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US Open - Golf



Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
73,371
West west west Sussex
Lost in all the soccerball chat, t'is the US open this weekend.

Not really my thing, but today I did hear a big shout for Bubba Watson, 16/1 or 15/8 top 10.

Apparently the width of the greens, being 'humpbacks' in design, and the complete lack of trees close in to the fairways, is ideal for a lofty player, who can move the ball in the air.

That, I was lead to believe is Watson's MO.
 


Iggle Piggle

Well-known member
Sep 3, 2010
5,281
Personally I think Watson is a bit too emotional to be able to win back to back majors but I can't help but like a guy who hits it so far and has never had a lesson. In the era of sports science and psychotherapy, I love the guy for just mashing it (if you search my posts around about Ryder cup time, I'm sure you find some contrasting views)

Webb Simpson for me. 45-1 with Paddy (e/w top 6). Finished high up last week, previous winner of the tournament and the course is one he has played hundreds of times. I've had my biggest golf bet for a long time on him.

Bismark is Garcia. Someone on the radio described him as a 'major winner in waiting' Yeah right. He is 0/62 in majors but more importantly has been Top 10 18 times. In other words, I don't think he has the bottle for it on back 9 Sunday. See also Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar.
 


Durlston

"Garlic bread!?"
NSC Patreon
Jul 15, 2009
9,762
Haywards Heath
Betfred have been offering a quarter the odds for the first SEVEN today. Great value.

I've gone for Jordan Spieth (25/1) and Webb Simpson (45/1).
 


Beach Hut

Brighton Bhuna Boy
Jul 5, 2003
71,903
Living In a Box
It would be so great if Garcia could actually nail a major
 


Billy Seagull

Bookie Basher
Jul 5, 2003
1,431
Short game has to be shit hot as the greens are tricky to hit so that rules Westwood out. I'm on Rory at 20/1 (placed months ago), McDowell, Louis Oosty, Jimmy Walker & Jimmynez. Looking forward to it.
 




kevtherev

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2008
10,443
Tunbridge Wells
Garcia couldn't nail a picture hook, when he is in contention on the last day of a major his arse totally explodes.....Jordan Spieth looks like the new kid on the block, he is going to win majors for sure, this maybe to soon but 28/1 is great value. Also taken 50/1 on Martin Kaymer, bang back in form, former major winner in the US and former world number 1, who just lost his way for a couple of years.
 


8ace

Banned
Jul 21, 2003
23,811
Brighton
Done the selections that the tipsters I follow put up:

Justin Thomas 0.15 ew 500/1 6 pl + 0.2 ew top US 200/1
Justin Thomas 0.15 ew 250/1 FRL
Stephen Gallacher 0.25pts ew Top European 45/1
J B Holmes 0.2pts ew 125/1 6 places
Ryan Moore 0.3pts ew 125/1 6 places
Louis Oosthuizen 0.4pts ew 80/1 + 0.4 ew 100/1 6 places
Brendon Todd 0.4pts ew 200/1 6 places
Matt Every 0.25pts ew 200/1 6 places

Webb Simpson 1 point e/w 45/1
Hideki Matsuyama 0.7 points e/w 45/1
Jim Furyk 0.7 points e/w 45/1
Keegan Bradley 0.6 points e/w 66/1
John Senden 0.4 points e/w 100/1
Chris Kirk 0.3 points e/w 125/1
Joost Luiten 0.3 points e/w 125/1
 


HAILSHAM SEAGULL

Well-known member
Nov 9, 2009
10,346
Webb Simpson, Mart Kaymer Zac Johnson and Victor Dubisson are my four each way bets
 














hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,094
Chandlers Ford
Big Phil @18/1
Webb-Simpson @ 40/1
Matsuyama @ 40/1

All low stakes E/W (to 6th with BeVictor)
 


The Maharajah of Sydney

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
1,363
Sydney .
Seems like there isn't any rough this year.
Course has been renovated - rough replaced with sandy waste areas and wiregrass plants.

Pinehurst.jpg


http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/06/11/us-open-pinehurst-no-rough.html


PINEHURST, N.C. -- If you play a U.S. Open course without long rough, should it really count as our national championship?

You can answer that philosophical question this week.

For more than a half-century, thick, unforgiving rough has been a part of the U.S. Open's landscape, ever since improved play and better equipment weakened the knees of the country's venerable courses and forced the USGA to lean on 3-inch grass as its last line of defense.

Pinehurst No. 2, however, doesn't have rough, at least the kind of rough you expect at the U.S. Open. Forty acres of Bermudagrass were removed during the recent restoration process by architects Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, leaving natural, sandy waste areas and wiregrass plants beyond the scope of the fairways.

This is why this week's U.S. Open will blow your mind. It's not anything like the U.S. Opens you're used to seeing, certainly not anything like the Pinehurst we saw in previous Opens in 1999 or 2005. It is not perfectly manicured. It does not have tight fairways. It is not green. Brown, as we've been told all week, is beautiful. Never has the word "rustic" been so frequently uttered by men wearing blue blazers and ties.

The restored Pinehurst No. 2 asks you -- and the 156 players who will tee off in Thursday's first round -- to think differently. It tests your perception of U.S. Open reality. And it will certainly test their ability to consider all options on each shot and make the proper choice.

"Something very unique for what we generally see for a U.S. Open," said USGA Executive Director Mike Davis.

Added Crenshaw: "It'll be fascinating."

The natural inclination when high rough is absent and fairways widened is that the course will play easier. Although Davis insists the USGA does not target a winning score at its national championship, providing a stern test of golf for the world's best players is in its core. For those who like reading between the lines, that's level par -- or worse.

Meeting that objective shouldn't be a problem this week. Even without rough, Pinehurst No. 2 will dish out severe punishment. Miss a fairway and you might find your ball against wiregrass, on hard pan, perhaps a soft, sandy lie or pine needles.

In essence, Pinehurst No. 2 offers a new definition of rough -- everything but long grass.

"I don't know what they're calling it," said world No. 1 Adam Scott, "but it's not lack of rough off the fairways."

As a result, positioning this week means more than just safely finding the fairway. Avoid this new definition of rough and you could still find trouble. Pinehurst No. 2 is 300 yards longer than its previous version, and yet some players will hit fewer drivers. Bubba Watson, one of the PGA TOUR's longest hitters, insists he will dial it back this week.

Webb Simpson, the North Carolina native who would love nothing more than to win his second U.S. Open in his home state, said he will not use driver off the tee at the 617-yard par-5 10th. He'll opt for 4-iron or hybrid.

"I certainly see this course as hard as anything I've played in a U.S. Open," he said.

Meanwhile, Pinehurst's turtleback greens will frustrate players who think they've hit the perfect approach, only to see the ball roll 20 yards off the green. Aiming at a pin may very well be the worst option this week. In fact, Rory McIlroy said of the 72 holes he hopes to play, he might go at the pin five times.

Keep an eye on the greens in regulation stat this week. The percentage numbers likely will be abysmally low.

USGA officials know that, which is why they will cut the closely mown areas around the greens at a specific length so that players will be forced to decide whether to pitch it, bump and run, or putt. If the length is just a tiny fraction off, it would eliminate one of those options, something they want to avoid.

"Options," said Davis, "don't necessarily mean it's easier."

Options, though, do put a premium on creativity and imagination. That will likely be the defining characteristic of this year's U.S. Open championship.

That was the intention of Crenshaw and Coore when they began their restoration of Donald Ross' signature course and started yanking out the rough. No longer would the only option be to hack it out and take your lumps. They wanted to give the players choices, and the USGA supported that viewpoint.



"Tournament golf has gotten to be 99.9 percent pound-it-out-of-heavy-rough," Crenshaw told a North Carolina newspaper recently. "To me, it's very boring. I've gotten sick of it. There's got to be something different from that. Yet that's the mainstay of defenses put on courses. It's anything but interesting.

"I sense that other players feel that way, also. And I think Mike Davis and the USGA recognize that. I think Mike has the idea that maybe, just maybe, you can have a U.S. Open that's just a little bit different."

Being different means being creative. And being creative this week will pay big dividends. Consider the restored Pinehurst No. 2 as the ultimate right-brained U.S. Open course.

When McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open, he overpowered Congressional. That tactic won't work this week. He'll have to outthink Pinehurst.

"That's what I've been working on the past couple of weeks, trying to play a lot of different shots and be comfortable with different shots that I might need out here," he said.

Watson, who won his second Masters two months ago, would seem to be a perfect fit for No. 2. He can shape shots like no other, and his imagination runs wild. He'll gladly give up his advantage off the tee if it means getting in position to make the right move.

"I don't play chess," Watson said, "but it's a chess match."

Phil Mickelson, of course, is the ultimate left-hander who thinks with his right brain. Knowing the storybook chapter that would be written should he win 15 years after finishing runner-up here to Payne Stewart, Mickelson starts Thursday with the spotlight squarely on him. Expectations are high. Plus, a win this week gives him the career Grand Slam.

His form has been shaky, though -- he still doesn't have a top-10 finish on the PGA TOUR this season -- and he has resorted to changing his putting grip. Others may view that as a panic move, but Mickelson has never shied away from making bold decisions.

"You have to be willing to take risks and be accountable," Mickelson said.

Taking risks is generally not the sort of thing favored at an U.S. Open. The safe, precision play gets the reward, while the out-of-the-box play suffers the consequences. Maybe that's why Mickelson still seeks his first U.S. Open win, having finished second on six occasions.

This week could be different. Pinehurst has gone back to its Donald Ross roots of the early 1900s, back before 3-inch rough was in vogue and before U.S. Open venues were crafted from the same mold. This is the week for thinkers.

"This is not your father's golf course," NBC sports reporter Jimmy Roberts told a group of USGA members this week during an architectural discussion of Pinehurst No. 2. "But it might be your grandfather's course."
 




Max Paper

Sunshiinnnnneeee
Nov 3, 2009
5,784
Testicles
Well I've backed Simpson ew at 40/1 and Mickleson ew at 18/1 both on bet victor and Rickie Fowler ew at 80/1 on Winner. (I always back him and now I have too otherwise if I don't he'll bloody win something, he ALMOST came good at the masters)
 


beefypigeon

Well-known member
Aug 14, 2008
959
Jonas Blixt.

Has come 4th and 2nd in the last 2 majors (PGA and Masters), he loves a challenging golf course. Annoyingly he's just come in from 80/1 to 66/1 on WillHill, but I imagine you can get better odds elsewhere.

Worth an E/W punt imho.

Other outside chances worth a shout: Miguel Angel Jimenez (amazing form at the moment, and did well at the masters), Jamie Donaldson. Both great value at 100/1 plus, got a chance E/W.

Of the favorites; McIlroy, Scott, Bubba and Spieth go into the tournament in pretty good form.
 


lasvegan

Well-known member
Jan 30, 2009
1,780
Sin City
Lost in all the soccerball chat, t'is the US open this weekend.

Not really my thing, but today I did hear a big shout for Bubba Watson, 16/1 or 15/8 top 10.

Apparently the width of the greens, being 'humpbacks' in design, and the complete lack of trees close in to the fairways, is ideal for a lofty player, who can move the ball in the air.

That, I was lead to believe is Watson's MO.

Not going too well for Bubba, wont be playing this weekend.
 






Monsieur Le Plonk

Lethargy in motion
Apr 22, 2009
1,858
By a lake
Garcia couldn't nail a picture hook, when he is in contention on the last day of a major his arse totally explodes.....Jordan Spieth looks like the new kid on the block, he is going to win majors for sure, this maybe to soon but 28/1 is great value. Also taken 50/1 on Martin Kaymer, bang back in form, former major winner in the US and former world number 1, who just lost his way for a couple of years.

.....Looking like a cracking bet
 





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