While many Bet Online players will be wagering on the European Championship this weekend, on Thursday the U.S. Open will begin and they’ll have to fit that into their betting slate. The second major of the golf season will take place at Olympic Club for the first time since 1998, when even par was enough for Lee Janzen. Here is a look at five players looking to follow up Rory McIlroy’s record-setting -16 at Congressional last year.
Tiger Woods (+600): The three-time U.S. Open winner won his last major in this event at Torrey Pines in 2008 and he is the favorite coming into this game with two wins in five starts. Woods finished T-18 at the 1998 U.S. Open and it is just a matter of which Tiger is going to show up for players that work with price per head sportsbook picks: the one that wins the Memorial with clutch shots or the one that finished T-40 at the Masters.
Luke Donald (+1200): The world’s No.1 player won the BMW Championship three weeks ago in his home country of England, and his steady tee-to-green game is suited for a tough course like Olympic Club, where you have to hit fairways and greens. He has been up and down in the majors as of late, but if sports betting sharps are going to jump on Donald, this is the time to do it.
Lee Westwood (+1200): Another Englishman is valued the came as Donald, and Westwood finished T-7 at Olympic Club in 1998, so he could bring some good memories here. Most online betting players will tell you that Westwood is the best player in the world to not win a major, but he beat a decent field in Sweden by five strokes this weekend.
Dustin Johnson (+3000): Speaking of winners, Johnson came away with the victory at the St. Jude’s Classic and outside of McIlroy, you may not find a player in the game that is more naturally talented than Johnson, who is fully recovered from a back injury. Johnson has four top-10s in his last eight starts in the majors and if he can make some putts, Johnson has the ability to romp over the field.
Jim Furyk (+4000): Furyk is the opposite of Johnson in that he has to grind to get wins, but he has a U.S. Open win under his belt from 2003 and finished T-14 in 1998. He has finished in the top 25 in seven of his last eight starts and like Donald, Furyk is consistently pounding fairways and greens. After a rough period where he seemed to lose his touch, Furyk seems to be back and could be a sleeper pick to pay a sports bet on.