US OPEN FINAL THOUGHTS
This week’s PGA Tour heads to The Country Club in Massachusetts for the US Open. The US Open is one of the most iconic events on the PGA Tour schedule and is golf’s third major and arguably its hardest.
Throw out what you saw last week. This golf course is about to test the best golfers in the world. The course is going to play like a true US Open golf course, with thick Kentucky rough everywhere that will destroy rounds instantly.
This course will offer a true test for the 156-man field that features the best golfers in the world. The top 60 and ties will get the opportunity to play the weekend, with the winner becoming golf’s latest major champion.
More information can be found on our US Open preview by CLICKING HERE
FanTeam US Open contests start 16th June at 11.45 am BST.
This week’s Main Event contest features two buy-ins, €2 and €20. The difference in the contests is of course the prize pool at stake. In the low entry, the prize pool sits at €1,500. A massive €10,000 is up for grabs in the high entry, with €1,200 awarded to first
Standard FanTeam golf fantasy scoring applies.
The great thing about FanTeam as a platform is I can play daily fantasy contests, and player matchups and make my sportsbook bets all in the same place.
WEATHER
The players this week are about to see sun, wind, and rain this week just to add to the toughness. At present, there is a clear AM/PM split on Thursday and Friday so it might be worth factoring into lineup construction. As always with the weather, it’s not guaranteed and is always worth monitoring.
Thursday: A nice sunny start awaits the morning wave on Thursday with perfect scoring conditions to boot. Things get much trickier for the afternoon wave though with wind gusts up to 15mph expected to arrive around 2 pm.
Friday: Those wind gusts from Thursday afternoon will continue into Friday morning with wind gusts up to 12mph expected to last until 11 am. The afternoon wave will get perfect sunshine from 12 pm and the wind will drop down to about 8mph. There is a small chance of rain around 5 pm for the afternoon wave but at present, they have the better conditions.
Saturday: It will not get easier for those that make the cut on Saturday as temperatures drop into the low 50s with rain expected from 2 pm until the finish. Wind gusts throughout the day will be at around 10mph.
Sunday: Sunday actually sees the best scoring weather with sunny mild temperatures throughout. Wind gusts are expected to be around 12mph throughout the day.
Obviously, things can change hour to hour with the weather so I would look again before lock tomorrow but at present the weather favors the AM/PM split for Thursday and Friday.
TEE TIMES
US Open tee times are shown below.
US OPEN TRENDS
- Every single one of the last ten winners of the U.S. Open was ranked inside the Top-30 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
- Seven of the last 10 winners have been American.
- All of the last 10 winners were between the ages of 21 and 35.
- All of the last 10 winners have posted a previous Top-25 in a U.S. Open.
- Each of the last nine winners have played in at least 3 U.S. Opens before winning.
- Eight of the last 10 winners have posted a Top-10 in at least one of their previous two majors.
- Seven of the last 10 winners did not actually play the week directly prior to the U.S. Open.
STATS I’M LOOKING AT
All stats in my model are based on the last 50 rounds.
- Strokes gained off the tee – The way that the USGA sets up these courses, driving the ball long and straight is absolutely essential. Distance and accuracy are of near-equal importance this week. Players will need to be borderline dominant off the tee to win on a current USGA set-up.
- Strokes gained on approach – Approach will once again be the main feature of my model this week. Despite this being one of the shorter courses on the U.S. Open rotation it will still test long approach play, this is just because of the designs of the holes and small greens. Players will certainly have to be dialed in again this week and it’s worth taking a look at proximity from 200 yards also when looking at approach.
- Strokes gained around the green –I was extremely heavy on the short game at the Masters, and I will be here again this week. If anything, a good short game will be even more important here than it was at the Masters because these greens are smaller than Augusta and surrounded by thick Kentucky rough.
- Strokes gained putting – As usual I will be weighting the ever-important putting between the 0-10ft range within my model again this week. Players have said this over and over again, but the U.S. Open will be won by the player that makes the most five to ten-footers for par.
- Bogey Avoidance – Brookline is a golf course that is going to prohibit scoring. It’s a golf course where if players make a mistake, they will be really forced to play defensively and take their medicine. For this reason, identifying players that have a good bogey avoidance rate will be crucial.
TOP 25 PLAYERS IN MY MODEL
Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young, Sungjae IM, Jordan Spieth, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Daniel Berger, Shane Lowry, Corey Conners, Will Zalatoris, Viktor Hovland, Hideki Matsuyama, Louis Oosthuizen, Joaquin Nieman, Talor Gooch, Cameron Smith, Tony Finau, Max Homa, Mito Pereira, and Harold Varner.
TEAM REVEAL
Although I will be entering multi entries, this is one of my lineups for the Memorial contest on FanTeam.
As you can see my selections are based on players within my player pool this week.
Scottie Scheffler – I’m all in on the world number one this week! His ownership is likely to be down after Rory and Justin Thomas’s recent wins so now is the time to pounce. He is the world’s number one for a reason and has already won 4 times this year. It could have been 5 two starts ago but he narrowly lost out to Sam Burns in a playoff. Scheffler only missed cut this year come at the PGA Championship where he was on the wrong side of the weather draw. He is gaining strokes in all key areas over his last 60 rounds, so I’m chips in on the world’s number one at low ownership this week.
Will Zalatoris –.You’ll hear this a lot this week Zalatoris and majors just go together. In his eight major career starts, he has five top 8’s including two runner-ups at last year’s Masters and last month’s PGA Championship. He has been outstanding lately with five top 6’s in his last seven starts if you include the Zurich Classic thanks to solid ball-striking, and he has gained with the putter in four of his last six starts. This is great to see as that’s the weakest part of his game and if he can stay hot with it again then there’s no reason he can’t gain another top 10 major finish this week.
Tony Finau – Another golfer in fine form and arguably one of the hottest players on the PGA Tour currently. Finau has made 7 straight cuts including 3 top 5 finishes in that time. Finau fits the mold for The Country Club being long and accurate off the tee, good on approach (top 15 in this field), and top 10 in the field in hitting greens in regulation over the last 3 months. Finau was outstanding last week in Canada gaining 18.3 strokes total and had it not been for a dominant Rory he would have won, so look for him to have an impressive week again here.
Favorite value play is Denny McCarthy. He is such a clutch putter and impressive from the tee, so fits this place nicely and at that value, I can not turn it down.
I will be building a large chunk of my teams this week around the 3 core plays above with a variety of others based within my player pool. As you can see above this is a very balanced build so I will be spreading the captaincy across my 3 core plays.
FanTeam US Open Contests can be found by CLICKING HERE
FANTEAM SPORTSBOOK BET
Scottie Scheffler to win 12/1- As mentioned above I’m all in on the world number One this week. He already has those 4 wins to his name this year on 4 very different golf courses and quite frankly it should have been 5. He seems to have gotten over that little slump in form that he had after the Masters which is understandable, so he is an easy outright choice for me this week.
A £20 bet would return £260 should it land.
Rory McIlroy First-round leader 19/1 – Rory is carrying the PGA Tour on his back at present and is ticked off with the new LIV tour. He has been on fire over his last five starts with four top 8’s including winning last week at the Canadian Open, a 2nd at The Masters, and his worst finish during this stretch was a T18 at the Memorial Tournament two weeks ago. I can’t bet him outright as I don’t trust him over 4 days but he is a great choice to be a first-round leader this week.
A £20 bet would return £400 should it land.
The Sportsbook lobby can be found by CLICKING HERE.
I hope this article has given you plenty of food for thought – especially for those of you that know very little about Golf but are playing in the US Open contests.
Please feel free to message me on Twitter @JackHumphreyKM if you have any questions – all support queries should go to @FanTeamOfficial.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
If you’re new to FanTeam, you’ll need to create a new account here – alternatively, head on create a new account here – alternatively, head on over to fanteam.com and click the green ‘Register’ button in the top right corner.
Existing users can click the graphic below for direct access to the game lobby.
Best of luck to everyone entering – I look forward to seeing your usernames on the Leaderboard.
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