The 155th Open is at the Old Course, St Andrews, July 15-18, 2027 (R&A). If you build your draft board off the world ranking alone, you'll miss what makes this course different: it's a par 72 where the last five Open winners averaged about 17 under, and seven of the greens are shared by two holes.
This is the method version. It mirrors our U.S. Open cheat sheet but reweights for links golf and for St Andrews specifically. Build it in a Google Sheet in about 30 minutes, the week of the event.
The five inputs that matter at St Andrews
1. Official World Golf Ranking (25%)
The baseline for sustained quality. OWGR averages two years of results, and it's free at owgr.com. It gets a lower weight here than at most majors because the Open asks for skills the ranking doesn't measure.
2. Strokes Gained: Approach + Putting (30%)
At most links venues we'd pair approach with around-the-green play. St Andrews is different. Seven of its greens are shared between two holes, so players face 80- and 100-foot lag putts all week (Old Course history). Long-range putting and approach control into the right section of a giant green are what separate a 68 from a 72. Pull free numbers from pgatour.com/stats or DataGolf. This is the heaviest input.
3. Wind and links handling (20%)
There's no clean public stat for it. The best proxies are past Open finishes, Scottish Open finishes, and a player's record in the Alfred Dunhill Links, which finishes on the Old Course every fall. When the wind is down, St Andrews turns into a birdie contest; when it blows, the double greens get hard to hit and links experience shows up.
4. Course history (15%)
Weight up anyone with a top-25 at the 2022 Open (the top five were Cameron Smith, Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy, then Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland tied for 4th, per the 2022 results) and anyone with a strong Dunhill Links record. Tyrrell Hatton has won the Dunhill three times and co-holds the Old Course record of 61. Our St Andrews preview has the full winner history and our early targets.
5. Recent form, last 4-8 weeks (10%)
Useful, but don't overreact. The Open comes four weeks after the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and usually right after the Scottish Open. A quiet top 30 on a links course the week before tells you more than a hot week on a parkland course in June.
The weighted framework
Score each player 0-100 on each input, multiply by the weight, and add it up. One ranked list. In Google Sheets, SUMPRODUCT does it in one formula.
- OWGR × 0.25
- SG: Approach + Putting × 0.30
- Wind / links handling × 0.20
- Course history (2022 Open, Dunhill Links) × 0.15
- Recent form (4-8 weeks) × 0.10
Compare that to the U.S. Open sheet, which leans on recent form. At The Open, course fit dominates. Same field, different ranking; we break down why in British Open vs U.S. Open fantasy strategy.
What changed on the Old Course for 2027
The R&A lengthened six holes (5, 6, 7, 10, 11, and 16) and pushed the course to 7,445 yards, up 132 yards. New bunkers on the 6th and 10th sit at elite driving distance, and the 16th gets two more (The Open). Our take: if you were going to give a pure bomber a bump for 2022-style scoring, give him a smaller one. Distance still helps here; it just carries a bit more risk.
Turning the sheet into snake draft picks
- Round 1. Best player available, but be willing to pass on a top-5 name with a poor Open record for one who has contended at an Open.
- Round 2. This is where the sheet pays. Look for 2022 top-25s and Dunhill Links regulars ranked outside the consensus top 15.
- Round 3. Pure course fit. A player ranked 50th who putts well and has made Open cuts beats a 30th-ranked player who has never played the Old Course.
Turning the sheet into Friday auction bids
The 2022 cut fell at even par. When the winning score is around 20 under, a player who makes the cut on the number is still in range of a top 10. Rerank your auction shortlist on Friday afternoon (that's when Round 2 usually wraps for U.S. groups) using two things: how far under the cut they are and how they putted over 36 holes. Then set a max bid for each and stick to it. The auction explainer covers drop players and the cutoff.
FAQ
What stats matter most at St Andrews?
Approach play and putting, especially long putts. The Old Course has seven double greens, so lag putting gets tested more than at any other Open venue.
Should I draft long hitters at the 2027 Open?
Distance helped in 2022, when Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy finished 2nd and 3rd. The new bunkers on the 6th and 10th target long drives, so we'd treat length as a plus, not the main reason to pick someone.
When should I finish my cheat sheet?
By Wednesday, July 14, 2027. U.S. groups need to draft that night because Thursday tee times start around 1:30am Eastern.
Run your 2027 major pools on Foursome. Free for friend groups.
Set up your Open Championship pool →For pick-position tactics, read the Open draft strategy. To get your group set up, start with the 2027 Open pool guide.