While I don't like the US Open as much as the Master's or if the British is played at Saint Andrews, it is still typically my second favorite golf tournament of the year. What's the best part of the tourny, the fact that anybody can go through qualifying. Just look at the qualifying list, look at some of the guys that were forced to go through a qualifying tourny and may or may not have made it through. Justin Leonard, Sean O'Hair, Jerry Kelly are just a few tour players that had to qualify. And players like the Walrus Jr. Kevin Stadler, Calcavecchia and Rocco Mediate failed to qualify. Also, what is cool is the off chance you know a guy who qualifies, one of my cousins best buddies Chris Thomas, made it to the final stages of the qualifying tournies but was unfortunately unable to get over the hump. Anyway on to the predictions...4 People to Watch to Contend
Obvious - Ernie Els - Obviously Tiger and Phil are always contenders, but it's Ernie who is coming back to his first major win which happened 13 years ago. Wow that seems like ages ago. Ernie has been playing relatively will this year and had a decent showing at the Memorial, so perhaps a little nostalgia and can his jets flowing.
Secondary - Padraig Harrington - The luck of the Irish. Harrington typically plays well at the US Open and has made the cut 7 of 9 times never finishing below 32nd when he has. He also has 4 top 10 finishes under his belt at the open so he's got a solid chance to compete this weekend.
Grand Slam - Zach Johnson - The Master's Champion that not many people have ever heard about is tough as nails and should be very much towards the top of the leaderboard come sunday. Another major would be stunning for Johnson, but he'll be in the running at some point this week. In a not planned piece I just noticed, Johnson, Els and Harrington are a single pairing the opening two rounds.
Darkhorse - Rory Sabbatini - This trashtalking jackass is pretty much on fire recently. In his last 5 tournies he's made all 6 cuts and finished top 3 in 4 of the tournies including his victory two weeks ago.
3 People Who Might Surprisingly Miss the Cut
The Unthinkable - Vijay Singh - Just throwin this one out there even though it isn't going to happen. You know how many cuts Vijay has missed this year? None zilch nada, and he never misses a major cut. But things need to start someday right?The Shocker - Colin Montgomerie - He's returning to the spot where he made it into a major championship playoff and just came up short. And coming off last year when he should have won if he had not choked as well. And he just fired his long term caddy. A lot of stuff has to be mentally bringing down Monty. I hope he does well, but there's a chance he struggles this weekend.
The Old - Jose Maria Olazabal- The man who gets linked to my site somehow via his name and the word homosexual is going to struggle this week knowing this fact.
2 People to Root For this Weekend
The Random Country Club Guy - You never know who they are going into the tournament, but there's always one qualifier that ends up on the leaderboard on saturday that you've never ever heard of. And you just have to root for that guy to stay in the running throughout the weekend.
The Locale Boy - JJ Henry - If you've read any single one of any of my golf previews you know that JJ is a staple in the who I am rooting for category. He's the locale pro, so he always gets the ole hope he does well and is in the running sentiments.
1 Winner
Adam Scott - Basically I'm bored with picking Tiger or Phil every single major, it's not much fun. So I wanted to pick a guy to breakthrough and pick up major #1 so for me it came down to picking between Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, and Adam Scott for the winner. I decided to cut bait on Sergio, when I found out he was dating Greg Norman's daughter, talk about bad karma no wonder why he can't putt. So then it came down to Scott or Donald, and Scott wins because he is playing stellar golf recently. In his last three tournies including the Memorial and the TPC he has a 7th, 6th, and 5th finish. He's playing really well so what better time than now. Also, I picked him to miss the cut at the Master's and he hasn't missed a single cut this year, so I owe him. Also, if your bored, you like Will Ferrell and you like golf, here's a bunch of videos he's done for Golf.com.
Comments
My second favorite will be Jim Furyk. It's time for him to get close and even win it.
My long shot is KJ Choi. Eventhough he won it 2 weeks ago at the Memorial, lightning doesn't usually strike twice -- at least not in his case -- maybe.