Golf betting tips: AIG Women's Open preview and best bets

Matt Cooper has his eye on two English outsiders plus Ireland's Leona Maguire in this week's AIG Women's Open.

Golf betting tips: AIG Women’s Open 3pts win Minjee Lee at 16/1 (General) 1pt e.w. Akie Iwai at 55/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6) 1pt e.w. Leona Maguire at 80/1 (BoyleSports 1/4 1,2,3,4,5) 1pt e.w. Georgia Hall at 175/1 (BoyleSports 1/4 1,2,3,4,5) 0.5pt e.w. Mimi Rhodes at 400/1 (SpreadEx, Sporting Index 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6) 1pt Mimi Rhodes top-10 finish at 25/1 (Unibet, BetMGM, Virgin Bet) Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

According to the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, weather is made up of six main components (temperature, atmospheric pressure, cloud formation, wind, humidity, and rain) and a small change to any of these conditions can create a different weather pattern. The Centre’s website does not suggest that golf is a further factor but in a world where some folk are keen to put two and two together and make 57, it’s entirely possible that someone, somewhere thinks it highly suspicious that every time Wales hosts a significant golf tournament the weather has been not just bad but downright appalling. It was, of course, not entirely surprising that the 2010 Ryder Cup, held at Celtic Manor in October, witnessed a deluge. But the three Senior Opens that have been hosted by Royal Porthcawl have all taken place in late July and every single one of them witnessed some sort of carnage. In 2014, when Bernhard Langer won by an astounding 13 shots, only 10 players bettered par in the final round. When he was victorious again three years later only one man (Santiago Luna) beat par in the second round. But the 2023 championship was peak weather madness. Alex Cejka defeated Padraig Harrington in a play-off, but he also defied fierce rain, furious wind and the sort of darkness most people would associate with 4 o’clock on a December afternoon. The field averaged 78.51 that Sunday and no-one in the top 10 broke 75. In other words, while the Met Office suggests that the weather for this week’s AIG Women’s Open will be warm and sunny with the possibility of the odd shower, don’t be too surprised if it absolutely hoses down and blows a gale. There’s golf about and, for Wales, that spells trouble.

It would be a terrible pity if bad weather did impact on the week, however, because Royal Porthcawl and Wales deserve the opportunity to showcase their quality. The views, conditions permitting, will be sensational – both of Rest Bay’s golden beaches, and of Devon and Dartmoor across the Bristol Channel – and the course is a wonderful test. Its fairways welcome accurate blows but poor ones will scuttle towards trouble; the greens are sometimes huge and almost always contoured; and the bunkers (and hollows) are numerous and often deep. We’re in for a treat and fine links players should be rewarded. Consider those Senior Open high flyers: Langer was a six-time Open top-three finisher, Cejka finished T11 and T12 at Royal Lytham, and Harrington, of course, was a two-time Open champion. All three thrived when the going got tough (although that may indicate more about those championships in particular). That said, the Met Office also expects blustery winds all week which is what all good links tests need and it could reach 30mph which means lesser links golfers will be knocked outside their comfort zone. Woad easy to oppose at skinny price Thursday marks the end of a quite sensational July for England’s Lottie Woad, of course. The 21-year-old started it viewed as a fine prospect, won the LET’s Irish Open by six strokes, fell one shot shy of the play-off in the Evian Championship, turned pro, won the LPGA co-sanctioned Scottish Open by three blows, and is now the clear 7/1 favourite in the Women’s Open. It might be the most remarkable goodbye-to-the-amateur-game-and-hello-to-the-pro-ranks in British golf history. She’s an impressively fuss-free character, has more recent experience of playing links golf than most and the triumph of England’s women’s football team might take the edge off the acclaim she receives (although were she a tennis player she might be spending every morning this week on breakfast telly), but 7/1 seems awfully short. For her and the sport it would be terrific if she won this week. At the prices, however, it’s easy to say no.

She's here... 👀

Fresh off her first professional win, Lottie Woad has arrived at Royal Porthcawl 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 pic.twitter.com/MhLbWdhfRW — AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) July 28, 2025

The column has swerved Jeeno Thitikul and Nelly Korda all summer in the majors and it has, so far, proved the correct strategy. It’s not that they lack quality or the potential to win – they transparently do – it’s just that they don’t win majors often enough to justify backing without an exceptionally strong argument in favour. The defending champion Lydia Ko and the Swede-with-Scottish-roots Linn Grant would have been considered with any sort of form. Ko has 11 top-20s by the British seaside and her best efforts have often been in the toughest weather, but she hasn’t been seen since missing the cut at Evian (she usually plays the Scottish Open). Grant is 3-for-3 at finishing top 20 in this championship as a professional and won twice on Scottish links in the amateur game, but she also dodged the Scottish Open and is in poor form. We’ll kick off with the top selection rather than the shortest price and it’s LEONA MAGUIRE who, if nothing else, fits the bill of a golfer who, like Langer and Harrington, likes hard work and accepting a challenge. She’s not had a great 12 months since winning on the LET last July and suffered that peculiar Solheim Cup snub (which the column did at least profit from when suspecting she’d respond in the singles). Recent starts have hinted at growing confidence, however, with four top-20s in her last four LPGA starts. That started with a brief sniff of contending in the Women’s PGA Championship, included a halfway lead in the pairs event with Jennifer Kupcho, continued with seventh at Evian (when the first round co-leader) and T16 last week in Scotland (when second after 18 holes). She has plenty of linksland experience, was T13 in this event at Carnoustie in 2021 and fourth at Muirfield in 2022. Those two efforts both came when she’d made a top 10 in that year’s other majors. She can continue that trend this week at 80/1. Next up is – purely coincidentally – another twin, this time Japan’s AKIE IWAI. Having landed three JLPGA titles in 2023 and another trio in 2024, this is her rookie campaign on the LPGA and she got off to a bold start with four top-10s including a pair of seconds before she lost form her way in late spring. But she was T16 last week at the Scottish Open when carding one of only 10 sub-70 scores in the final round. Indeed, only two players beat her tally of 67. She’s also enjoyed this championship in her first two starts. She was T11 after a slow start (T103) at Walton Heath in 2023, and then seventh last year on the Old Course (when T48 on Thursday night). Before dealing with a couple of outsiders, we’ll add MINJEE LEE win only. The Aussie has claimed three of the five majors and this championship is one of her remaining gaps but she’s played it very well, especially by the sea. She was ninth at Turnberry in 2015, the first round leader and T10 at Royal Lytham in 2018, third at Royal Troon in 2020, fifth at Carnoustie in 2021, and fourth at Muirfield in 2022. In nine Scottish Opens she’s only once not finished T21 or better. She’s also been a winner and sixth at 13th Beach, a linksland layout in Victoria. First and third in her last two major outings, Lee can make it four from five.

She cooked. 👩‍🍳 Congratulations to our Champion, Minjee Lee.#KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/m7jhZcKXKW — KPMG Women's PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 22, 2025

More glory for England? Esther Henseleit, Ingrid Lindblatt, Nanna Koertz Madsen, Lindy Duncan, Mi Hyang Lee and Jiyai Shin were all considered as outsiders, but we’ll close with two Englishwomen. First up is GEORGIA HALL who, of course, won this championship at Royal Lytham in 2018. A year earlier she had been third at Kingsbarns and she was also the runner-up at Carnoustie in 2021 as well as T22 at both Muirfield and the Old Course since then. She loves links golf and her friend Charley Hull actually said to me at Royal Porthcawl in May: “Georgia likes the shape and the speed of these greens.” There’s no getting away from her poor form (no top 20 since February) but she was T28 in Scotland when T12 at halfway – and she also revealed her engagement to the Irishman Paul Dunne last week (remember, he was the 54-hole leader of the Open in 2015 when an amateur). If she can get off to a good start her links savvy can overcome the below-average form. And then we’ll take a small interest in MIMI RHODES who, with her sister Patience and Lottie Woad, provides England’s golfing future with a very 1930s vibe. She grew up playing her golf on the links at Burnham and Berrow, across the Bristol Channel from Porthcawl, and is a three-time winner in her first season on the LET. The first of those victories came at Wollongong GC in New South Wales which is linkslandy and right on the ocean. That early success vaulted her into two majors starts which resulted in missed cuts, but she’ll be up against a more familiar test this week. She’s a big price in the outright and we’ll add a top 10, too.

HOLE-IN-ONE 🚨

An ACE start for the Order of Merit number one, Mimi Rhodes 🍾 🙌#OpenTenerife pic.twitter.com/SQAU9uP9zG — Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) June 5, 2025

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