who else to back here .

How to make 2024 Open Championship golf picks

McDonald has locked in his best bets for the Open Championship 2024 and also has selected an epic longshot who's priced at nearly 100-1. This golfer "continues to drive the ball as well as ever and has gained strokes in three straight tournaments for the first time all season." You can only see the picks at SportsLine .

So which players should you target or avoid for the 2024 Open Championship, and which golfer could bring a huge payday of almost 100-1? Check out the 2024 Open Championship odds below, then visit SportsLine to see Patrick McDonald's top picks for Open Championship 2024, all from the expert who has given out numerous winners already this year, including Xander Schauffele at the PGA Championship .

2024 Open Championship odds, field

See full the Open Championship 2024 picks, best bets and predictions here .

Scottie Scheffler 4-1
Rory McIlroy 8-1
Bryson DeChambeau 9-1
Ludvig Aberg 9-1
Collin Morikawa 10-1
Xander Schauffele 13-1
Tommy Fleetwood 20-1
Jon Rahm 22-1
Viktor Hovland 22-1
Brooks Koepka 25-1
Tyrrell Hatton 25-1
Patrick Cantlay 28-1
Cameron Smith 30-1
Tom Kim 33-1
Wyndham Clark 33-1
Shane Lowry 35-1
Tony Finau 35-1
Matt Fitzpatrick 40-1
Hideki Maysuyama 40-1
Robert MacIntyre 40-1
Jordan Spieth 40-1
Justin Thomas 40-1
Joaquin Niemann 45-1
Sahith Theegala 45-1
Sungjae Im 50-1
Max Homa 50-1
Min Woo Lee 55-1
Dustin Johnson 55-1
Cameron Young 55-1
Dean Burmester 60-1
Brian Harman 60-1
Sam Burns 60-1
Will Zalatoris 65-1
Corey Conners 65-1
Aaron Rai 65-1
Sepp Straka 70-1
Byeong Hun An 70-1
Akshay Bhatia 75-1
Adam Scott 75-1
Nicolai Hojgaard 80-1
Patrick Reed 85-1
Justin Rose 90-1
Louis Oosthuizen 90-1
Talor Gooch 100-1
Davis Thompson 100-1
Abraham Ancer 100-1
Russell Henley 125-1
Mattieu Pavon 125-1
Si Woo Kim 125-1
Rickie Fowler 125-1
Keegan Bradley 125-1
Sebastian Soderberg 125-1
Alex Noren 125-1
Christiaan Bezuidenhout 125-1
Rasmus Højgaard 150-1
David Puig 150-1
Phil Mickelson 150-1
Adam Hadwin 150-1
Keith Mitchell 150-1
Tiger Woods 150-1
John Catlin 150-1
J.T. Poston 150-1
Tom McKibbin 150-1
Billy Horschel 175-1
Harris English 175-1
Denny McCarthy 175-1
Marc Leishman 175-1
Kurt Kitayama 175-1
Keita Nakajima 175-1
Lucas Glover 175-1
Adrian Meronk 175-1
Ryan Fox 175-1
Seamus Power 200-1
Tom Huge 200-1
Victory Perez 200-1
Jordan Smith 200-1
Stephen Jaeger 200-1
Eric Cole 200-1
Aaron Wise 200-1
Davis Riley 200-1
Henrik Stenson 200-1
Thorbjorn Olsen 200-1
Daniel Berger 200-1
Yannik Paul 200-1
Sam Horsfield 200-1
Austin Eckroat 200-1