US Open
US Open preview: Schauffele a Max bet at Brookline
Just four weeks after Justin Thomas won the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in dramatic fashion, we head into the third Major of the year, the US Open.
Traditionally the hardest test of the four Majors, if not the whole year, this tournament tests every facet of a player’s game with thick rough and firm conditions often punishing the nearest of misses.
This year we head to The Country Club at Brookline in Boston – a course most famous for the infamous US Ryder Cup comeback in 1999. With just two par-5s and six par-4s measuring over 470 yards, this looks a real test and one that should be a great watch with the winning score not expected to be many under par.
Max confidence in Homa
Max Homa’s Major record isn’t anything to write home about, however this is a player on the rise and the test that Brookline presents should be right up his street. His victory at the Wells Fargo – the second of his career – at the incredibly testing TPC Potomac showed his liking for courses where pars are your friend.
That’s a course where driving is paramount, and with the rough expected to be brutal at points this week, keeping it on the fairway of the tee is going to be hugely important in deciding the winner. Homa followed that win at the Wells Fargo with his best Major finish when finishing 13th at the PGA Championship. And since then he’s been 23rd and fifth to continue an outstanding patch of form which has seen him make every cut he’s played since January and win three times in less than 18 months.
As mentioned, Homa’s CV tells us he really enjoys a proper test and the fact he ranks 30th in SG: Off-The-Tee is evidence of that. He’s a superb putter who made history by being the first player in the modern era to record less than 100 putts during four rounds at the Memorial. And his swing has those in the know purring, so it’s not that hard to explain why he’s now strutting his stuff amongst the game’s elite. Two of his four PGA Tour wins have come on similar putting surfaces and he looks a cracking bet at 35/1.
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Schauffele’s US Open record makes him interesting
With tournament form of 5, 6, 3, 5, 7, this is a Major that Xander Schauffele clearly excels in and he’s got to merit solid consideration at 25/1.
We all know the story with Schauffele in that he’s one who has a game which has no weaknesses but for whatever reason he hasn’t won as much as he clearly should. He won the Olympic gold last year and got a first PGA Tour victory since 2019 when winning the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside good friend Patrick Cantlay, and you’d have thought that would have given the American lots of confidence.
He surged through the field at the AT&T Byron Nelson with a Sunday 61 and played perfectly well at the PGA Championship (T13th) and the Memorial (T18th). So he comes into this in solid form and he’ll be excited at getting another go at the test that the US Open presents.
As mentioned, his record in the tournament speaks for itself and his all-round game – ranked seventh in SG: Tee-To-Green – is testament to that. He’s always been a solid driver of the ball and has ranked inside the top 16 in SG: Off-The-Tee in two of his last three starts, and it would be no surprise at all to see him in there pitching come Sunday afternoon.
