PINEHURST, N.C. – The U.S. Open returns to one of America’s most storied golfing venues – even the tourism bureau for the area is dubbed the Home of American Golf – with the best in the game all knowing they need to chase down a player in the middle of a historic run.
With plenty more on the field, the course, and what else is on the line this week, here’s everything you need to know from the third men’s major championship of the year.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER CONTINUES TO MAKE HISTORY
It’s very likely we could be one overzealous police officer away from missing out on the potential for a grand slam effort from Scheffler in 2024.
Whether it’s via the numbers or the eye test, Scheffler comes into this week at Pinehurst as the overwhelming favourite. He leads the PGA Tour in almost every key statistical category (seriously, pick one!) and has won five times already. He has 12 top-10 finishes in 13 events, including a tie for 8th at the PGA Championship – 48 hours after he was arrested – and two runner-up results to go with the five trophies.
You can be sure that his contemporaries on Tour are just as impressed as everyone else in golf.
“(The) only thing that took him from winning a golf tournament was going into a jail cell for an hour,” Rory McIlroy said with a laugh.
“Scottie is doing incredible things. Every week we play, he seems to build a bigger lead, and somehow make the mountain even taller for all of us to climb,” Xander Schauffele, who won the PGA Championship, said.
A post on X (formerly Twitter) from new-media influencer account The Fried Egg pointed to now just what events Scheffler has won, but where he’s won so far in 2024 – Bay Hill (the Arnold Palmer Invitational), TPC Sawgrass (The Players), Augusta National (the Masters), Harbour Town Golf Links
(RBC Heritage) and Sunday at Muirfield Village (Jack Nicklaus’ event, the Memorial) – as career-making.
Indeed, had anyone put together a career that saw wins at each of those iconic places an argument could be made they would deserve a spot in the hall of fame.
Scheffler has won at all those places in four months.
He knows he’s in historic form, but he’s also just trying to be in his own bubble.
“I try not to think about the past. I try not to think about the future. I try to live in the present. That’s how I’ve always been. I try to be present where I am,” Scheffler said. “I try not to overthink things. I try to live one moment at a time and soak it all up because you never know how long it’s going to last. Just try and soak up the good times when you can and fight through the bad.”
Pinehurst No. 2, which is hosting its first U.S. Open in a decade, is dialled in to be a ball-strikers golf course. A second-shot golf course. Scheffler has already won at layouts like that this year (a few of them, in fact) and he is as complete a golfer as we’ve seen this side of peak Tiger Woods.
So, he comes in as the favourite. And it won’t be a surprise if he leaves Sunday as the champion.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM PINEHURST NO. 2
Pinehurst No. 2 last hosted the U.S. Open in 2014, a runaway by Martin Kaymer. Prior to that it hosted in 2005 and then in 1999. The club went through a significant overhaul prior to the 2014 Open (it also hosted the U.S. Women’s Open the next week) where iconic designers Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw took the course all the way back to its early 1920s origins.
The duo ripped any modernity from the course and for 2014 golfers saw the return of Carolinian sand-hill waste areas and greens that were re-shaped and re-sized back to what Donald Ross had originally set up.
Those greens are the thing that will give the games’ best fits, as they are best described as ‘turtleback’ or ‘upside-down cereal bowls.’ Missing by just
a little bit could mean a big number. Gareth Raflewski, putting coach to Canadian Nick Taylor, posted a video on Instagram Monday that showed Taylor lip out a practice putt from about six feet – which kept rolling out of the screen before Raflewski stopped recording.
The 2023 U.S. Open winner, Wyndham Clark, called the greens “borderline” – on Monday!
“(They might) be (those greens) when they get so slick that you bend down to read a putt or bend down to fix a ball mark and your putter slips,” Tiger Woods said.
The weather over the tournament days is set to have temperatures in the mid-30s so don’t expect things to dry out any time soon.
The director of golf at Pinehurst, Mark Barksdale, told Sportsnet that with the course playing firm and fast he expects the winning score to be right around even par or 1 under.
“We’re excited to see these guys become mere mortals over the next few days,” Barksdale said.
The course will play to a par 70 at 7,543 yards.
TIGER WOODS RETURNS TO ACTION
After missing the cut at the PGA Championship, Tiger Woods returns to tee it up at another major championship – but he had a little help to get here.
Woods received a special exemption from the United States Golf Association to play this week after his five-year exemption from the ‘Return to Glory’ Masters victory in 2019 ended last season. It was no surprise to see Woods get the invite – he is a three-time winner of the U.S. Open and one of the game’s greatest winners of USGA-hosted championships – but it’s also a reflection of where he’s at in his career and life.
Woods played practice rounds Monday and Tuesday with son Charlie in tow and said the father-son relationship, especially this week, is something incredibly special – and informative.
“I trust him with my swing and my game. He’s seen it more than anybody else in the world. He’s seen me hit more golf balls than anyone,” Woods said. “It’s neat for him to see the guys that he watches on TV and YouTube and TikTok, whatever the hell it is that they do. At home he’s with (Justin Thomas) and (Rickie Fowler) a lot. But to see other guys hit the golf ball, it doesn’t really do it justice until you actually see it in person”
If there’s something Woods can very much look forward to when the actual tournament itself starts, it’s the forecast.
With the heat soaring as the tournament progresses, Woods’ body will likely feel looser, earlier. It’s something he’s long talked about as a hurdle for him these days. It won’t be an issue at Pinehurst.
“I feel like I have the strength to be able to do it. It’s just a matter of doing it,” Woods said. “It’s like home. Hot and humid is what we deal with every single day at home in Florida, so that’s nothing new.”
There is still frustration that exists inside the hyper-competitive Woods about his results, however.
Collin Morikawa, who participated in a clinic alongside Woods in Las Vegas two weeks ago, said at the Memorial how in awe he was of Woods’ ability to still shape shots at will. The game and the swing and the shots long and short are all there, but golf is not just a collection of shots. Woods has long admitted that his body will never be 100 per cent, but he’s here to compete.
“I feel like I have the strength to be able to do it,” Woods said. “It’s just a matter of doing it.”
FINAL WEEK FOR OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION
There’s a major championship trophy on offer at the end of the week but there’s also a chance to earn an Olympic medal.
Sunday marks the cut-off date for qualification for the men’s Olympic Golf competition in Paris this summer and there are still some races yet to be decided – including Canada.
The United States will be the only team to send four golfers to Paris (a country can have up to four if they are ranked inside the top 15 in the world) with Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schaueffele, Wyndham Clark, and Collin Morikawa as the current qualifiers. Morikawa is the man on the bubble at No. 7 in the world with Patrick Cantlay (No. 9) and Max Homa (No. 10) hot on his heels.
Canada saw a significant change in its standings Sunday at the Memorial with Adam Hadwin’s solo third-place finish. He jumped Corey Conners for the second spot, and, as it stands, both Hadwin and a fellow native of Abbotsford, B.C. Nick Taylor will be heading to Paris. But as Hadwin himself showed, a good result at a big tournament (there are even more world-ranking points on offer at the U.S. Open than last week’s signature event) could mean some dramatic changes. Hadwin is No. 35 in the world while Conners is No. 46. Taylor Pendrith (No. 65) and Mackenzie Hughes (No. 66) are also firmly in the mix.
Some other notable races –
Spain’s second spot: David Puig is No. 117 in the world while countryman Jorge Campillo is No. 116. This is the closest race for a spot this week, while Jon Rahm has already locked up the first spot for Spain.
Great Britain’s second spot: The team currently features Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick. Robert MacIntyre (who won the RBC Canadian Open) is No. 41 in the world and Justin Rose is No. 58. It’ll take a huge result from either to top Fitzpatrick at No. 16 (who is a former U.S. Open winner) but MacIntyre has momentum on his side while Rose is also a past U.S. Open winner at a golf course – Merion – that is awfully similar to Pinehurst in terms of what it demands.
South Korea’s team: An incredibly tight race to make this team. Tom Kim (No. 22) and Byeong Hun An (No. 23) are the current front runners (An is the only golfer to be inside the top-10 in the FedExCup standings every week so far this season) while Sungjae Im (No. 30) and Si Woo Kim (No. 45) can absolutely get themselves into a qualifying spot with a good result this week.
Given the foursome of highly-ranked Koreans, that’s music to Mike Weir’s ears as the International Team captain for the Presidents Cup.
Australia’s second spot: Jason Day (No. 21) and Min Woo Lee (No. 36) are currently qualified. While it would take a small miracle to happen, there’s certainly a chance for Cam Davis (No. 68) and Cam Smith (No. 72) to make a leap.
NOTABLE QUALIFIERS: FROM A SCIENCE TEACHER TO A MASTERS CHAMPION
The most fun part of the U.S. Open is seeing who has qualified for the tournament via its multi-step pathway, a la the plot of ‘Tin Cup.’
The U.S. Open remains, indeed, open.
This year the qualifiers run the gauntlet from a Canadian amateur Ashton McCulloch to journeyman pro Michael McGowan who grew up less than 10 minutes away from Pinehurst (and will hit the tournament’s first shot Thursday) to 2013 Masters winner Adam Scott (who is playing his 92nd straight major championship, the second-longest streak in men’s professional golf) to Colin Prater – who is a high school science teacher in Colorado.
BEST BETS
Favourites
Scottie Scheffler (+333): No reason needed.
Collin Morikawa (+1400): Morikawa finished runner-up to Scheffler at the Memorial Sunday in a very U.S. Open-like setup. He has also been in a final group on the weekend at both the Masters and the PGA Championship. He’s close.
Brooks Koepka (+2200): It’s another one of those weeks where only the strong survive – both physically and mentally – and Koepka has quickly become the best of the modern era in brutal, true U.S. Open setups.
Long Shots
Russell Henley (+8000): Henley is top 20 on the PGA Tour in both strokes gained: approach and strokes gained: around the green in his last four tournaments and is top 25 on Tour in bogey avoidance. He’s also notched two top-15 finishes in the last three U.S. Opens.
Corey Conners (+8000): Conners is one of the best ball-strikers on the planet and has been since he first joined the PGA Tour. Conners has also been brilliant with the putter over his last few tournaments, sixth in strokes gained: putting at the RBC Canadian Open and 48th last week at the Memorial (up nearly 100 spots on his year-long average in that stat).
Billy Horschel (+12500): Horschel finished tied for 8th at the PGA Championship and T15 last week at the Memorial. He’s 11th in strokes gained: around the green this season and his complete game combined with his veteran presence could be a sneaky nice combo this week.
Odds via SportsInteraction