This week promises to be another exciting one for those of you interested in the golf season as 156 of the world’s best players will head to the famed links course of Pebble Beach in California to compete in the 2019 US Open Championship.
Last held at the resort back in 2010 when Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowall landed his only Major success of his career, this year’s tournament will be the sixth time that the US Open has been held at the course, the seventh time it has hosted a Major Championship and it could also witness one of the truly great golfing achievements of all time, should American world number 1 Brooks Koepka manage to land the victory.
Before we learn a little more about why this year’s US Open tournament could be so special, let’s first tell you about where you can enjoy a wager on the event itself. Bet365 Sport has a wide range of markets available on the tournament and will also offer extensive In Play betting once the tournament gets underway on Thursday. If you are not yet a member, sign up today using the latest bet365 Sport New Customer Bonus and you’ll even receive a little added incentive when you start betting on the site.
Let’s now take a look at how the 2019 US Open is looking, and in particular why it could be a very special one for Brooks Koepka.
2019 US Open Preview
Brooks Koepka stands on the threshold of becoming a golfing legend. No player since Peter Thomson in the 1950s has managed to win three successive major victories in the same tournament. Thomson achieved his trio of wins from 1954 to 1956, when the standard of golf was much less consistent. No player has landed three in a row since.
Tiger Woods has won two in a row on an incredible five occasions across three different Major tournaments, Koepka himself already has landed two in a row twice (at the US Open and the USPGA), but the only other four players to have won a major tournament twice in successive years since the 1980s are Nick Faldo, Curtis Strange, Tom Watson and Padraig Harrington.
The only player ever to win three US Opens in successive years was Scottish legend Willie Anderson, who landed his victories between 1903 and 1905. The Scot was also the winner in 1901. Only six players in the history of golf have ever won three of the same Major tournaments in successive years. Anderson, Thomson, plus Bob Ferguson, Walter Hagen, Jamie Anderson and Young Tom Morris.
However to land this incredible achievement, he will not only have to beat a very talented field of 155 other players, but also the very tough Ocean course at Pebble Beach, which features some of the most famous, and difficult, holes on the PGA Tour.
Pebble Beach
With a prize pool of $12,500,000 up for grabs, and the winner set to pocket $2,250,000 of that amount, the Pebble Beach course will be set up with even greater difficulty than usual for the world’s finest golfers to navigate across the four days of action.
The course has hosted the tournament five times previously (1972, 1982, 1992, 2000 and 2010) and in addition to this sixth time this week, it will again host the US Open in 2027. It has also been home to the USPGA Championship in 1977, when Lanny Wadkins was the winner.
Of the six Majors already held at Pebble Beach, US Players have won five of them (Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Tiger Woods and Lanny Wadkins), while the sole non-US winner was Irishman Graeme McDowell in 2010.
Of those wins, Tiger Woods victory in 2000 was arguably the most memorable as the most dominant performance in a Major Championship by any golfer. Woods was the only player in the field to shoot a score under par, incredibly 12-under, and he won the US Open that year by a record 15-shots.
The course itself is not the longest at just 7,075 yards, although it has been extended since 2010 by a few extra yards. Its signature hole is the short Par 3 seventh, which sees players hitting out towards the ocean to a small green, as well as an incredible 18th hole par 5, which has a 100-yard long bunker protecting the green as well as a tree slap bang in the middle of the fairway.
Pebble Beach is also unusual as it has a 526-yard par four hole (the 9th) following a 523-yard par five (the 6th)!
Course Layout and Par scores
- 1st – 380 yards – Par 4
- 2nd – 516 yards – Par 4
- 3rd – 404 yards – Par 4
- 4th – 331 yards – Par 4
- 5th – 195 yards – Par 3
- 6th – 523 yards – Par 5
- 7th – 109 yards – Par 3
- 8th – 428 yards – Par 4
- 9th – 526 yards – Par 4
- 10th – 495 yards – Par 4
- 11th – 390 yards – Par 4
- 12th – 202 yards – Par 3
- 13th – 445 yards – Par 4
- 14th – 580 yards – Par 5
- 15th – 397 yards – Par 4
- 16th – 403 yards – Par 4
- 17th – 208 yards – Par 3
- 18th – 543 yards – Par 5
The 2019 US Open Field
Of course, it is not just Brooks Koepka hoping to land a win in California this week. The field is one of the strongest to have ever contested a Major in golf and features Tiger Woods, who sensationally won The Masters back in April to earn his 15th career Major trophy. Former World Number 1 Rory McIlroy is also back in great shape having won the Canadian Open last weekend with a sensational final round of 61 to win by seven shots.
The American challenge will be led by Woods and Koepka but will also see heavy involvement from the likes of Dustin Johnson, currently the World number 2, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffle and Bryson DeChambeau.
Europe’s top players will be led by McIlroy as well as former US Open winner Justin Rose, plus the likes of Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, British Open Champion Francesco Molinari and the in form Paul Casey. You can never rule out Australian duo Jason Day or Adam Scott either, both of who are Major winners and both seem to be returning to top form.
Our Tip to Win
Picking a winner in a field of 156 top golfers is incredibly tough and while I would love for Koepka to win his third US Open in a row, I feel that he may just fall short. The man I think who has the game to beat him, who almost pipped him at the USPGA last month, is Dustin Johnson (8/1) and I think the World Number 2 could earn his second US Open victory at Pebble Beach this weekend.
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