US Open golf betting tips: Expert picks for major at Torrey Pines
Last month's US PGA equivalent unearthed winners at 5/2 and 28/1. How will our panel of experts fare in the US Open at Torrey Pines?
Sergio Garcia to miss the cut
Matt Cooper is a long-time Sporting Life contributor who previews the women's majors for the website and provides tips for multiple tours for betting.betfair.com and others.
SERGIO GARCIA is in a very peculiar trot of form at the moment, carding all sorts of numbers that has seen him frequently make a speedy start, but also go four events in April and May without reaching the weekend. Two of those were the year’s first major championships and lasting no more than two rounds at them has become something of a grim habit for him ever since the end of 2017.
In point of fact, he’s failed to make the cut in 11 of his last 13 starts in the majors and the two times he did play all four rounds he couldn’t make the top 50. The clincher is that in his last five starts he’s always carded a score of at least 75. I’m slightly wary that I’ve missed the bus with this one because I spotted he was odds-against to miss the cut at Kiawah Island roughly 30 seconds after submitting my entry to this column last month. However, the price is still the right side of evens so I’ll take my chances.
Paul Casey to finish in the top 20
Jason Daniels is a pundit on golf podcast Lost Fore Words who also previews the final round of European Tour events for Sporting Life.
While the golfing world heralds another young superstar in Garrick Higgo, here in Blighty, the old guard continues to fend off the whippersnappers. Having seen the resurgence of Lee Westwood over the last year-and-a-bit, 43-year-old PAUL CASEY has produced some of the best golf of his 20-year career and can bag another high finish in a major.
Don't just look at the three wins in the last 30 months for evidence that he's in the form of his life, but to placed efforts that have come in top-grade fields.
A top-10 at Bay Hill reads well given the wind and difficulty factor but even better are his second, fifth and 10th-place finishes at Pebble Beach, while a tied fourth and runner-up at the previous two US PGA Championships shows he is still able to mix it with the very best. His recent flying finish in Germany will have kept the heart racing despite doubts about him wanting to be there and also confirmed his game is approaching its peak once again.
Ranked inside the top 10 in total driving, fourth in approaches, top 15 in tee-to-green and third in scrambling from the rough, he has the perfect game to keep playing irons from the fairway and therefore saving shots on the field. Expect to see him smiling away like he did when runner-up to Collin Morikawa at Harding Park, just up the road from here, and it wouldn't surprise to see that result repeated at Torrey Pines this week.
Martin Laird to be the top Scottish player
Martin Mathews writes a regular PGA Tour tipping column on his own website, provides in-play event previews for Sporting Life, and is a regular Paddy Power contributor.
The battle for top Scot honours resumes once again between new kid on the block Robert MacIntyre and veteran MARTIN LAIRD and while MacIntyre undoubtedly has a huge future ahead of him and one that could well see him eclipse Laird’s achievements in the game, it is the 38-year-old who makes more appeal this week.
MacIntyre showed at Augusta how he can flourish on a course that gives him a bit of room off the tee and a chance to show his short game magic on tight lies, however Torrey Pines, with its thick rough both off the fairways and around the greens, could easily find the sometimes wayward youngster out.
Laird on the other hand currently sits 19th on the PGA Tour in old fashioned driving accuracy and 21st in greens In regulation so he should find himself playing from the short stuff far more regularly than his compatriot. Furthermore Laird's far greater experience at Torrey Pines and on poa annua greens should give him an advantage.
Laird got the better of MacIntyre in their most recent duel at Kiawah Island in the PGA Championship and as the outsider of the two here he looks a great bet to do so again.
Harris English to finish in the top 10
Former Sky Sports Golf editor Dave Tindall is a regular contributor to betting.betfair.com and various other publications. Read his outright preview for Betfair by clicking here.
An early-season win at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii suggested HARRIS ENGLISH's rise up the world rankings would continue at rapid speed. In the end, it proved something of a false dawn as he started mixing midfield finishes with missed cuts. But it emerged that back trouble played a big part in that dip and, more recently, the signs are much better: that's shown by top-15s in two of his last three starts, the latest at the Palmetto Championship on Sunday.
As for the majors, he posted a decent tied 21st at the Masters and also made the cut in the PGA at Kiawah Island. English has three top-25s in his last four majors and the best of those was a top-four finish in last year's US Open at Winged Foot. A former runner-up at Torrey Pines, he's capable of cracking the top 10 again in this event at a tasty 6/1.
Taylor Pendrith to be the top Canadian player
Ben Coley is Sporting Life's deputy editor and long-serving golf columnist and tipster. Read his outright preview here.
Many will consider Corey Conners another strong favourite to be the pick of four Canadians. He's won this market in each of the last three majors, contending at some stage in two of them, and this fine ball-striker has been one of the most consistently impressive performers all season.
It's hard to find fault with Conners at 8/13, but since the Heritage his results haven't been quite so impressive and at the odds, TAYLOR PENDRITH represents a sporting wager against him.
Pendrith is a Korn Ferry Tour member who has a class divide to cross, but he's one of if not the biggest hitter on that circuit, and power is usually vital in a US Open. Here at the South Course, which can stretch close to 7,800 yards, it should be just as good a pointer as it was at Winged Foot, where he was by far the pick of the Canadians in 23rd.
His form coming in is similar, with a final-round 65 a fortnight ago setting him up nicely for another go, and at 13/2 he's the value play in a field of four, with neither Mackenzie Hughes nor Adam Hadwin expected to feature.
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