Tiger Woods’ Status as U.S. Open Favorite Reaffirmed by Rock-Solid First Round at Olympic
Plenty has happened on and off the course in Tiger's life since then, but once again Woods is the favorite to America's golf championship, this time at 6-1 at Bovada for this weekend's U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Tiger will tell anyone that winning is nice, but he's not satisfied if it's not a major. But when less than two weeks ago Woods birdied three of his last four holes at Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament to close with a 5-under 67 and turn a two-shot deficit into a two-shot victory, well, the golf world was put on notice. It was an indication that Woods might be ready to dominate the majors and start his chase to surpass the Golden Bear once again.
Tiger's U.S. Open history is mostly spectacular. He has the best average finish of any active golfer who has played the U.S. Open more than once at 24.3. Woods has eight Top 10 finishes all-time and also won in 2000 and 2002. He missed the event last year with an injury but in the previous four years he didn't finish worse than sixth, including that '08 win. Tiger finished tied for 18th when the U.S. Open was held at Olympic last in 1998. Woods has missed the cut just once, back in 2006.
Woods is also an 11-8 favorite to have a top five finish. Tiger finishing in the Top 10 is at -200, while finishing outside that group is +150. He also leads in the odds to be the top American finisher at 11-4.
Could the improbable happen with Tiger missing the cut? To miss it, Woods is at +400 while making the cut is a huge -650 favorite.
World No. 3 Lee Westwood is the second-favorite to win at 10-1, while world No. 1 Luke Donald is at 12/1. Neither of those Englishmen has won a major in his career. Westwood enters off a victory on the European Tour in Sweden last weekend. He has four Top 10 finishes in his U.S. Open career, including third last year and in 2008. In the 1998 event at Olympic, Westwood was tied for seventh. Donald, meanwhile, hasn't had a Top-10 finish in eight previous U.S. Opens.
No player has won consecutive U.S. Opens since Curtis Strange in 1998 and '89. Defending champion Rory McIlroy is 14-1 to defend the title he won at Congressional last year in which he led wire-to-wire in dominating fashion. However, McIlroy has missed three straight cuts entering this tournament.
No player has had more heartbreak at the U.S. Open than Phil Mickelson, who has finished second a record five times. When this tournament was at Olympic 14 years ago, Lefty tied for 10th.
Americans Dustin Johnson and Jason Dufner are both at 25-1 to win their first major and both are playing extremely well right now. Johnson won the tournament last weekend in Memphis, while Dufner has won two of the past four events he has entered and was runner-up in a third. Johnson led the 2010 U.S. Open after three rounds but imploded in the final round and finished eighth. Dufner is looking for his first Top-10 finish at the Open.
A player from the USA winning the U.S. Open is the -138 favorite, followed by Europe +170, rest of the world at +600 and Australasia at +1400. A foreign-born player has won the U.S. Open on 33 occasions, including the past two.
