US Open courses are almost always set up similarly, fairly narrow fairways, penal rough and nowadays , they are also long. Pinehurst #2 has all those attributes , it is a long Par 70 course with just two par 5's and in addition, it has small, tough hard to hit greens with steep run offs . It is also a Donald Ross designed course and players tend to either like those or not and so form at the others..... East Lake (Tour Championship), Sedgefield (Wyndham) , Sawgrass (The PLAYERS) and Oak Hill ( 2023 PGA Championship) is noteworthy. 

 

Let's put that on the back burner for now and look , as we often do at the majors, at an identikit winner. He needs to be ranked top 32 in the world, ideally top 25, aged 35 or younger, with a previous US Open top 25 to his name, he should have made between 5-8 appearances, have finished top 10 in at least one of his last two majors, but should be majorless, finally, he needs a top 12 finish in at least one of his last two PGA outings. That's all!

 

Only two golfers make the full criteria and one or two big names in my house got very excited seeing that, as the duo both have great recent form on those Ross designed courses too.

 

Let's return to this on Monday and see how the duo have played.

 

Good luck!