WHO WILL THRIVE AT BROOKLINE?

Asked to describe the sort of player Brookline might favour, Brendan Walsh is adamant that you need great iron control and a killer short game to have any chance. With this in mind, we’ve identified the four key performance metrics at US Opens and trawled the PGA Tour rankings of the world’s top 30 players to identify the three men best placed to come out on top at Brookline.

JUSTIN THOMAS Rankings 17 (DD) 17 (GIR) 14 (S) 8 (P)

Besides Rory Mcilroy, few players frustrate quite as frequently as Justin Thomas and yet the key metrics mark him out as the man to beat at Brookline, at least on current form. Another strong showing at the Masters means JT currently ranks second for scoring average and strokes gained: tee to green – a category which he’s dominated for the last six seasons on the PGA Tour. Like Rory, his putting has been his Achilles’ heel for years, but his form on the greens has picked up and so have his results, which have included nine top-10 finishes in his last 13 starts. He has under achieved in Majors since winning the 2017 US PGA Championship, but he showed enough at the Masters with Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay, Phil’s former caddie, on his bag to make us convinced he’s going to snap his year-long winless streak very soon. Playing the US Open at one of his favourite courses should help.

SUNGJAE IM Rankings 78 (DD) 18 (GIR) 4 (S) 23 (P)

The US Open generally produces a champion who’s ranked inside the world’s top 25, has played the event at least three times, and is under the age of 35. Sungjae Im ticks all those boxes and he needs a Major win more than most so he can avoid mandatory military service in South Korea. There is always a risk of burnout with the 24-yearold (he’s already played 41 times since January 2021, a record-high on the PGA Tour), but his durability is almost as impressive as the strides he has made with his short game, which was a big weakness last season. He’s yet to catch fire in a Major Championship outside of the Masters, but he seems to prefer classic, short-ish courses – which makes his odds of 66-1 hard to ignore.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE Rankings 30 (DD) 44 (GIR) 43 (S) 30 (P)

The US Open has a habit of throwing up maiden Major winners. In fact, 10 of the last 13 champions had never captured a Major title before, which certainly bodes well for Xander Schauffele. The 2020 Olympic champion currently ranks third across the key metrics and while he did miss the cut at the Masters, he has finished inside the top 10 nine times in 19 Major starts. He also tends to save his best for the national championship, having never failed to finish worse than ninth in five starts, and is one of just a handful of players in the field who competed in the 2013 US Amateur at Brookline. Some of the other also-rans include Bryson, Justin Thomas, Corey Conners and Masters champ, Scottie Scheffler.