Great ExpectationsAt this year’s US Open in New York, Simon Noble senses that golf fans are seeking a repeat of 2008’s pain and glory.
If this year’s US Open Golf Championship can provide golf fans with half the drama it produced in 2008, then punters are in for four days of great betting action come June 18. Make sure to add to the excitement of the second golf major of the year with the best US open golf odds at PinnacleSports.com.
It should come as no surprise that Tiger Woods is favoured at Pinnacle to win his second consecutive, and fourth career, US Open title considering the conditions under which he won last year’s event at Torrey Pines. Woods succeeded despite a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a stress fracture to his tibia. Visibly limping, and wincing, Tiger overcame Rocco Mediate (and extreme pain) in a one-hole, sudden-death playoff following an 18-hole playoff to win by one stroke, his 14th major win.
The injury sustained at Torrey Pines forced Woods to take an eight-month enforced layoff, which excluded him from the 2008 British Open and USPGA—both won by c. The US Masters in April was Woods first Major since returning to action at the end of February. Having won on the US Tour weeks after returning, Woods started favourite with Pinnacle at Augusta but disappointed his backers finishing a tied 6th, leaving him four short of Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles, with his performance throwing up more questions than it answered.
Woods failed in early rounds to take advantage of the lenient pin positions, while the final round paring with Mickelson—something golf bettors have waited a long time to see—was probably the last thing he needed, given the heavily publicised difficult relations between the top two golfers in the world and their caddies. Both players left themselves with work to do on the final round, but with six birdies on the front nine, it was Mickelson that was bearing down on the leaders. Ultimately Mickelson was unable to maintain his momentum eventually finishing fifth, but with the consolation of ending one stroke ahead of Woods, who never hit top gear.
This year’s US Open takes place at the par-70, 7,214-yard Black Course at Old Bethpage in New York, where Tiger took the 2002 US Open. World number two Phil Mickelson, who was runner-up to Tiger the last time the US Open was at Old Bethpage, is likely to again challenge Woods.
The US Open is the only major of the three held in the US that Mickelson is yet to win, and judging by his two wins on the PGA Tour this year (WGC-CA Championship and the Northern Trust Open to date) and his performance at the Masters, Lefty should give backers a good run for their money, so long as the disaster of the 2006 US Open is out of his system. (Mickelson experienced one of the most infamous final-hole collapses at Winged Foot, where he snatched defeat out of the mouth of victory with inexplicable club and shot selection.)
The fourth-round pairing of Woods and Mickelson at Augusta partially overshadowed the efforts of Argentina’s Angel Cabrera who won a three-way playoff with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell. Cabrera may be considered slightly fortunate after a ricochet from a tree on the first playoff hole planted his ball squarely on the fairway, but he held his nerve best of the play-off trio and that experience will put him in good stead.
Cabrera could be value play on the outright odds list at Pinnacle and despite his success at Augusta and the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2007, the unassuming Cabrera has kept a relatively low profile, and the absence of hype around the South American means he is overlooked by public money.
Another sharp play could be current World No. 1 Geoff Ogilvy, who is first on the PGA Tour in birdie conversion (39.1 percent) and birdies per round (4.01). The Australian won the ’06 US Open and had a strong start to the year by cashing the WGC Accenture Match Play and Mercedes-Benz Championship, and figures to be just behind Tiger and Lefty on the odds list.
2008 Open Championship and PGA Championship winner, Padraig Harrington, should be available in the same range as Ogilvy, although the smart money is fading the Irishman. Harrington finished well back in 35th at The Masters, and hasn’t done better than 11th (Arnold Palmer Invitational) on the PGA Tour in 2009.
Last year Harrington was playing the best golf of his career, and of anyone on tour, but the Irishman has started this season in woeful form missing the cut at successive PGA events in February, leading him to consult influential sports psychologist Bob Rotella.
Harrington became the first golfer of European descent to win the PGA Championship since the event switched from match play to stroke play 78 years ago. Normal service was, however, resumed by Europeans at the US Masters in April, where the Continent’s top finisher was Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell in tie for 17th, underlining a very poor tournament for Europe, which doesn’t augur well for the US Open.
There will be, of course, over 150 contenders teeing off on June 18, so whoever you chose to back make sure you get the best US Open odds available, usually found at a lower margin bookmaker such as Pinnacle.
US Open Fact Attack
• No Players’ Champion has ever finished in the top five of the subsequent US Open.
• Tony Jacklin in 1970 is the only European winner since 1925.
• In 10 of the last 12 years, one or more of the top-two finishers previously finished in the top two of the US Open.
• Since 1987, only Tiger Woods and Payne Stewart won a different major prior to winning the US Open title.
• Thirty-three of the last 35 winners have a prior or subsequent top-six finish in the USPGA.
• Apart from Tiger, who didn’t play an event between Augusta and Torrey Pines last year, only two out of 64 top-three finishers since the start of the 1990s hadn’t had a top-30 finish in the preceding four weeks.
• In the last nine years, all 22 top-two finishers finished in the top 35 of their most recent event and all nine winners had come in the top 25. |
