Betting the US Open

Betting the US Open
By Bodog

The last time the U.S. Open was held at Pebble Beach Golf Links it was a cakewalk for Tiger Woods.

Woods shot rounds of 65, 69, 71, and 67 back in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach to beat Miguel Angel Jimenez and Ernie Els by 15 strokes. John Huston finished fourth at that tournament, while Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington tied for fifth place. Phil Mickelson shot a closing-round 76 to end up 21 strokes back of Woods.

Despite that gap between Woods and Mickelson 10 years ago the two golfers are tied at 7/1 odds to win the U.S. Open this week. Woods and Mickelson both played in the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield two weeks ago; Mickelson tied for fifth place at 11-under for the tournament, while Woods tied for 19th place at 6-under. Justin Rose won the Memorial Tournament with a score of 18-under.

Last week at the St. Jude Classic it was Lee Westwood who grabbed the trophy, beating Robert Garrigus and Robert Karlsson in a playoff. All three golfers had a score of 10-under.

That result has Westwood third on the odds list for this week’s U.S. Open at 10/1. Westwood finished second at The Masters earlier this year, and he ended up tied for third at both the British Open and the PGA Championship last year. Westwood’s best U.S. Open finish was a third-place result back in 2008; he’s never won a major.

Mickelson, of course, won The Masters this year, and he ended up tied for second at last year’s U.S. Open. Lefty has ended up in second place at the U.S. Open five times over the course of his career to go along with three other Top-10 results at the tournament, but he’s still looking to pick up that trophy for the first time.

Including his win in 2000 Woods has three U.S. Open titles among his 14 major trophies, as he won the event in both 2002 and 2008 as well. Last year Woods ended up in a tie for sixth place in the U.S. Open at Bethpage’s Black Course.

The odds get longer after Woods, Mickelson, and Westwood, with Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, and Jim Furyk all listed at 28/1 to win at Pebble Beach this week. Els is next at 30/1, with Steve Stricker, Luke Donald, Retief Goosen, and Dustin Johnson back at 33/1.

You can also get +225 odds that one of Woods, Mickelson, or Westwood will walk away with the trophy on Sunday. The Field sits at -300 to wrestle the win away from that Big 3.

If you think Woods will struggle under the U.S. Open spotlight this week you can go for a big payoff by laying down some cash on his +550 odds to miss the cut at Pebble Beach. Woods making the cut is listed at -1000, with Mickelson getting those exact same odds. Those two are also both sitting at -150 odds to finish in the Top 10 of the U.S. Open leaderboard, and at -400 odds to end up in the Top 20.

This will be the sixth major championship held at Pebble Beach – the U.S. Open was also played there in 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2000, and it hosted the PGA Championship in 1977. Those first five tournaments were all won by American golfers (Woods, Tom Kite, Tom Watson, Lanny Wadkins, and Jack Nicklaus).

Westwood will be looking to break up that U.S.A. streak this week, but he’s also pegged at 7/2 odds to be the top European player at the tournament. Harrington is next at 13/2, with McIlroy at 8/1, Donald at 9/1, and Paul Casey at 10/1. Westwood is also the 2/1 favorite to be the top Great Britain & Ireland player, with Karlsson at 2/1 odds to be the top Scandinavian, and Els at 9/5 odds to be the top South African.

But it’s Americans Woods and Mickelson that will be the focus of the coverage this week – assuming they can stay in contention through all four days. And Mickelson will have added incentive beyond getting his first U.S. Open win – he can finally pass Woods in the World Golf Rankings with the right set of results this week.