Someone once told me, “The first year after college is like your freshman year of life.”
And Bryson DeChambeau is living that saying right now.
DeChambeau, the 2015 NCAA and U.S. Amateur champion, ironed a hole in his shirt before playing in the final round of the U.S. Open.
The physics major at SMU snapchatted a photo of his mistake.
DeChambeau might have turned pro in golf, but is still an amateur in life.
Have no fear-we’ve all been there Bryson.
With his best asset perhaps rendered irrelevant, Dustin Johnson seems like a vulnerable betting favorite for the British Open.
Johnson is the +1200 favorite on the British Open betting lines at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com, with the golf season’s third major due to begin at the 6,941-yard, par-71 Carnoustie Golf Links in Angus, Scotland on Thursday.
A warm summer in the United Kingdom has created some firm fairways at the famously wind-whipped course. That could keep many players’ drivers in their bag, which would negate the edge that big hitters such as Johnson get from strokes gained off the tee. Johnson also has just three top-10 finishes in nine starts at the British Open.
Rickie Fowler (+1600), Justin Rose (+1600) and Rory McIlroy (+1600) are also high up on the board. There is a case for backing Fowler until he sheds the stigma of “best player not to have won a major,” as he has three top-five results in his last five majors. Rose has only placed in the top 10 twice in 16 starts at the British Open, so it might be wise to look past him for value.
McIlroy is a past winner but season-long putting problems might make it hard to trust him.
Getting into the longer odds to win the 2018 British Open, reigning two-time U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka (+2200) has cracked the top 10 in his last two starts in the British Open. Only Tiger Woods (2000) and Tom Watson (1982) have won both the U.S. and British titles in the same year in the last 45 years. That doesn’t automatically rule out that it could happen.
With that said, Tommy Fleetwood (+2200) holds the course record at Carnoustie and also has recent momentum, what with being a U.S. Open runner-up. Tiger Woods (+2200) has the same price and could benefit from not needing to use his driver frequently this week.
The tournament comes at a bad time for defending champion Jordan Spieth (+2200), who has missed the cut in three of his last seven starts.
The case for, or against, Francesco Molinari (+3300) comes down to whether bettors give more weight to recent results or his track record in the event. Molinari has two wins, a second-place finish and a tie for second within his last five tournaments and his proficiency at hitting fairways could serve him well. He’s finished outside of the top 30 in the last three British Opens, but all of those were at other courses.
For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.
Tiger Woods is a step back of the betting favorites for the 2018 U.S. Open at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark. as the world’s top golfers get set to compete in the second major of the season this week at Shinnecock Hills.
Woods sits at +1600 on the odds to win the US Open this week, tied with Jason Day, Justin Rose, and Rickie Fowler on the board and behind the top four betting favorites on the list. The 42-year-old, however, only has two Top-10 results in his nine PGA Tour events so far on the season.
And those two finishes came back in March, at the Valspar Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Since then Woods has finished 32nd at the Masters, 55th at the Wells Fargo Championship, 11th at THE PLAYERS Championship, and 23rd at the Memorial Tournament.
Woods is a three-time US Open winner, taking the tournament in each of 2000, 2002, and 2008. Since 2008 he’s only played in the event five times, finishing sixth in 2009 and fourth in 2010, but 21st in 2012 and 32nd in 2013, and missing the cut in 2015. And since the end of the 2015 season Woods has only played in one major tournament, this year’s Masters.
Still, Woods only trails those four favorites on the golf betting lines at the sportsbooks, with Dustin Johnson the tournament chalk at +900, Rory McIlroy second on the board at +1100, and Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth rounding out the quartet at odds of +1400.
Johnson, Spieth, and McIlroy are all former US Open champions, with McIlroy winning in 2011 at Congressional, Spieth winning in 2015 at Chambers Bay, and Johnson winning in 2016 at Oakmont. For betting favorite Johnson that was his first and so far only major tournament win on the PGA Tour, but he’s coming off a victory in the FedEx St. Jude Classic over the weekend.
And Johnson is also atop the updated World Golf Ranking, having jumped over Thomas for the lead on that list with his win over the weekend. Rose sits third in the current rankings, with Spieth fourth, Jon Rahm fifth, and McIlroy sixth.
Rahm is set at +2000 on the odds to win the 2018 US Open for this week, behind defending tournament champion Brooks Koepka (+1800) and ahead of Phil Mickelson and Hideki Matsuyama – who are both pegged at +2800 odds. Henrik Stenson, Patrick Reed, and Sergio Garcia hold down betting lines of +3300 for this week.
For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.
