Our PGA Championship equivalent produced two winners from five selections and the panel are back to scour the specials markets ahead of the US Open.
Ben Coley, Matt Cooper and Dave Tindall are guests on the Betfair Only Bettor podcast, presented by Sarah Stirk. CLICK HERE to listen.
Sepp Straka to finish in the top 20
Former Sky Sports Golf editor Dave Tindall is a regular contributor to betting.betfair.com and various other publications.
SEPP STRAKA has made 75% of his cuts in majors (six out of eight) so looks comfortable at this level already. He began that record with tied 28th in the 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach and, after making it two cuts out of two at Augusta in April, he delivered a majors-best tied seventh in last month's US PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
The Austrian continued his impressive play with tied 16th at the Memorial Tournament last time and across his two starts at Oak Hill and Muirfield Village he's gained over 17.5 strokes with his approaches so his iron play has been stellar.
Add in some better signs with the putter and the 2022 Honda Classic winner looks very capable of making the top 20 at a decent price.
Romain Langasque to be the top French player
Tom Jacobs is the creator and host of golf podcast Lost Fore Words, which features interviews with coaches and players, plus weekly previews of the biggest events in golf. CLICK HERE for their US Open preview show.
I’m not someone who gets on board with ROMAIN LANGASQUE too often (editor's note: I know what you're doing here...!), but this as much about opposing Victor Perez as it is siding with Langasque, who has been playing solidly of late
In Langasque's last four starts, he has finished T21, 2nd, T16, and T10, and that in itself is a good sign, especially when you consider Perez's missed cut last time out at the KLM Open as one of the favourites, where he awful with his irons.
Perez is understandably the favourite here, based on his world ranking and his T12 finish at the PGA Championship last month, but I think it is important to look at the Frenchman's US Open results. In three starts in the event, Perez has never made the cut and has not come particularly close to doing so either, so there is every chance he just doesn't like the USGA setups.
On the flip side, Langasque has played in one US Open, finishing T34 in the 2020 renewal at Winged Foot. While I wouldn't necessarily expect this course to play as that one did three years ago, Gil Hanse did redesign both of them, and in any case this course could potentially be more suitable for Langasque.
Add in some potential correlation to Augusta, where Langasque made the cut when playing as an amateur, and I think he could finish inside the top 40 in this event. That might be enough to win this market and the price looks good.
Xander Schauffele to finish in the top 20
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.
It might be boring but I’m just going to put up XANDER SCHAUFFELE because it’s almost as if the tougher the test, the more capable he becomes (at landing top 20s at least).
Even ignoring the small field Tournament of Champions and Tour Championship, he has 8-in-11 this year, 21-in-28 over the last two years and 54-in-83 over the last five years. In major championships the tally is 16-in-24 and in the US Open 6-for-6.
The flippant line about his ability in tougher tests probably has something in it, but in the sense that his game can cope with difficulty where the swings and game plans of other golfers fall apart. So, while odds-against is on offer with bet365, take it.
Patrick Rodgers to finish in the top 30
Martin Mathews writes a regular PGA Tour tipping column on his own website and is a regular Paddy Power contributor.
Many column inches have been dedicated to the talented PATRICK RODGERS and when, or indeed whether, he will finally break through for that first PGA Tour win.
This week though we are not siding with him to pull off an improbable victory but to post a top 30 finish, something I believe to be well within his compass.
Rodgers, who enjoyed a stellar amateur career at Stanford, has a strong record when back in California including five top-30 finishes in his last seven starts at the George Thomas-designed Riviera. On his last four starts in the US Open he has made the cut on each occasion, finishing 31st in each of the last two years.
After recovering from an injury which derailed his start to the year, Rodgers has missed the weekend only once in his last seven starts, posting three top020s along the way, as well as a solid 29th at the PGA Championship.
Having come through final sectional qualifying last week he looks good value to land a top 30 for us here.
Alex Noren to be the top Swedish player
Ben Coley is Sporting Life's deputy head of editorial and long-serving golf columnist and tipster. Read his outright preview here.
The rule in US Opens has been to oppose ALEX NOREN however you can, something we profited from this time last year, but LACC is different and might just enable the Swede to build on some encouraging signs of late.
But for some wild driving and a slow start, Noren might've been bustling up the leaders back home last week and that was another step forward following a pair of cuts made at courses he'd never shown much fondness for in the past.
This one, with its wide, firm fairways, really should go down well with a former Scottish Open winner whose standout US Open display came at Shinnecock, and unlike last year he has very little to beat in a weak set of Swedish players.
Posted at 2125 BST on 13/06/23
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