US Open

[Raji]

Breaking down the 18 U.S. Open favorites

Tue, Jun 12, 2007By Jeff Mason

Tiger Woods +375

Woods is far and away the favorite to win this week like he is every week he tees it up. But at a course where the rough is as thick as any U.S. Open in recent memory, can the wild-driving Woods put enough balls in the fairway to win his third title at the tourney?

A missed cut last year notwithstanding, Woods has finished in the top 20 in every U.S. Open he's played as a professional.

Phil Mickelson +1300

Mickelson’s record in the U.S. Open rivals Woods’ despite the fact that Tiger has the lead in wins 2-0. Mickelson has four second-place finishes at the National Championship, including a T-2 last year in a storythat doesn’t need to be retold.

Mickelson almost won at Winged Foot in 2006 despite hitting just two fairways in the final round. His driver has been straighter this year. Can he keep it up?

Jim Furyk +1500

Many experts’ pick to win because of his tenaciousness and his Western Pennsylvania roots. Furyk was part of the group that finished in second place last year, and won the tournament at Olympia Fields in 2003.

The only negative in his game is that he doesn’t hit the ball as far as a lot of other top players. That will be a problem if it rains, but early forecasts are calling for sun throughout the week.

Vijay Singh +1900

Singh hasn’t finished out of the top 30 at a U.S. Open since 1995 and was T-6 in the tourney in each of the last two seasons. He’s also finished in the top 10 in seven of his 13 career starts.

Singh’s aggressiveness could get him into trouble if he’s not on the top of his game. He is fond of hitting driver as much as possible – even at golf’s most penal venues. He can also struggle with putting, but has been solid this year averaging 1.749 putts per green in regulation, 12th best on tour.

Ernie Els +2300

Els won the U.S. Open the last time it was played at Oakmont in 1994 and won it again at Congressional in 1997. He’s won just one major since, and his recent play hasn’t been typical of the player that rivaled Woods earlier this decade.

Els hasn’t seriously contended at the U.S. Open since he shot 80 while playing in the final group at Shinnecock Hills in 2004. His recent results are average at best – he has two top 10’s in nine starts this year and missed the cut at this year’s Masters.

Adam Scott +2600

Scott led by three shots heading into the final round of the Stanford St. Jude Classic last week, and finished in seventh place, nine shots back. Still, Scott has finished in the top 10 in each of his last three starts and won in Houston a little over two months ago.

The big question is whether Scott will be able to recover from his final-round fiasco last week. It will also be interesting to see if he can finally take it to the next level by seriously contending in a major for the first time.

Retief Goosen +2600

Goosen is another chic pick this week because of his unflappable play, evidenced by two U.S. Open titles this decade. Goosen hasn’t been on his game this season with just one finish inside the top 17 in eight starts this year. However, that one finish was a tie for second at this year’s Masters.

Goosen has proven time and again that he plays his best when there's a lot on the line. He has every attribute you would look for in a U.S. Open champion. All he has to do this week is put it together.

Luke Donald +3400

Donald doesn’t hit it especially long, but that didn’t stop him from finishing T-12 at Winged Foot last year. This straight driver won’t miss many fairways, which will obviously help, and he shouldn’t be disheartened by the course’s difficulty. How he will fare on holes like the 288-yard par 3 eighth hole is another story. Hitting drivers on a par 3 is tough for anyone.

Sergio Garcia +3400

Is this the major Sergio finally wins? It seems like this question has been asked at every major for the last seven years. Garcia hits it long and straight. While he struggles with his putting from time to time, he’s been rolling it well in recent weeks and is now ranked 27th on tour in putting average after finishing outside the top 125 each of the last four seasons.

Geoff Ogilvy +3400

The defending champion won’t want to have to rely on double bogeys from the two men in front of him to win his second straight U.S. Open title.

No matter how you view his achievement, Ogilvy has proven himself to be a major championship player. He didn’t finish lower than 16th in any of the major championships last year, and finished 24th in this year’s Masters.

Padraig Harrington +3400

Don’t forget that Harrington finished just two shots back of Ogilvy at Winged Foot last year, and has finished in the top 10 at the U.S. Open four times in the last seven years. This tournament is his best chance to win a major given his patience and playing style. The only question is whether or not he has the confidence to win one – his fifth place finish last year tied his best ever in a major.

Zach Johnson +4100

Johnson is still a bit of an enigma. No one saw his Masters win coming this year, even 63 holes into the tournament. He backed up that win with the AT&T Classic last month – the last full tournament he played before the U.S. Open. Johnson withdrew from the Memorial after 15 holes because of strep throat.

Can he win his second major championship of the year? His game is more suited to the U.S. Open than it is the Masters, but back-to-back majors are a lot to ask from someone who has never even won outside the state of Georgia.

Justin Rose +4600

Rose has played just one tournament since his tie for fifth in this year’s Masters. That tournament came on the European Tour, where he finished second at the BMW Championship in late May.

Rose is still a very inexperienced major championship player despite what some may think. He played in just one major, the PGA Championship, last season and didn’t qualify for any of the majors in 2005.

Henrik Stenson +4600

Stenson started off the year as the hottest player in golf, winning in Dubai and at the World Matchplay Championship in the season’s first two months. Things have cooled off since, with just one finish inside the top 10 in six subsequent PGA Tour starts.

Stenson did finish T-26 at Winged Foot last year and finished T-17 at The Masters in April. He’s slowly learning how to play the majors and should have some confidence coming into the week.

Stewart Cink +5100

The level of Cink’s play has been really under the radar this year. He hasn’t missed a cut since his first tournament of the season in Hawaii and has three top 5’s in his last five starts.

Cink has always played well at the U.S. Open with three top 10 finishes in the last nine years. He hits it straight, and there’s no better lag putter on tour. One bad round is usually his downfall.

David Toms +5100

Toms gave what was easily his best performance of the season last week at the TPC at Southwind, a course where he always played well. His second-best result came at The Masters, where he finished ninth.

Toms has historically struggled at the U.S. Open despite being a straight hitter and a strong putter. He has just one top 10 in 10 career starts.

K.J. Choi +5600

Don’t expect a lot out of Choi. He is here on the merit of his win two weeks ago at The Memorial. He has made just three cuts in six U.S. Open starts and has never finished better than T-15.

Rory Sabbatini +5600

Same with Sabbatini, who won at Colonial three weeks ago. He has missed the cut in four of his five U.S. Open starts, and his other result was a T-71 in 2005. He’s simply too aggressive a player to win this tournament at this stage in his career.


Raji