Big guns ready for battle at US Open
The showdown at Shinnecock this week should be loaded with top-drawer golf
THE second Major of the season, the US Open, takes centre stage in world golf this week and what an entertaining and intriguing tournament we have in prospect.
The showdown at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York has the ingredients of a another captivating chapter of Major golf as the world’s leading players give chase for a bit of history of their own.
Initial forecasts paint a picture of Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson being the joint favourites to win the 118th US
Open title, with Justin Thomas and Jordan
Spieth not too far behind in the call of who might clinch it.
McIlroy and Johnson started as the favourites for the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in April.
At the end of it all, they both came up short. It’s worth mentioning though, that McIlroy was right in there at the start of the final round, but faltered with a two-over 74 that scuppered his chances of a career Grand Slam.
McIlroy won the 2011 US Open and will believe he is primed to have another shot at adding a second title to his credentials.
He has been in relatively good form this season with a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March to show for it.
The 29-year-old from Hollywood, Northern Ireland, finished in a tie for eighth place and thus, has good reason to fancy his chances at the event which starts at Shinnecock Hills on Thursday.
World number two Dustin Johnson is also expected to make his mark on the tournament that serves as his only Major triumph – the 2016 US Open at Oakmont Country Club.
Many a folk remain bewildered as to why he has not won more on the Major championship trail. He is indeed a big game player.
Of his 17 PGA Tour titles, five are World Golf Championship crowns. He also has six top-10s in this campaign.
At Shinnecock
Hills, Johnson will be out to amend his lack of success in the Majors and there will not be too many betting against him doing so.
World number one Justin Thomas has already won twice this season and his PGA Championship victory last August was his Major breakthrough. He too has several Majors in him and Shinnecock Hills might just prove to be his liking.
A tie for eighth at the Memorial will also have given him a lift ahead of this week’s
big business.
The 25-year-old already has eight PGA Tour wins under his belt and there are indications that there is much more to come. Not only is he the top ranked golfer in the world, but he is widely being touted as one who will leave an indelible imprint on the game.
Thomas is one of the new breed who have taken over the sport with a self-assurance and level-headedness that is rare, to say the least.
Jordan Spieth, a year younger Thomas – a good friend of his – is made from the same stock. The Texan has 11 wins on Tour and three of those are Majors – a Masters Green Jacket and a US open in 2015, and a British Open Claret Jug last year.
These days, there is hardly a Major that goes by without Spieth being mentioned as a decent bet. He has had a few struggles lately with medium-range putting, a forte in his dominant breakout season in 2015.
Yet despite this, he continues to show flashes of that brilliance and that is what makes him such a threat.
Jason Day, another former world number one, also makes the visit to Shinnecock Hills with huge support. This is mostly because the Australian is beginning to find the form that took him to the pinnacle of the sport before injury knocked him off his stride.
Such was Day’s rise to the top that in 2015 he won five times on the PGA Tour, including his only Major to date – the PGA Championship. The following year he continued that rich vein of form with three more victories before being sidelined.
He won twice in this campaign, prevailing at the Farmers Insurance Open in January and the Wells Fargo Championship in May.
A US Open title this week would not come as a surprise, not from this gritty Aussie who is not easily rolled over.
Another US Open winner, Justin Rose is also likely to be in the mix come next Sunday.
The Englishman won in 2013 and has again started looking like he could add to that.
His last two events certainly make a case for him. He won the Fort Worth Invitational last month and finished tied for sixth at the Memorial last Sunday.
Striking the ball well and full of confidence, Rose could prove difficult to beat at Shinnecock Hills iff he gets off to really good start. His temperament is one of his assets and at an event like this, it is most important to have a good one – like his.
The television ratings this week will almost surely go up, given that Tiger Woods is in the field. He is playing the US Open for the first time in four years.
And while he has not been back to the sort of form like in his hey days, Woods has shown enough progress on his comeback to suggest that if he can string together four decent rounds of golf, he could yet add to his 14 Major titles.
Also in the field will be two major winners Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott, who had to go through qualifying school to make the grade.
Their presence, like the other big name players at Shinnecock Hills, will add to the fascination that surrounds the US national Open andd ends on Fathers Day.