Dustin Johnson has best odds due to atypical 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Mills

OddsSharkJun 14, 2017, 8:22 AM EDT
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Dustin Johnson has top odds on the 2017 U.S. Open champion board for many reasons, not the least of which is that Erin Mills is an atypical setting for the second major on the golf calendar.

Johnson is listed at +750 to win the tournament according to a consensus of sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.

Johnson is the defending champion and, of course, leads the PGA Tour in average driving distance (312.1 yards). Normally that’s a lesser factor in the U.S. Open, but the course in Wisconsin offers one of the longest layouts (7,693 yards) ever used in the event, as well as some very wide fairways. It will be the first par-72 test at the Open since 1992.

The top of the board also includes past champions Rory McIlroy (+1200) and Jordan Spieth (+1200), along with Jason Day (+1400), Jon Rahm (+2000), Rickie Fowler (+2000), Masters champion Sergio Garcia (+2200) and Justin Rose (+2200).

Johnson took last week to get ready for the Open and missed the cut in his previous outing, but he was 13th or better three tournaments in a row since returning from the infamous back injury that kept him from playing in the Masters. If he’s 100 per cent, Johnson certainly is capable of winning. For what it might be worth, no champion has repeated since 1989.

Day, McIlroy, Spieth, Fowler and Rahm all have the requisite length to make a run this weekend. Fowler has had some promising outings lately and may be ready to contend at a major. He took a run at it two months ago at the Masters, where he collapsed in the final round.

Rahm has also had three top-10 finishes in his last six starts. Spieth, unlike most of the field, has experience with Erin Mills from his amateur days. That might be an X-factor for the 2015 champion.

It’s not for nothing Garcia and Rose have the same price, since they were involved in a playoff at the Masters. While Garcia has never missed a cut at the U.S. Open, he has nothing on the big-event consistency of Rose, who has five consecutive top-10 finishes in majors (plus his 2016 Olympics gold medal for Great Britain). Rose should also be mentally toughened by the Masters disappointment.

Overall, the final placings might come down to who attacks a course that much of field had no experience with until they showed up in rural Wisconsin at the start of this week. That could narrow the gap between the big names and lesser-known players. Brooks Koepka (+4000 on the golf odds) is one of the longest hitters but has challenges staying consistent.

Another darkhorse who could emerge is Russell Henley (+10000), who is in the top quarter of the Tour in strokes gained off the tee and from tee to green.

PGA Tour, DP World Tour to merge with Saudis and end LIV Golf litigation

By Jun 6, 2023, 11:18 AM EDT
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The most disruptive year in golf ended Tuesday when the PGA Tour and DP World Tour agreed to a merger with Saudi Arabia’s golf interests, creating a commercial operation designed to unify professional golf around the world.

As part of the deal, the sides are dropping all lawsuits involving LIV Golf against each other effective immediately.

Still to be determined is how players like Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, who defected to Saudi-funded LIV Golf for nine-figure bonuses, can rejoin the PGA Tour after this year.

Also unclear was what form the LIV Golf League would take in 2024. Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo to players that a thorough evaluation would determine how to integrate team golf into the game.

The agreement combines the Public Investment Fund’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights — including LIV Golf — with those of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. The new entity has not been named.

“They were going down their path, we were going down ours, and after a lot of introspection you realize all this tension in the game is not a good thing,” Monahan said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

“We have a responsibility to our tour and to the game, and we felt like the time was right to have that conversation.”

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, will join the board of the PGA Tour, which continues to operate its tournaments. Al-Rumayyan will be chairman of the new commercial group, with Monahan as the CEO and the PGA Tour having a majority stake in the new venture.

The PIF will invest in the commercial venture.

Monahan said the decision came together over the last seven weeks.

Brooks Koepka wins third Wanamaker Trophy, fifth major title at PGA Championship

By May 21, 2023, 6:39 PM EDT
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Brooks Koepka promised Sunday at Oak Hill would not be a reprise of Sunday at Augusta National.

Koepka held true to his word, shooting 3-under 67 to win the PGA Championship, finishing at 9 under, two in front of Scottie Scheffler (65) and Viktor Hovland (68).

Koepka and Hovland, playing together in the final pairing, were separated by one stroke at the par-4 16th, when Hovland hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker on the right. The previous day, leader Corey Conners was in the same spot and drilled his approach into the face of the bunker. He had to take an unplayable lie and made double bogey, losing the lead for good.

Incredibly, Hovland did the same thing on Sunday, losing any chance he had at his first major title.

Koepka, for his part, birdied the 16th and led by four shots with two to play. He closed with an innocuous bogey at the 17th and a par at the 18th.

This was Kopeka’s fifth major championship win and his third Wanamaker Trophy (2018, ’19). He joined James Braid, John Henry Taylor, Byron Nelson, Peter Thomson and Seve Ballesteros at 15th on the all-time major-victory list.

It marked his ninth career PGA Tour title and first since February 2021.

It was in that same month, a year later, that Koepka made clear his intention to remain on the PGA Tour, saying of the fledgling Saudi-led rival league, “They’ll get their guys. Somebody will sell out and go to it.”

Four months later, Koepka was one of those guys.

Koepka claimed his first of two LIV titles in October and the second in April, the week before the Masters Tournament. It was in the season’s first major where Koepka led by two shots entering the final round (after completing a delayed Round 3 early that Sunday) but closed in 75 to finish T-2 behind Jon Rahm.

This Saturday, once again with a lead through 54 holes of a major, Koepka was confident – though, coy with his reasons why – that this championship would end differently.

Or, similarly, to that of Bellerive and Bethpage Black.

It appeared that the 105th edition of the PGA was over 45 minutes after the final group teed off in the final round.

Koepka birdied three of his first four holes and led by three shots.

He was perfection personified, expertly positioning his tee shots and precisely hitting his irons. But a sliced drive off the sixth tee led to bogey and he made another at the seventh. By the turn, he was at 7 under par, one clear of Hovland with Scheffler at 4 under through 11 holes.

Scheffler managed to reach 7 under par for the championship, but never got closer than within two strokes.

It was ultimately a battle between the final two men on the course, with Koepka consistently managed to stay out front. He went birdie-bogey-birdie to start the inward half as Hovland strung together a trio of pars. The Norwegian birdied the par-5 13th and could have drawn even, but Koepka converted a slick, downhill, 10-footer for par to remain one up.

Both men made birdie at the drivable, 320-yard, par-4 14th and both men parred 15.

Then came the 16th, where Hovland thinned his second shot from the fairway sand into the bottom portion of the bunker lip. His ball embedded, Hovland took a penalty stroke and a drop. His double bogey, combined with Koepka’s birdie, ended all of the drama.

But Oak Hill was not devoid of cheers Sunday evening. Club pro Michael Block, playing alongside Rory McIlroy, had a slam-dunk hole-in-one at the par-3 15th and then made an incredible par save from well left of the 18th green. His closing 1-over 71 placed him in a tie for 15th and earned him a spot in next year’s field at Valhalla.

The last time the Louisville, Kentucky course hosted a PGA, McIlroy claimed his second Wanamaker Trophy and his fourth – and most recent – major. The Northern Irishman energized the western New York crowd this Sunday by sticking his approach shot at the first hole to a foot. The birdie got him within four of the lead, but he short-sided himself – from the fairway – at No. 2 and immediately gave the shot back. McIlroy shot 1-under 69 and tied for seventh.

While his major wait will extend to Los Angeles Country Club in June, Koepka will arrive looking for a third U.S. Open title.

And after his performances in the first two majors of the season, he will likely be the favorite.