This year's US Open, which is the second major of the season in professional golf, gets underway this Thursday with first round action from Chambers Bay at University Place in Washington. Rory McIlroy comes in as the favorite to win, but there are a number of contenders ready to bring their A-Game to the Pacific Northwest in search of a win this week.
Bovada has released a number of prop bets in conjunction with this week's tournament, but one of my favorites in terms of having some of the best value on the board are the betting odds for a Top-5 finish.
Jordan Spieth 7/4
Spieth has already laid claim to this season's first major with an impressive victory in the Masters in early April. He made a wire-to-wire run in that tournament, and his overall -18 score of 270 tied Tiger Woods for the lowest ever at Augusta.
Since that win, he has stayed hot with a second-place finish in the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial CC in mid-May followed by a third-place finish in the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village GC to kick-off the month of June. Overall, the 21-year-old phenom has three victories and three additional finishes in the Top 3 in 17 events this season.
Ricky Fowler 4/1
Clearly established as a crowd favorite since turning pro in 2009, Fowler may be on the brink of bringing home the first major of his career after posting a huge victory in The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in early May. He did miss the cut his last time out in the Memorial, but overall his form has been strong all season long with four Top-10 finishes in 13 events.
This will be his seventh appearance in the US Open, and his best finish came in last year's event at Pinehurst No. 2 where he finished in a tie for second. The year before, he placed 10th in the US Open at Merion GC.
Adam Scott 6/1
Scott has always been a solid bet to place high in any major he plays, and he finally broke through with an outright win in the 2013 Masters. Since turning pro back in 2000, he has accumulated a total of 27 tournament victories worldwide, including 11 on the PGA Tour.
His best effort this season in a PGA Tour event was a fourth-place finish in the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral in early March. His current form may drain a bit of value from these odds after failing to place in the Top 20 in his last seven events, but I like his chances to compete in this year's US Open after finishing tied for ninth in last year's event.
Jimmie Walker 13/2
Current form is what has me so high on Walker heading into Chambers Bay. He has risen to second behind Spieth in the current FedEx Cup standings on the strength of four Top-3 finishes in 16 events this year. He placed second his last time out in the AT&T Byron Nelson Tournament, and he also claimed two titles this year with victories in the Sony Open in January and the Valero Texas Open at the end of March.
This will be Walker's fourth start in a US Open, and he is coming off a solid showing at Pinehurst in last year's event by finishing the four rounds in a tie for ninth.
Charley Hoffman 16/1
If you are looking to push the value for a Top-5 finish this week with longer odds, Hoffman could very well fit the bill. He is another player that I am very high on given his current form after posting three Top-3 finishes in 20 events this season. The 38-year old PGA veteran has been especially hot lately after following-up his 10th-place finish in the Crowne Plaza Invitational with a second-place finish in the AT&T Byron Nelson to close-out the month of May.
Hoffman will be playing in just his fourth career US Open, with his best finishes coming in 2011 and 2013 when he tied for 45th in the field each time. This is definitely a risk/reward pick, but he does have the game to stick near the top of the leaderboard for all four rounds if he gets a couple of breaks along the way.
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