We are halfway through the first major since the whole LIV/PGA/DP World Tour merger got announced. Plenty of big names are very much still in the hunt and our Golf tipster Jamie Worsley has his thoughts following the cut…

US Open In-Play Tips – After Day 2

Tommy Fleetwood to beat Shane Lowry 10/11 – 2 pts 

Russell Henley to beat Patrick Cantlay 13/8 – 2 pts 

Double on Fleetwood/Henley 4.01/1 – 1 pt 

Conditions/Strategy

People may have many varying opinions on the course and how it’s played this week, but you can’t deny that Los Angeles Country Club has given us one heck of a tantalising leaderboard as we head into the weekend of this 123rd US Open. 

Current Standings (Top 10): 

1st – Rickie Fowler (-10) 

2nd – Wyndham Clark (-9) 

T3 – Rory McIlroy (-8) 

T3 – Xander Schauffele (-8) 

5th – Harris English (-7) 

T6 – Min Woo Lee (-6) 

T6 – Dustin Johnson (-6) 

T8 – Scottie Scheffler (-5) 

T8 – Sam Bennett (-5) 

10th – Cameron Smith (-4) 

Leading the way on -10 is the resurgent Rickie Fowler, who continued his excellent play – ranking 2nd in the field both in putting and tee-to-green over the two rounds – in the more difficult afternoon conditions yesterday, to back up his record-breaking 62 on day one with a 68; taking a one-shot lead into the weekend as he searches for what would be an incredibly popular major breakthrough. 

The PGA Tour’s most improved player this season, Wyndham Clark is next-best on -9 and looks well set for a best major performance. He’s clearly in fine form and with that impressive victory at the championship-like test of Quail Hollow potentially standing him in good stead, it will be fascinating to see how he handles the pressure of being at the business end of the leaderboard at a major over the weekend. 

Of those other nearest challengers, we have four major champions, including world #1 Scottie Scheffler, who should be a huge danger over the weekend if continuing to putt as solidly as he has over the opening two rounds.  

Dustin Johnson fought back admirably from a shocking quadruple-bogey 8 on his 2nd hole yesterday, shooting -4 over his next 16 holes to get himself right back into the mix on -6, with Rory still chasing his first major win since 2014 and last year’s Open Champion, Cameron Smith completing that major-winning quartet.  

The other half of Thursday’s record-breaking duo, Xander Schauffele held his position and is another looking for an overdue major breakthrough; whilst Australia’s Min Woo Lee continues to mix it at the highest level and with his electric short game should enjoy the test over the weekend should conditions get more difficult. 

Harris English is well placed for another strong US Open showing and how impressive has Sam Bennett been again. After contending in The Masters back in April as an amateur, the youngster – who only turned pro a couple of weeks ago – sits inside the top 10 of a major heading into the weekend and with that experience at Augusta potentially vital, this gritty, confident competitor could well fancy his chances of maintaining his position as the tournament reaches its climax. 

There’ve been a fair few surprising disappointments too. Local favourite, Max Homa was well-fancied, though continues to struggles in golf’s biggest events, missing the cut alongside the equally well-fancied Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Adam Scott. 

Sungjae Im and Jason Day are among the other early departers, and what of Justin Thomas? Last year’s PGA Championship winner didn’t just miss the cut but in shooting +14 over the first two rounds, shot the joint-fourth worst score of the field for those two days. With the Ryder Cup on the horizon, he’ll be desperate to arrest his recent poor form.  

There are plenty of players with much to do over the weekend to get involved too. Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay made the cut on the number and are twelve behind at the halfway point. The English duo of reigning champion, Matt Fitzpatrick and one of the form players on tour, Tyrrell Hatton are just a further shot closer, whilst last month’s PGA Championship winner and two-time US Open champion, Brooks Koepka will need to make a serious move today from 10 back of Rickie Fowler’s -10 leading score. 

Koepka was vocal after his round yesterday in criticising Los Angeles Country Club, saying “I’m not a huge fan of this place.” and insinuating that he felt it wasn’t befitting of a US Open venue. 

The course has indeed received mixed reviews so far this week, sparked particularly by those record low rounds from Fowler and Schauffele on Thursday – the first two rounds of 62 in the 128-year history of the event.  

Despite me hoping for firmer conditions, I’ve enjoyed the test that LA CC has thrown up so far this week. It’s a fun course to watch, with a good variety of hole types and thus shot requirements; good golf has been rewarded and bad golf has been punished.  

Yes we haven’t so far seen those super-firm conditions that usually comes with a US Open, this partly due to the weather not playing its part, with plenty of cloud cover, a lack of wind and little heat for much of the opening two days. 

However, as we saw with the afternoon starters yesterday – as we got a little breeze and warmth – the course becomes a different animal when the conditions play their part, with it playing almost a shot-and-a-half harder than at any other point over the opening two days.  

Tee-times have been pushed back today, to 9:33am for the earliest starters and 3:40pm for the latest – a less than ideal 5:33pm and 11:40pm for UK audiences – to avoid that early-morning “marine layer” and with more sun and breeze on the way, expect the course to be firmer and closer to those typical US Open conditions by the time the leaders get out onto the course. Which should open the event up to plenty of swapping and changing on the leaderboard today. 

Selections 

Rickie Fowler’s slight lead sees him enter the weekend as a 7/2 favourite to win the US Open, with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele – both 2 behind on -8 – next in the betting at 4/1. 

We have plenty to play for from outright/specials selections, with Scheffler and Smith right in the mix inside that top 10, thus I’m not interested in getting involved further in the outright market at this stage and have instead picked out a couple of 2-ball selections of interest today. 

Tommy Fleetwood to beat Shane Lowry 

To get us going I’m taking Tommy Fleetwood to get the better of friend, Shane Lowry today; both players currently sitting in 49th after making the cut on the number at +2. 

Coming into this event, Fleetwood was comfortably the form player of the pair. His playoff loss and 2nd place finish in the Canadian Open last week was his third top 5 in eight PGA Tour starts; the other two coming courtesy of a 3rd in the Valspar Championship and 5th in the Wells Fargo Championship.  

Whereas whilst Lowry has been solid enough, he’s only recorded one top 5 – in the Honda Classic earlier in the year. 

How they both sit in this position at the halfway point varies greatly and points further to Fleetwood being the form player of the two.  

Lowry’s putter has done all of the heavy lifting so far this week, where he ranks 24th and in contrast, ranking 62nd with the driver and outside the top 100 in approach and around-the-greens; 91st for GIR also concerning for the Irishman. 

In contrast, Fleetwood – who has been putting excellently of late – has struggled on the greens but been excellent tee-to-green, where he ranks 13th in the field; complimented by him being one of the better players out of the rough so far this week, ranking 14th. 

It should be much easier for Fleetwood to find that required improvement on the greens to add to his quality tee-to-green game this week and despite there being a slight concern that simply playing with Fleetwood might bring about some improvement in Lowry today, the Englishman looks the clear choice of the two in this third round in L.A. 

Russell Henley to beat Patrick Cantlay 

We’ll have plenty of early interest in the third round today as the second of my 2-balls is for Russell Henley to beat Patrick Cantlay; with both players also on +2 in 49th position. 

It looks like another major is set to pass Patrick Cantlay by without so much as a second of threat in winning the thing, despite him once again arriving with one of the most compelling cases statistically and in terms of form.  

He’s struggled overall with the ball-striking this week, looking particularly poor in approach, ranking outside the top 100 and has also lacked touch around the greens over the opening two rounds; all undoing any good work he’s doing with the driver and on the greens. 

Henley, on the other hand has hit the ball excellently, ranking 10th both in ball-striking and greens-in-regulation, as well as 15th in approach. Unfortunately, the short game has been an issue over the opening two rounds. 

This is somewhat of a surprise, as Henley is typically strong around the greens and over the last two months has been putting much like the Henley of old; ranking higher in both of those areas than Cantlay over their most recent starts.  

Despite Cantlay being the more revered player of the two, Henley’s 13th at Torrey Pines in 2021 is the best US Open finish between the pair. If he can reproduce the quality he’s shown with the short game over recent starts and combine it with the strength in ball-striking that’s been on show so far this week, Henley can get the better of his Californian counterpart today. 

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