US Open Picks & Predictions

Where: Los Angeles Country Club

Watch: USA, NBC

When: June 15-18

The PGA Tour and “friends” hit Southern California this week for the third Major event of this season, the 123rd edition of the US Open, this one at the Los Angeles Country Club. A field of 156 that includes basically every big name in the game will tee it up for shares of $17.5 million in prize money, including $3.15 mill and everlasting golf glory to the winner.

Last week Nick Taylor rolled in a 70-foot eagle putt on the fourth hole of a playoff with Tommy Fleetwood to win the Canadian Open. In becoming the first Canuck to win his home country’s Open since 1954, Taylor also provided his financial backers with a payout of +7000.

Ty Hatton, CT Pan, and Aaron Rai tied for third last week, one shot out of the playoff; Americans Eric Cole and Mark Hubbard tied for sixth; Justin Rose finished eighth; and two-time defending Canadian Open champ Rory McIlroy, Andrew Novak, and Brandon Wu tied for ninth.

We came close with our free golf betting picks last week; we just picked the wrong Canadians. Corey Conners (+1800 to win) made an appearance on the first page of the leaderboard on Saturday but shot 74 on Sunday to finish T-20, while Adam Hadwin (+700 to finish top-5) finished T-12, five shots out of fifth, then got tackled by security.

As for this week, the Los Angeles Country Club, hosting a PGA event for the first time in over 80 years, plays to a par-70 at around 7,240 yards. Word is finding the narrow fairways off the tee and navigating the undulating greens are the keys to success here.

The LACC hosted the 2017 Walker Cup, won by an American team that included Scheffler, Cam Champ, Maverick McNealy, Collin Morikawa, and Doc Redman. Outside of that, very few Tour players have played this course before this week, so there’s basically zero “horses for courses” factor here.

Last year at a gloomy Brookline Country Club in Massachusetts, Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick shot four rounds of 70 or better to win the US Open by one shot over Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris. Conditions are expected to be much different this weekend in LA.

Each week we take a look at the sportsbooks and highlight what we believe to be some of the best golf values on the board, with a few free picks to click. Odds to win and pairings for this week can be found at Bovada, who offers you the ability to bet on the tournament while it’ in progress. Here’s our take on some of the field for this week’s US Open.

Scheffler tops the betting on Bovada’s US Open board at +700, followed by 2021 US champ Jon Rahm at +1100. Two-time champion Brooks Koepka sits as the third choice at +1200, followed by 2011 US Open champ McIlroy at +1400, Viktor Hovland at +1600, and Patrick Cantlay at +1800.

Our top pick for this week is a guy we rarely bet.

Jordan Spieth +2500 to win

We haven’t bet on Spieth very often over recent years, mainly because he’s always among the favorites, maybe a little over-bet, and therefore at lower odds than we’d prefer. But 25/1 on this guy in a big tournament catches our attention. For the record, Spieth won the US Open back in 2015 in that funky event at Chambers Bay and owns six top-6 finishes over his last 11 starts this season, including a T-5 at The Memorial a couple of weeks ago. Nobody will be surprised if this guy pops up on the front page of the leaderboard on Sunday.

Corey Conners +900 to finish top-5

We bet on Conners last week mainly because he owned six top-20 finishes over his previous 15 starts, then missed the cut at The Memorial. We like betting on guys ripe for bounce-back performances, and he played well until a bad start Sunday crashed him out of contention. Also, he ranks No. 8 on the Tour this season in greens-in-reg. We’ll take another shot with this Canuck this week.

Adrian Meronk +1200 to finish top-10

This guy is going to make some noise one of these days, and we want to be on him when he does. Meronk’s won five times worldwide over his career and twice this year. He hasn’t broken through here in the States yet, playing a limited North American schedule, but at the age of 30 might be about due. Meronk missed the cut last week at the Canadian Open by one shot; we’re expecting good things from this guy in the near future.

Among Bovada’s absolute plethora of US Open prop bets, Scheffler is lined at +450 to miss the cut and +2500 to win by four shots or more; Rahm is getting +2500 to win by three or more; and +2500 is offered on any player to make 18 straight pars in the same round.

The first groups for this US Open go off Thursday morning at 9:45 am ET, 6:45 am local time. Bet your golf wagers for FREE by scoring a 100% real cash bonus up to $300 when you enter bonus code PREDICT100 at MyBookie Sportsbook!