The much talked about and hugely anticipated US Open begins at Winged Foot on Thursday as the 144-man field tackle one of the hardest courses in the world in a competitive environment for the very first time.
It will also be the first time that punters and watchers of the sport get to see this famous layout and how it is setup and see if the rumours of how hard the course is and how it will play comes to fruition or not.
First Round Leader
As ever when a major comes along the first market that we look at is the first round leader one. Regular readers will know we look to whittle the field down either but looking at the weather which might be better at one time than another, or conditions. On this occasion there isn’t expected to any massive change in the weather except it will be warmer in the afternoon so if this course is going to be receptive it might be in the morning.
That leads me to taking a chance on Brendon Todd to be the first round leader. Throughout the previews so far I’ve mentioned how I’m looking for good all-round players and ones with a good short game and Todd has been putting and scrambling about as well as anyone in recent times. He has been in the early mix in the WGC St Jude, the USPGA Championship and the BMW Championship in recent times and I see no reason why he won’t have a good first round here. At 70/1 he’s a big price to lead after the opening day.
Thursday 3 Balls
The field go out in three balls on Thursday with half the field off in the morning session and the other half out in the afternoon. From a player perspective it might be better to go out in the morning as once the coverage starts those in the afternoon will know exactly what the test is and this course might be best where it isn’t known!
The pick of the morning groups go out at 13.07 BST where off the first tee Tiger Woods goes out alongside Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas while over on the tenth tee former champions Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy go out alongside Adam Scott. In the later session the big groups go out at 18.16 BST when the world number one Dustin Johnson is paired with the powerhouses Tony Finau and Bryson DeChambeau and then 11 minutes later Phil Mickelson goes off with Paul Casey and Jon Rahm. We’ve picked out a couple of bets which comes from other groups.
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Martin Kaymer/Jimmy Walker/John Augenstein
Match tees off at 12.23 BST
Whenever we get these majors where amateurs or age old past champions are invited into the tournament I like to find the three balls where one of the players comes into the category because then we can effectively make them two balls which makes winning a lot easier. That is the case here where Martin Kaymer goes out alongside former fellow USPGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker and the amateur John Augenstein.
There is all sorts of talk about how hard this track is going to be for the very best let alone amateurs so Augenstein is straight out of my thought process and in truth Walker doesn’t interest me much either. His form hasn’t been there for far too long due to an illness that he has and if you’re not playing well you’re not going to cut it around here. Kaymer on the other hand is playing well. He could easily have won on his last two starts and we know all about his credentials in the majors. Kaymer is hitting the ball well and he is smart and I think he will have too much for his playing partners here.
Lee Westwood/James Sugrue/Bubba Watson
Match tees off at 17.54 BST
The other group I’ve identified where there is an amateur that means we can turn it into a match bet rather a three ball one comes midway through the afternoon session when Lee Westwood goes out with the Irish amateur James Sugrue and former Masters champion Bubba Watson.
I’m happy to pass Sugrue on. If I’m wrong about amateurs here then so be it but everything I’ve red I can’t believe they are going to score around here. That leaves us with Lee Westwood and Bubba Watson and you have to go with the former there. Watson has a terrible record in the US Open. He finished fifth in 2007 but since then he has only broken the top 20 once and has missed five out of the last six cuts. Even allowing that this course might suit the left-handers I’m not sure it will suit him. Westwood will take on the challenge and he probably won’t need as low a score as he might have done so I’ll go with the Englishman here.
Tips
Back B.Todd First Round Leader (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 71.00 with 888sport (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
WON – Back M.Kaymer to beat J.Walker & J.Augenstein for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back L.Westwood to beat J.Sugrue & B.Watson for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with Betfred
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