With a month to go until the 115th US Open at Chambers Bay, we’ve drilled down into the data for what tends to be a highly-competitive betting event to bring you a few pointers in Pierce County.
Three things in particular stand out at this juncture…
New course
Chambers Bay will host the US Open for the first time this summer, with the only other tournament of note to have occurred at the eight-year-old course being the 2010 US Amateur Championship.
The two shortest-priced golfers to have come out of that tournament are Patrick Reed, at 40/1, and Hudson Swafford, at 100s.
The former, who has tasted victory four times over the past year, looks to be saving himself for this, having pulled out of upcoming European Tour events the Irish Open and BMW Championship.
Patrick Reed holds the advantage of playing competitively at Chambers Bay in the past
Torrey Pines was the last new US Open venue in 2008, when Tiger Woods landed the title for the third time after a playoff with countryman Rocco Mediate. The disgraced former phenom looks far too short at 14/1 for a 15th Major here.
Root for the home team
US natives won this on all-but 11 occasions between 1911 and 2003. There has been some turnaround since.
Only three representatives of the home team have taken the US Open over the past 11 years. Northern Ireland, with a population around 150 times smaller than the States, has seen two of their favourite sons land the spoils since 2010.
All that being said, six more US golfers have got to within two strokes of lifting the trophy over the past decade, with Phil Mickelson doing so three times.
Phil Mickelson is yet to win a US Open, but has got close plenty of times
‘Lefty’ has finished either second or tied-second six times since 1999, and needs a US Open victory to complete his personal Grand Slam. At 22/1, he ranks as the best bet of the old guard, although in-form veteran Jim Furyk looks far too big at 50s.
Clash of the titans
The US Open market confidently points to what the story will be in the build-up to Thursday, June 18th, with world number one Rory McIlroy the 9/2 favourite, followed by US Masters darling Jordan Spieth at 15/2 golf odds, and Woods next at 14s.
2011 US Open champion Rory McIlroy
McIlroy already has one US Open win in his back catalogue; the Northern Irishman set aggregate and to-par tournament records at Congressional in 2011, while Spieth has finished T21 (low amateur), cut, and T17 in his three appearances so far.
That’s not bad form, but Spieth hasn’t exactly blazed a trail since winning the Masters last month, having finished T2 at Augusta 12 months earlier; the 21-year-old failed to make the last 16 of the WGC Matchplay at the end of April, before missing the cut last time out at the Players Championship.
McIlroy, on the other hand, has won two of his last three events, finishing T8 in the other. Of the feted pair, he looks the better bet at 9/2.
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