US Open Betting
Rory Mcllroy, World No2′ said his confidence was improving as he looked forward to defending his US Open title at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Mcllroy won the title, his first Major victory, by eight shots last year at Congressional. Coming in to the defence, on the back of a run of three straight missed cuts, he was hoping to improve his form at the St Jude Classic, Memphis. His morale boosting plan did not run smoothly and after sharing the lead on the 18th tee, he found water, hit a 69 and had to settle for a share of seventh place. Although this is not the result he may have hoped for, there was some small compensation when he made a perfect opening pitch at a Major League Baseball game between Huston Astros and San Francisco Giants a few days later! Mcllroy has been grouped with English duo Lee Westwood and Luke Donald for the first two days of the Open, Mcllroy and Donald have traded the World No1 spot more than a few times this year whilst Westwood lies at No3 in the rankings.
Lee Westwood comes fresh from his win at the Stockholm Nordea Masters at the beginning of June, a title he also claimed in 1996 and 2001, it was his first European Tour victory since Ballantine’s Championship in May 2011. He carded a final round of 68 at Bro Hof Slott, despite missing a number of short putts on the front nine he won the tournament by five shots. Fellow Englishman Ross Fisher finished second, Sergio Garcia, Finland’s Mikko Llonen and Sweden’s Peter Hanson all closed on 67, [13 under par] to tie in third position. Westwood has finished third at the US Open twice before and is still looking for his first Major victory, after his win he said “I’ll tee off on Thursday with a lot of confidence”. Westwood used a new set of irons and a new putter in Sweden and expects to use them again at the Olympic Club, he said “I think they’ve earned the right to stay in, you’re never to sure first time in the bag, but you don’t win tournaments by five shots without playing really well”.
Tiger Woods, World No4, will go out with Phil Mickleson and Masters champion Bubba Watson. Woods is favourite to win the tournament after he won his fifth Memorial tournament this month and equalled Jack Nicklaus’s total of 73 PGA Tour titles. Three former winners,Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy and Angel Cabrera will also play together and a 14 year old will replace injured Paul Casey. Andy Zhang, who missed out on qualifying in his own right in a play off, will replace Casey and become the competitions youngest player since WW2.
