From: J.D. Cuban (USGA Museum/USGA)
The U.S. Open begins this week and the anticipation for this event is uncanny. Following the recent merge between LIV and The PGA TOUR, the press will be active all week with what I am sure will be many headlines popping around. Matt Fitzpatrick is the reigning champ, he won last year at The Country Club and is looking to win a second major to add to his shelf. The tournament is taking place at the famous Los Angeles Country Club located in Los Angeles, California. This course is sure to give every player a rough week with what we hope will be the staple U.S. Open conditions. The conditions for this championship are always as hard as the course can make it, which is going to allow for us to hopefully see some of the higher place finishers finishing around even par. Practically every big name will be participating in this weeks tournament, as it is one of the 4 major championships that happen every year. The opening favorites for this week are; Scottie Scheffler (13-2), John Rahm (8-1), Brooks Koepka (17-2), and Viktor Hovland (10-1). I can truly see any of these guys coming out on top this week, however, two of my top picks for this week are Viktor Hovland and Max Homa (16-1). Hovland has been knocking on the door all season with impressive performances such as his win 2 weeks ago at the Memorial Championship, a T-2 finish at the PGA Championship, and a T-7 finish at the Masters. Max Homa is another one of my favorites. He is still waiting to breakthrough this year and have a top finish at one of the events. One interesting piece of information is that Max Homa actually holds the current course record at the Los Angeles Country Club with a 61. He accomplished this during his Pac-12 Championship when he was at school at Cal. I strongly believe he has the experience at this course to finally pull of his first major.
My Pick: Viktor Hovland (+1600)
2nd Pick: Max Homa (+2800)
Value Pick: Sahith Theegala (+11000)