Look deeper in U.S. Open field
Celtics withstand late Heat rally in 4th, move on to NBA Finals
With two of four major winners crowned in the 2022 golf calendar, we now can shift our attention to the U.S. Open.
Taking place at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., the 2022 U.S. Open will provide a true test to what will ultimately be a field of 156 players. From what I’ve gleaned, the Country Club will play as relatively short par-70 and will defend against scoring with minuscule greens — the average size is only 4,300 square feet, almost 2,500 square feet less than the average tour stop — and thick rough.
As it stands, 2022 Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, 2022 PGA Champion Justin Thomas and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy are the 12/1 trifavorites for the event at BetMGM. Following closely behind is defending U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm (14/1) and Dustin Johnson (18/1).
However, with the tournament still a few weeks out, I’m going to choose to look further down the board for bets that could prove valuable come the first tee time. Here are the two players I believe are worthy bets at this point in time.
Daniel Berger (50/1)
Berger had a massively disappointing finish at the PGA Championship, but I’m not placing a ton of emphasis on that performance.
When presented with courses that feature tiny greens, Berger becomes an absolute wizard. His strongest asset is his approach play — he ranks 18th this season in strokes-gained approach and ranked fifth last season — so expect Berger to have an advantage there.
Plus, Berger has posted strong performances at courses that show similar traits to the Country Club — Harbour Town and Pebble Beach. In his last two appearances at the former, Berger posted finishes of 21st and 13th. He’s also a former winner at Pebble Beach to pair with two other top-10 finishes.
Further, Berger has previously demonstrated a game that fits U.S. Open setups. In seven career appearances at this particular major, Berger has missed the cut only once and has recorded two top-10 finishes in his last four starts. One of those top-10s came in 2018 at Shinnecock Hills, another par-70 that requires accurate drives and features tiny putting surfaces.
For those reasons, I believe Berger is an early buy in the U.S. Open.
Justin Rose (66/1)
Rose finally put an end to his three straight missed cuts with a T13 at the PGA Championship and should be a candidate for success come mid-June.
Although he’s a bit of a boom-or-bust player at this particular major, I’m willing to take a flier at this course. In his last five appearances in the U.S. Open, Rose has gone MC-MC-3-10-MC. However, those two non-missed cuts sandwiched in the middle came in 2019 at Pebble Beach and in 2018 at Shinnecock, two courses that correlate with the Country Club.
Let’s also not forget that Rose won this major all the way back in 2013 at Merion, yet another narrow track with small greens. Plus, in his last 36 rounds on par 70s under 7,200 yards, Rose ranks 24th among all PGA players in strokesgained: total. Lessen the sample size to the last 24 rounds and the Englishman moves up to 17th overall.
Add in five top-20 finishes in his last eight appearances at Harbour Town & Riviera Country Club — another correlated course — and I expect a strong performance from Rose at this year’s U.S. Open.
MIAMI — Not this time. After being thwarted on the doorstep of the NBA Finals three other times in the previous five seasons, the Celtics have broken through. The beasts of the East, again. And now a chance at an NBA title awaits.
Eastern Conference finals MVP Jayson Tatum led the way with 26 points, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart each added 24 and the Celtics beat the Heat 100-96 on Sunday night to earn a berth in the NBA Finals against the Warriors.
“This is amazing,” Smart said. “We finally got over the hump.”
It was Boston’s first Game 7 win on another team’s home floor since topping Milwaukee for the 1974 NBA title; technically, the Celtics were the “road” team when they beat Toronto in a Game 7 two years ago at the restart bubble, but that was at Walt Disney World.
Tatum — wearing a purple-andgold armband bearing the number “24” of Lakers Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, his favorite player — had lost two East finals in his young career. Brown and Smart were part of Boston’s East finals losses in 2017, 2018 and 2020. And this one was slipping away, a frantic Miami run in the final moments casting what looked like a sure-fire Celtics win into serious doubt.
But they would hold on. Jimmy Butler — brilliant again for Miami — missed what would have been a go-ahead 3-pointer with about 17 seconds left, and the Celtics never trailed.
On to San Francisco.
“To get over the hump with this group, it means everything,” Tatum said.
Butler, who willed Miami into Game 7 by scoring 47 points on Friday in Boston, led the Heat with 35 points in what became their season finale. Bam Adebayo added 25 for the Heat, who were down 11 with under 3 minutes to
go before trying one last rally.
A 9-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Max Strus with 51 seconds left, got the Heat within 98-96. They got no closer. Boston would not be denied, and now is 2-0 in Game 7s in these playoffs after ousting defending champion Milwaukee in the East semis.
“It’s just one of those really tough moments,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You can’t prepare for it. ... It’s one of the worst feelings into the world to address your locker room after a game like this.”
Kyle Lowry scored 15 for the Heat. Grant Williams finished with 11 for the Celtics.
The notion of Boston being finals bound would have been considered an unlikely proposition two or three months ago.
Ime Udoka’s first season as coach of the Celtics was not without immense challenges. Boston got off to a 2-5 start, lost to Milwaukee on Christmas Day to fall below .500 and was still saddled with a losing record as recently as late January.
Through 50 games, the Celtics were 25-25. No team had that sort of record through 50 games and made the NBA Finals since 1981, when the Rockets started 22-28 and wound up making the title series
— where they fell to Boston.
Now the Celtics will look to do the Rockets one better. That Rockets team got into the playoffs at 40-42. This Celtics team roared to life down the stretch and is still roaring.
They went 26-6 down the stretch of the regular season, and had an uncanny ability to bounce back. Boston is now 13-1 after losses over the last four-plus months.
“The road that we took to get here, not a lot of people believed in us,” Tatum said. “We took the toughest route. It looked out.”
Boston’s lead was 32-17 after one
quarter — the largest ever by a road team after 12 minutes of a Game 7, four points bigger than Golden State’s lead over the Los Angeles Lakers back in the 1977 playoffs.
The tone was set, and the lead was never relinquished.
The Heat kept clawing back, all the way to the end. They just couldn’t catch Boston.
“It’s heartbreaking when it ends like this,” Spoelstra said. “You certainly have to credit the Boston Celtics organization and their team and their coaching staff . ... We tip our hats off to them. They are a heck of a basketball team.”