The 118th running of the U.S. Open will take place at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club located on Long Island. Shinnecock has served as the host of this tournament five times dating all the way back to 1896, but the course has seen drastic changes since the last time the event was held here back in 2004. It still plays as a Par 70, but the majority of the Par 4’s have been lengthed a considerable amount.
The course is about 500 yards longer now than before with nearly 500 trees having also been removed from the property. Despite the shift in length, the majority of the holes reportedly play downwind, which lessens the advantage that long-drivers might have held over the rest of the field. The fairways have been narrowed in preparation for this event, but they are still relatively large compared to most events played on Tour. The rough is the nastiest element that golfers will have to face this week, as it is way more difficult to navigate than last year’s event held at Erin Hills. Phil Mickelson did a great job at summarizing the set-up of Shinnecock this week:
“I think it’s the greatest setup I’ve seen in a U.S. Open. I think that the fairways are a very fair width, the rough is brutal, it will be as penalizing as a hazard, trying to just get it back to the fairway. But the fairways are so wide that a well-struck shot ends up in the fairway. It’s not like in the past where you could hit a great drive, get a bad bounce, and you have no lie. It rewards great shots and around the greens because of the old school grading, being soft, it’s not like these big bulldozers with huge pitches.”
If you are looking for a comparable course to Shinnecock, look towards Riviera Country Club in California, which hosted the Genesis Open earlier this year. Riviera features a lot of long par 4’s with poa annua as the putting grass.
Without further ado, these are the golfers that I will be targeting this week at the U.S. Open on DRAFT.
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GOLFERS
Dustin Johnson: No surprise here. It is my personal opinion that Dustin Johnson is the bar-none best player in the world when he’s on due to his freakish length off-the-tee. He is coming off a truly dominating performance at the St. Jude Classic last week and he has all of the tools necessary to win this event. He is an exceptional putter on poa annua surfaces and he obviously the length to handle the long Par 4’s. He should be your first selection in all lineups.
Justin Thomas: If Johnson is the hottest player in the world over the past month, then Thomas earns the honor of hottest player in the world over the past calendar year. The 2017 FedEx Cup champion has only missed the cut in one event this season and it was the wonky Zurich Classic, where Thomas had to equally rely on a partner to score. He is coming off a T11 at the Players Championship and a T8 at The Memorial, so he’s clearly in great form heading into this week. He will be paired up with Johnson and Tiger Woods for the first two rounds, but he can handle the pressure as he has a great track record in major events.
Jon Rahm: Rahm will likely be available in the third or fourth round of most drafts, but he is well deserving of a high selection. He is excellent at scoring on long Par 4’s, and he bombs the ball off-the-tee. He is well-versed in handling links-style courses due to his success on the European Tour and he is simply one of the most skilled players in the world without a major win. A Rahm breakthrough at a major event is coming at some point and it will likely be sooner rather than later. He does a lot of things necessary to compete and win at an event like this.
Brooks Koepka: Koepka was battling a wrist injury for the majority of 2018 but has slowly returned to top form over the past month. He has the length necessary to win and obviously won’t be affected by the big stage as he won this event last season. He has been dialed in with his irons as of late and you could even make the argument that he is in better form now than what he was last season when he won.
Tommy Fleetwood: My love-affair for Fleetwood will continue this week. I love this guy, I think he is an absolute gamer in major events and has all of the tools to compete once again this week. He ranks 12th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and is one of the best players in the world at nailing approach shots. He is a solid option to round out the back of your lineup.
Shane Davies is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Shane, check out his archive and follow him @SBDAVIES7.
