We travel to Oakmont Country Club (par 70, 7,372 yards, POA annua greens) in Oakmont, Pennsylvania for the 125th U.S. Open, which is third of four majors this season. Oakmont has hosted nine U.S. Opens, most recently in 2016, when Dustin Johnson (-4) won by three strokes. This week, there will be 156 golfers competing with a top 60 and ties cut after the first two rounds.
Below, I have featured some head-to-head tournament matchup bets to consider for the U.S. Open.
Cameron Young over Sungjae Im (+100)
Young is playing his best golf of the season, while Im is arguably playing his worst. Both players teed it up at last week’s RBC Canadian Open and Young contended for a win with a T4 finish. This marked his best performance of the season and he gained strokes in every major category at TPC Toronto, except around the greens.
Meanwhile, Im missed the cut, which is his second missed cut in his last three starts. At TPC Toronto, Im lost strokes on approach for the 10th start in a row, which is extremely concerning. Young, on the other hand, has made five straight cuts and his T4 at the RBC Canadian Open is his third top 25 finish during this cut streak.
Now, these two players head to Oakmont, which is a classic and demanding U.S. Open course. Im hasn’t fared well at U.S. Open venues, missing the cut at this major each of the last three years. Conversely, Young has finished T32 and T67 at the last two U.S. Opens.
Young is in a much better position to perform well this week and Im being the favorite to win this matchup feels solely based off the fact that he is a bigger name. Young is the easy choice between these two players and he is a stellar bet to win this matchup at his +100 price.
Tony Finau over Brooks Koepka (-125)
After an inconsistent start to his season, Finau has been rock solid recently. The veteran has made four consecutive cuts with two top 20 finishes during this streak, including a T19 at last month’s PGA Championship played at Quail Hollow, which like Oakmont, is a long track that presents POA putting surfaces.
Koepka, conversely, struggled mightily at the PGA Championship, missing the cut by a whopping eight shots. In general, the former Florida State Seminole has been playing poor golf by his standards. On the LIV Golf Tour, Koepka has only finished inside the top 10 twice in eight starts this season. Overall, the 35-year-old ranks 15th in total points for the 60-man league.
Koepka, once upon a time, was a powerhouse at majors, but those days feels like ancient history, as he has missed back-to-back cuts at the major level and he hasn’t finished higher than T26 in his six major starts over the last two years. Finau, on the other hand, has produced three top 20 finishes in his six major starts over the last two years, including a T3 at Pinehurst No. 2 for last season’s U.S. Open. That was the week Koepka finished T26. When we compare this field’s results at majors the last two years, Finau ranks 32nd in strokes gained per round, while Koepka ranks 68th.
Yes, Koepka is a two-time U.S. Open champion, but as you can see, his game has rapidly declined over the last few years and backing the ascending Finau to win this matchup is the right move.
