With the third major golf championship, the U.S. Open, approaching in three weeks’ time, we have produced a rookie guide to help shape your wagering enjoyment of the event at top sportsbooks, while informing you of the unique test of skill that will be found at the U.S. Open.
Why the U.S. Open Is a Unique Test
The major golf season is upon us, and it is fair to say that the U.S. Open golf is a unique test.
Course Selection
A rota of America’s best and most iconic courses is selected a few years in advance.
Course Set Up
This is where the USGA (United States Golf Association) has its pound of flesh on the players with wickedly difficult course setups.
They put a premium on driving accuracy combined with length off the tee and, the courses will dry out as the week goes on, making scoring conditions more difficult day on day.
That means, holding the fairways becomes harder but more important than ever, and the penalty for missing the fairways or greens is severe with rough the most penal in golf.
What Markets To Bet at the U.S. Open
The most popular betting market is the outright winner of the U.S. Open, which means finding the champion from 156 entrants. This is the hardest but most fulfilling market to bet in, though in recent years the top of the betting market has dominated with only two winners priced over (+5000) in the last decade.
To balance the high variance of betting the outright market, we suggest you spread stakes and risk into the place markets, which are typically top 5, top 10 and top 20.
Tailored Markets
To balance betting variance further, there are tailored markets to choose from such as,
- First round leader
- Three balls and two balls
- Match bets over 72 and 18 holes
- To make the cut
- To miss the cut
- Top Nationality markets. E.g. Top American, Top European, Top Korean, etc.
The 2024 Course
This year’s U.S. Open will be held at Pinehurst Course No. 2 in North Carolina, a track last used in 2014, and won by the German Martin Kaymer. A relatively new course on the USGA’s rota for their Open, and used on three occasions since 1999, with Michael Campbell and the late Payne Stewart the other course winners.
The winning scores in those three renewals are –1 and even par in 1999 and 2005 while Kaymer’s winning score of –9 was on the low side, but an extreme outlier given he won the event by eight shots.
Course Notes
- Pinehurst Course No.2, North Carolina
- Designers – Donald Ross,
- Redesigns – Robert Trent Jones (1974), Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2010).
- Par 70, 7588 yards (long yardage for a par 70)
- Greens – Ultra dwarf Bermuda grass
- Fairways and Rough – Bermuda
What Sort of Golfer Suits Pinehurst No. 2?
The sort of golfer suited to the demanding test of Pinehurst No. 2 will require patience and discipline, because the U.S. Open is a grind, and on many occasions, the lowest 18-hole round of the week will be no better than circa 4-under par. That means a strategic approach is required and the golfer will likely formulate those plans during their practice rounds. There is little doubt that the U.S. Open is an acquired taste for the players from most weeks, and an ability to play defensively and limit the damage on your poor holes is a prerequisite.
Those opening three renewals at Pinehurst give us three different winners and interestingly, none of them are particularly long off the tee, which as mentioned is a trait we normally look for in recent years of the U.S. Open, which theoretically should widen the pool of potential winners maybe upwards of +5000 in the betting.
One noticeable fact about Pinehurst No. 2 is the original designer, Donald Ross, who was an esteemed designer responsible for many tracks used on the PGA Tour over the years. Those tracks that correlate are the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, which holds the Tour Championship, the Oakland Hills Country Club, which has hosted six U.S. Opens and three PGAs and the Detroit Golf Club, home of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The Ideal Mix of Player Required:
The U.S. Open is such a unique test that proven winners or strong performers on tough tracks is a positive. That list includes all major championship winners and champions from the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, which is a strategically tough test with similar greens
Indeed, the same year Martin Kaymer won, he won the Players Championship before, and the German had previously won major championships to illustrate his skills.
A player who has many of their best results and tournament wins on Ultra dwarf Bermuda grass or Bermuda grass greens would be a huge positive.
A player high up on the PGA Tour stats categories strokes gained tee to green but also the ones who hit it further, for this the Total Driving stat is very informative.
Because Birdies are a rare commodity in a U.S. Open, another stat that I like is Bogey Avoidance, and currently Scottie Scheffler leads that category from Xander Schauffele. Say no more!
