Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka profile as two of the U.S. Open’s greatest favorites.
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PINEHURST, N.C. — Jack Nicklaus used to say he’d hear a participant complain about U.S. Open situations and smile.
It meant he had one fewer participant to beat.
Shortly after successful the 1974 U.S. Open with a rating of 7-over par, Hale Irwin agreed.
“The pall was so thick within the locker room after Monday and Tuesday, you may have minimize it with a knife,” mentioned Irwin, who would go on to develop into a three-time U.S. Open champ. “I concluded that 70 % of the sector had checked out.”
And in 2019, one other multiple-time U.S. Open winner, Brooks Koepka, shared some comparable calculus.
“There’s 156 [players] within the discipline, so you work at the least 80 of them I’m simply going to beat,” he mentioned. “You work about half of them received’t play effectively from there, so that you’re right down to about possibly 35. After which from 35, a few of them simply — stress goes to get to them. It solely leaves you with a couple of extra, and also you’ve simply obtained to beat these guys.”
The self-esteem right here is easy: The U.S. Open might have considered one of professional golf’s greatest tee sheets, nevertheless it has considered one of golf’s smallest fields. One-hundred and fifty-six gamers will compete this week, however solely someplace within the neighborhood of 40 gamers stand an opportunity of successful.
So, who’re they? And what have we discovered from them throughout the first three days at Pinehurst No. 2? Yours really has spent the previous few days gathering info from each nook and cranny of the Carolina Sandhills on the blokes who might win, and right here’s a small nugget on 10 of them.
1 nugget from 10 U.S. Open contenders
1. Scottie Scheffler
The speak of Scottie Scheffler at Pinehurst is maybe finest outlined by these different than Scottie Scheffler.
Discuss with anybody at Pinehurst — gamers, caddies, brokers, broadcasters, followers — and the primary phrases out of their mouth can be about Scheffler’s dominance. Everyone’s speaking about it, even when not everyone needs to acknowledge it. (Jon Rahm’s reply to me when requested if he felt stress added by Scheffler’s dominance ran two letters in size: “No.”)
The consensus appears that one other win for Scheffler this week might push him additional into rarefied ranges of golf superstardom — ranges maybe not reached since early profession Rory McIlroy. Apparently, everybody additionally appears to agree that, in a vacuum, these ranges of superstardom are a very good factor for golf (even when these ranges of superstardom theoretically come to the detriment of his fellow gamers). Scheffler successful is sweet for enterprise, and golf might use some extra of that.
2. Xander Schauffele
Xander Schauffele was clearly compartmentalizing as finest as he might throughout PGA Championship week. The event was a “massive occasion,” not a serious, and his efficiency all through every spherical was certified as “Solely [insert day of the week].”
As everyone knows, that technique paid off. So I used to be shocked to see issues wanting barely completely different this week.
After a life-changing (and monkey-on-his-back-removing) win in Louisville, Schauffele has a palpable swagger at Pinehurst. He seems much less tense strolling by way of the fairways, and his sport is reflecting it. On three straight holes throughout Wednesday afternoon’s follow spherical, Schauffele flagged strategy photographs inside 20 ft whereas the rest of his group missed the placing floor altogether.
There’s an outdated idea about gamers breaking by way of on the majors in bunches (Phil did it most famously within the early 2000s), and watching Schauffele’s change of demeanor this week has me questioning if we’re getting ready to a second.
3. Rory McIlroy
For those who ignore the tabloids, it’s been a quiet week for Rory McIlroy.
The four-time main winner has opted to follow largely in solitude at Pinehurst, going away from his typical slate of star-studded main championship follow pairings in favor of solo jaunts. He’s saved a low profile whereas doing so, conserving largely to himself, caddie Harry Diamond and placing coach/NBC analyst Brad Faxon. Golf-wise, he’s seemed superior, roasting tight attracts and chasing tucked pins with jaw-dropping ease. His swing seems as grooved and cozy as ever.
But it surely’s onerous for anybody to keep away from the tabloids this week. On Tuesday night, The Guardian reported that McIlroy and his spouse, Erica, had known as off their divorce simply 4 weeks after the previous filed. Whereas it’s actually Rory’s proper to have his private life stay non-public, every of McIlroy’s previous two main begins has come underneath the specter of freshly introduced divorce proceedings. That’s troublesome for anybody, even the third-best participant on this planet, to have occurring within the background.
4. Tiger Woods
OK, we hear you. Tiger is a U.S. Open lengthy shot, and that is presupposed to be a narrative about U.S. Open contenders. But it surely’s gonna take a hell of so much various cruddy main finishes for us to drag Tiger off the record of potential winners — particularly when the situations (flat) and climate (humid) are as favorable as this week seems. Woods has seemed sharp by way of the primary few days of this week, and his follow periods have revealed so much about how he’s feeling.
Tiger broke out an oldie however a goodie on the follow vary on Wednesday afternoon, engaged on the “exit left” drill with longtime supervisor/pal Rob McNamara. Within the drill, McNamara held the butt-end of a 7-iron at roughly belt-buckle top above Woods’ fingers, whereas Tiger targeted on conserving his fingers away from the outstretched membership by way of the downswing. The drill, which dates again to the Butch Harmon days, goals to maintain Tiger hitting controllable, constant fades — and goals to rid Tiger of the form of double-cross miss we’ve seen a couple of occasions this main championship season.
It ought to come as no shock to be taught the drill focuses on Tiger’s surgically repaired backbone, aiming to maintain its angle constant by way of the swing. When these constructing blocks maintain collectively, the shot form normally does, too.
5. Bryson DeChambeau
Bryson seemed like a modified man on the PGA Championship, and never solely due to the crowd’s newfound adulation. That change of tenor appears to have carried over to U.S. Open week, the place Bryson entered one of many discipline’s heavy favorites — and few former U.S. Open champs. So I requested him why.
“What I’ll say is I’ve modified, undoubtedly, in numerous methods. I nonetheless really feel like I’m that very same child that got here out right here proper at the beginning, however I really feel like as an individual I’m simply completely different to work together with,” he mentioned. ” My dad passing gave me an ideal perspective on life. Simply all the pieces normally has modified. They are saying each 5 years any person’s life adjustments and it couldn’t be extra true. I’m a very completely different particular person than I used to be again at Winged Foot. There’s remnants. I’ve nonetheless obtained quite a lot of the identical cells, however I’m undoubtedly completely different within the mind for certain.”
A really Bryson reply. A really telling one, too.
6. Max Homa
The hidden gem at Pinehurst No. 2 by way of three days? The short-game space, positioned on the far aspect of the follow inexperienced, the place the crowds are few and the sorcery is mind-boggling.
The famed turtleback greens at Pinehurst No. 2 have introduced out every kind of bizarre short-game photographs from the most effective golfers on this planet, from the low-iron bump-and-run to the three-yard spinner. Just a few months in the past, Max Homa spoke glowingly about witnessing Tiger Woods hit these sorts of photographs up shut at Augusta Nationwide, and on Wednesday afternoon I discovered him and Tiger having fun with a short-game session inside spitting distance of each other on the follow space.
Brief sport can be nothing in need of important at Pinehurst, the place the greens reject golf balls like raindrops on a windshield. Fortuitously, Homa has managed these sorts of bleeding-edge selections earlier than. He performed 4 sensible rounds on the Masters in April and got here up simply in need of Scheffler’s eventual coronation after a couple of testy wedge photographs on No. 12 at Augusta Nationwide broke the fallacious means.
In all chance, a successful rating on Sunday afternoon will demand a couple of good bounces on testy wedge photographs, so I questioned what number of golf equipment Homa is planning to make use of across the greens. He laughed.
“I feel solely 4,” he mentioned. “Sand wedge, lob wedge, 5-iron and putter.”
I laughed too. Solely 4.
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7. Brooks Koepka
Brooks Koepka seemed mildly annoyed on the vary for a couple of minutes on Wednesday afternoon. He was holding a driver and dealing with teacher Claude Harmon III on a particular cut-shot swing really feel.
Koepka has described earlier than how vital the fade is to his sport, and as swing after swing went out into the ether, it was clear that he wasn’t getting precisely the shot form he was on the lookout for.
Lastly, Harmon tweaked one thing in Koepka’s backswing and it clicked. He despatched a ball into the environment in a rush, curving across the timber on the heart of the driving vary by way of a pocket of air so completely positioned you may need thought it was an accident.
It wasn’t.
Brooks handed his driver again to caddie Ricky Elliot earlier than his ball returned to earth and moved on to a unique membership. The tune-up was progressing.
8. Viktor Hovland
Hovland famously mentioned he was debating the deserves of dropping out of the PGA Championship altogether final month when he re-hired coach Joe Mayo and instantly completed in solo third place.
A month has handed since that occasion, and it’s secure to say that almost all of us assumed the “outdated” Viktor Hovland was again. That’s not fairly the case.
He mentioned on Tuesday that he was capable of finding a “really feel” throughout his follow spherical on Monday, however admitted he’d “ideally” desire to know his swing feels effectively upfront of a event week.
“It hasn’t been fairly nearly as good as I’d wish to,” Hovland mentioned. “I’m curious to see what occurs once I go on the market and play at present and the subsequent couple days, form of see how that works.”
That makes two of us.
9. Collin Morikawa
“I nonetheless don’t really feel like there’s a goal on my again,” Scottie Scheffler mentioned on Tuesday afternoon.
Clearly he hasn’t spoken to Collin Morikawa, who might have three or 4 wins this season if not for Scheffler’s brilliance.
Morikawa has been arguably the most effective golfer not named Scheffler or Schauffele because the begin of 2024, and but he has zero wins to indicate for it. The humorous factor about Morikawa, although, is {that a} win this weekend would put him three-quarters of the best way to the grand slam.
It’s not as horny as a Scottie win within the public eye proper now, nevertheless it’s each bit as believable — and maybe as legacy-shifting.
10. Ludvig Aberg
Ludvig Aberg has cooled off some since an electrical begin to the season resulted in a second-place Masters end. He’s additionally handled a mysterious knee harm that pressured a WD. However he poured in a 25-footer for birdie on the seventeenth throughout Wednesday’s follow spherical, mashed a handful of really terrifying golf photographs, and profiles because the form of high-ball hitter who will thrive as soon as the greens at Pinehurst harden up heading into the weekend.
However that’s simply his golf profile. I’m most impressed by his outlook on life and golf, which may be finest surmised with the form of shrug he so usually throws caddie Joe Skovron’s means. As Skovron advised me earlier this 12 months, “he’s mature past his years.” Profitable a U.S. Open calls for it.
