Bookies Blog

The U.S Open hasn’t been hosted at Bethpage for seven years, it is one of the toughest courses in the world, with the widest fairway just measuring an extremely narrow 28 yards. Add in the volatile weather conditions and some incredibly speedy greens, it is not surprising that Woods was the only golfer to score under par back in 2002.

Seven years on the bookies still have Tiger marked up as 2/1 favourite to win the U.S Open. The Bethpage is a tough course, and it is difficult to work out if you should be backing the long or short hitters; will the big hitters push the ball wide of the fairways but then again will short hitters even reach the fairway? In 2002 four of the shortest hitters on the course came in the top seven but the top three consisted of Woods, Mickelson and Garcia all of whom know how to hit the long ball.

Woods obviously has the class to win this but as always, when Tiger is short priced there is always some good each way value to be had. Ben Curtis performs well on tough courses and can drive the ball long and straight whilst his putting strokes show good consistency; at 125/1 each way Hills are offering a better price on both the win and place markets than Betfair. There are plenty of other good value outsiders and William Hill seem to be offering some very attractive prices, Vijay Singh is 70/1 with the next best bookmaker offering just 50/1.

It will be a difficult four days for all golfers involved. However, organisers have promised to bring forward tees if the weather starts playing up and the greens will still be fast, but nowhere near the 15 on the stimpmeter that they were back in 2002.