Best bets
2pts each-way Brian Harman @ 33/1
1pt each-way Hideki Matsuyama @ 22/1
1pt each-way Tom Kim @ 40/1
1pt each-way Patrick Cantlay @ 20/1
1pt each-way Tony Finau @ 28/1
Place FIVE pre-tournament bets and get an in-play matched FREE BET! T&Cs apply.
While the triumphs and disasters of one of the most gripping US Opens in history sink in, the show must go on. There’s no rest for new champion Bryson DeChambeau, back on the LIV beat in Nashville, but shell-shocked Rory McIlroy has pulled out of the Travelers Championship in Connecticut and will take a break until his Scottish Open defence.
How the PGA Tour must have hated LIV defector DeChambeau running off with their precious trophy. But the sight of the two biggest box-office stars slugging it out and DeChambeau producing the shot of the year, that 55-yard bunker shot to four feet at the 72nd hole, must have warmed even their cold hearts. And if the greatest showman’s heartstopping success, hugely popular as it was with the king-size crowd, brings closer the end of the stalemate that is ripping the game apart, ‘lending’ the trophy to LIV’s best player for a year will have been worth it.
Poor Rory must carry the scars of missing putts of 30 inches on the 16th and not much longer on the 18th. They cost him his first Major in ten years just when, at two ahead with five to play at iconic Pinehurst No. 2, he had one hand on the trophy.
It was embarrassing to watch one of the greatest golfers in the world unravel, particularly after playing some of his finest golf of the year. He went from three behind DeChambeau starting the final day to two ahead before going pear-shaped. Such was his shame he couldn’t bear to face the world’s media afterwards, driving straight off the course. It was even more heartbreaking than when he blew the Masters with a four-shot lead in 2011 because he was young then with so many chances ahead of him; at 35, time and nerve may be running out.
As one of the most popular golfers on tour, he will be missed at the Travelers in the final $20m Signature tournament of the series at River Highlands which is the shortest course on the PGA roster and one of only two under 7000 yards. The one tiny consolation is that by taking second place at the US Open Rory has moved up from third to second on the world rankings.
The main man is of course still Scottie Scheffler whose T41 finish at Pinehurst proved he’s human following five wins and two seconds in eight attempts. Has Scottie peaked and gone over the top? The bookies clearly don’t think so – Fitzdares have him at a tight 7/2 – and it would be madness to ignore him because of one bad week at the office. Besides, he does have course form – fourth last year behind Keegan Bradley and 13th in 2022.
Yet now we know he’s beatable, I’m putting up unflappable Open champion Brian Harman whose game is tailor-made for River Highlands, a 6835-yard par 70 where short, straight hitters like Russell Knox and Chez Reavie have put bombers in their place in the past.
Harman himself had only Bradley in front of him last year, the latest in a series of strong course showings (eighth in 2022, fifth in 2021, eighth in 2019, sixth in 2018). The gutsy little left-hander’s self-belief has come on a ton since that runaway Open triumph last July.
I’m hoping Tom Kim will take a shine to River Highlands as he played so well for 54 holes last week. This shorter test should suit him better and his putter is hotter now than he was in a shaky period earlier in the year. We have not seen the best of the 21-year-old this campaign but he has much to give.
Even though Ludvig Aberg was ultimately disappointing after such a great start last week – five under par after day one but one over after a brace of 73s on the weekend was not the progression expected from the Swede whose short putting looked shaky on Sunday – we do tend to judge him to a more demanding standard than the other new kids on the block who would take a 12th at Pinehurst in a heartbeat.
Even so, Tony Finau at more than twice Aberg’s odds looks better value after his third at the US Open, that followed an eighth at Memorial and top-20s at the PGA and Colonial. He is trending the right way and now he’s found his putting touch, a first win of the year cannot be far away.
Patrick Cantlay knows the course like the back of his hand as he toured it in just 60 blows as an amateur in 2011. He tied for fourth last year and it’s just a question of how fresh he will be after a gruelling third-place week at the US Open where he was at the business end from the outset. That was played out in steamy conditions and the forecast is for it to be even hotter in the 90s and more humid.
Heat never bothers Hideki Matsuyama and his game looked in great nick last week. Sixth place for the Riviera winner followed an eighth at Memorial and, 13th last year, it’s hard to imagine he won’t be in contention.
Defending champion Bradley, PGA champion Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley and Sepp Straka could also be in the shake-up along with European Ryder Cup heroes Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Matt Fitzpatrick. But star man Harman may keep them all at bay.
Best bets
2 pts win Bryson DeChambeau @ 13/2
1 pt ew Sergio Garcia @ 16/1
1 pt ew Carlos Ortiz @ 20/1
Bryson DeChambeau is all the rage after rocking and rolling into Music City following his regal US Open triumph, and he can remain on Cloud Nine by winning the LIV Golf Nashville starting on Friday.
Fitzdares have the physics graduate, who earned the ‘Mad Scientist’ moniker because of his golf equipment eccentricities, as their 13-2 favourite after he became the ‘People’s Champion’ with his show-stopping success secured with a 55-yards bunker shot struck with a 55 degree wedge at the 18th to four feet from where he jubilantly sank the winning putt.
Ironically, DeChambeau states in the ‘Quick Facts’ section of his LIV biography that the shot that gives him the most difficulty is “a 60-yards bunker shot.”
That needs to be changed after DeChambeau rated the strike “the shot of my life” as he cuddled the 18-inch tall sterling silver trophy for a second time, following his first US Open win in 2020, and invited the ecstatic fans to “somehow have a touch of this thing.” They had cheered him every step of the way on the fabled No 2 course as golf’s greatest showman graduated to being recognised as currently the game’s biggest star.
Now the 30-year-old Californian has dragged himself away from the celebrations in North Carolina and made the 505 miles journey into neighbouring state Tennessee to tee-up in the home of country music at The Grove – a layout designed by LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. The 7,297 yards (par 71) tree-lined course with generous fairways and fast greens incorporates the natural rolling hills with man-made ponds presenting pitfalls and spectacular bunkering providing additional protection.
DeChambeau – the longest driver in the game – can stay on a roll by completing back-to-back wins as he did for two of his nine PGA Tour triumphs by following his 2018 Northern Trust success with victory in the Dell Technologies Championship seven days later.
Eight of the 12 LIV golfers to contend the US Open – Jon Rahm withdrew with a poisoned toe although returns to action this week – made the halfway cut with Sergio Garcia (tied 12th), Tyrrell Hatton (tied 26th), Brooks Koepka (tied 26th) and Cam Smith (tied 32nd) the highest finishers after DeChambeau.
Garcia has not enjoyed success since the last of his 36 professional wins in the 2020 Sanderson Farms Championship on the PGA Tour but, after gaining an eleventh hour place as an alternate in the US Open, he closed his challenge in Pinehurst by playing the final 14 holes in three under par.
The 44-year-old Spaniard, winner of the 2017 Masters, has suffered cruel misfortune in losing three play-offs – two this season at Mayakoba and Miami – since joining LIV, but he is a supreme technician when it comes to long iron approaches so if his putter behaves it could spell the end of four years of hurt.
There is also a good omen for Garcia in that four of the last five LIV winners – Abraham Ancer, Dean Burmester, Brendan Steele and Carlos Ortiz – were winning for the first time on the circuit.
Ortiz, like DeChambeau, is seeking back-to-back wins following his breakthrough in Houston earlier this month. The 33-year-old Mexican, who elected not to try to qualify for the US Open, would become only the second player to do so on LIV by emulating Talor Gooch who in 2023 claimed successive LIV titles.
Rahm, returning from the disappointment of missing the US Open on the back of his second round withdrawal in Houston, Martin Kaymer, tied 64th in Pinehurst despite an encouraging opening 70, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Patrick Reed are also seeking maiden LIV wins. Reed, tied third in Houston, is back in the groove and a clear threat.
Hatton contended at Pinehurst before backpedalling in the final round and, like Koepka, who became the first LIV player to win a Major with his US PGA success last year, might be nursing a hangover from being in DeChambeau’s shadow.
Caleb Surratt, who lives two hours away in Knoxville, attended the University of Tennessee and is ecstatic that “all my friends and family will get to come out and see me.” Whether he will be inspired as DeChambeau was in Pinehurst remains to be seen but, at 20, he is the youngest LIV player and no forlorn hope at 100-1 with Fitzdares.
Best bets
2pts each-way Tom McKibbin @ 16/1
1.5pts each-way Matt Wallace @ 14/1
1pt each-way Laurie Canter @ 16/1
1pt each-way Johannes Veerman @ 40/1
0.5pt each-way Joost Luiten @ 33/1
It’s all a bit ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’ after one of the most heart-stopping and heart-breaking US Opens of all-time as we come down to earth with what used to be called the Dutch Open but is now back flying under the banner of the national airline.
Hosting the tournament for the second time is the International club just outside Amsterdam just a Rory McIlroy drive and five-iron from Schipol airport, making it one of the noisiest weeks on the DP World Tour calendar.
Sergio Garcia was the first winner there in 2019, edging out a very young Nicolai Hojgaard, and I’m hoping Tom McKibbin, 12 months after his breakthrough win at the European Open in Hamburg, will be the second.
McKibbin was buzzing after playing alongside world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in the final round of the US Open after spectacularly making the cut by holing a 20ft birdie putt on his Majors debut, and if he has any adrenaline left, the KLM Open looks the ideal vehicle for the 21-year-old from Belfast to chalk up his second DP World Tour victory.
The gangly Northern Irishman who played his early golf at Holywood on the same course that Rory McIlroy did has been a model of consistency this year with seven top-16 finishes in ten starts and the linksy, hilly Ian Woosnam Signature course, just 6914 yards par 71, looks right up his street.
He was on cloud nine on Sunday after matching Scheffler, both men shooting 72 for a share of 41st place, and that experience in front of a full gallery is something money can’t buy. I’m expecting June to be bustin’ out all over again for this future superstar.
His biggest danger could be Matt Wallace, now full-time on the PGA Tour but back for a rare visit to the course where he finished third five years ago. A winner on both main tours, the grafting Englishman is a steady rather than spectacular money-maker on the US circuit but he showed with fourth place at the Nelson that he’s well capable of mixing it with the best.
Now that Laurie Canter has broken his duck after years of being the bridesmaid – it took the 34-year-old from Bath 142 attempts before he cracked it in Hamburg – he’s worth keeping on the right side in run-of-the-mill tournaments. Playing with the big boys at LIV has toughened him up.
Bernd Wiesberger who finished T2 to Canter at the European Open is almost back to the sort of form that took him to eight DPWT victories and Ryder Cup honours. It has taken the Austrian time to reorganise himself after a disappointing dalliance with LIV and it now only needs a good putting week for him to post his first W since 2021.
There’s no telling what blowing an eight-shot lead will have done to Sebastian Söderberg in front of his own people in Sweden but it must have been a tremendous shock to the system. Still, he would probably have settled for second place at the start of the week and on his general excellent form he has to be short-listed.
He’s a golfer I admire but it happens to the best of them – just look at Rory on Sunday – and if he does get back on the horse straight away without me backing him, it’s my fault for being so fickle.
Visiting American Luke List, runner-up at Riviera, can be a birdie machine if he fancies the job but it is another American I am more interested in and that’s Johannes Veerman. He looked a real star of the future when he followed his breakthrough win in the 2021 Czech Masters with an eighth at the Scottish and third in the Irish Open but he fell off the gold standard for two years and it is only now he’s revealing his true potential again. Runner-up in India and top-ten in China and Germany, he’s ready to roll.
Finally, when the tour’s in Holland, local hero Joost Luiten is always one to keep onside. He won this twice, in 2013 and 2016 and although this prolific winner is not quite as good as he was he’s putting some decent results together, 11th in New Delhi and Singapore, 13th in China, and was T10 when the International last hosted five years ago.
Apart from a bit of rain on Friday, the weather looks okay so a winning score close to Sergio’s 18 under in 2019 can be expected.
For all your bets on the US Open, visit our dedicated golf betting page.
