- Hole-by-hole coverage from the opening day at Pinehurst
- Official live leaderboard | Email your thoughts to Scott
The world number one Scottie Scheffler is the very short-priced to win his first US Open and his sixth PGA Tour event in his last nine starts. He’s already got this year’s Masters Tournament and Players Championship in the bag, and let’s be honest, there’s a fair chance he’d have landed the PGA Championship too, had he not been farcically arrested on the Friday morning, and had the Tour chaplain standing in for his regular caddie on Saturday. The man’s as cool as a long glass of Arnold Palmer on the porch in the summer shade. If he’s not in the mix come Sunday afternoon, it’ll be a surprise.
Then again, the US Open is golf’s hardest test, and can make a mug of anyone. (The defending champion Wyndham Clark has been pointing out to anyone that will listen that the hard, fast, domed greens are “borderline”, so expect some high-jinks.) It’s a tournament that often throws up a surprise winner – Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick, Gary Woodland, Graeme McDowell and, at the last two US Opens held at Pinehurst, Michael Campbell and Martin Kaymer – so take your pick from a star-packed field. The usual suspects will of course fancy their chances – Scheffler, the new PGA champ Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, the resurgent Collin Morikawa, Viktor and Ludvig, Bryson and Brooks – so there’s plenty of potential for a major for the ages.
