Preview of OSU golfers at The Open

The Open is this week — thank God because if not the sports world would have to hang on to Jon Hamm’s ESPY’s monologue and a bunch of washed up baseball players playing in the celebrity all-star game.

But the Open is this week at Muirfield and it has a strong OSU flavor. I wrote a little bit about Muirfield and its history for CBS today — the The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers has been meeting since 1744 and meeting at Muirfield since 1891 — pretty awesome, right?

But I also wanted to note which OSU alums are playing and what their odds of winning are. Also, we have pairings!

Odds

Rickie Fowler: 40-1
Hunter Mahan: 66-1
Alex Noren: 100-1
Bo Van Pelt: 125-1

Pairings

Thursday tee times in parentheses, tournament is on ESPN from 4 a.m. ET (I’ll be up!) to 3 p.m. ET on Thursday/Friday

Noren, Quiros, Stanley (7:39 a.m. ET)
Fowler, Manassero, Mahan (9:23 a.m. ET)
Van Pelt, Molinari, Taniguchi (10:07 a.m. ET)

Preview

I love Fowler at this tournament — he’s played well at his only three Opens and actually finished T5 in 2011. He hits the ball low, is amazing out of the sand (3rd on Tour in sand saves), and is a top 25 scrambler. I think if/when he wins his first major, it’s going to be this one.

Noren is probably the next best pick here as Mahan has missed three of his last five Open cuts and Van Pelt has never really been good here either. Noren finished T9 last year and has played in Europe for years. He should be in good form all week.

Pick

I think I’m officially picking Dustin Johnson to win it but I’ll take Fowler as a lock to be my top Cowboy. He quietly[1. By quietly I mean I saw more shots of Tiger studying the grass than I did of Fowler swinging his clubs which, I get it, but come on.] played well at the US Open and I think mentally he understands what he has to do to win a major.

Oh, and here’s a little something to get you jacked for Thursday[1. How awesome are you if you “collect Opens”?]: