Author: Michael Vlismas

So the only way you stop Scottie Scheffler from winning the US Open is to have him arrested and locked up. Oh, hang on.

The man who wins golf tournaments while dealing with arrests, a bit of time behind bars, court appearances, and even having a first child, now arrives at Pinehurst as the overwhelming favourite while not having even seen the golf course.

With five wins this year, Scheffler is having a season that deserves more Major championship success. It’s been 44 years since a golfer has won five times in the year coming into the US Open. Just consider the impact of that stat. Fourty-four years ago, Jimmy Carter was the US President and Blondie had the number one song that year, “Call Me”.

Scheffler is a man in charge of his game and it’s hardly a surprise to see him as the favourite. Bryson DeChambeau bumped into Scheffler and asked the question we’re all asking: “Dude, what are you doing man?”

“He’s got full control of his golf swing. He’s figured out a lot of his putting. He plays some incredibly strategic golf. He hits the right shots at the right time and is really in control of not only his environment but also the conditions on the golf course. He knows what the golf ball is going to do and when things go awry he’s able to right the ship pretty quickly. That’s just a recipe for success.”

So to sum up: Perfect swing control. Perfect putting. Perfect strategy. Perfect understanding of tough course conditions. Do your worst US Open. Although Pinehurst is already looking about as friendly as a Louisville police officer.

Even Rory McIlroy is aghast at what Scheffler’s doing in the game right now. “The only thing that kept him from winning a golf tournament was going to a jail cell for an hour,” he said, before deciding that a US Open is tough enough without having your own legal issues to deal with (leave that to Scheffler please) and deciding now is maybe not a great time to get divorced. While McIlroy went into the last Major announcing his divorce, he decided to go into this one by announcing his non-divorce. Legal prep done. Now time for course prep.

Others to consider this week include Xander Schauffele. We’d picked him for a while on here and it was great to see him break through at the PGA Championship. But there’s definitely more to come from him. Collin Morikawa looked good chasing Scheffler at The Memorial. And so did Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Viktor Hovland is too good to not win a Major soon.

The Sunshine Tour stars weighed in with their own picks. Rupert Kaminski is going for Scheffler, Ludvig Åberg, Min Woo Lee and Robert MacIntyre. Nikhil Rama has, surprise, Scheffler amongst his picks. And then Schauffele, McIlroy and Morikawa. And Kyle Barker threw in South African Casey Jarvis and DeChambeau.

The South African challenge includes Jarvis, Bezuidenhout, Dean Burmester and Erik van Rooyen.

Go big and pick well!