Two Most Important Stats for Making Picks at the 2024 U.S. Open

Pinehurst No. 2 will host the 2024 U.S. Open. We are looking at the three previous years it hosted the event in 1999, 2005 and 2014 to identify where each winner excelled to help you make your picks and bets. Plus, we look at why Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele have been so successful in recent U.S. Opens

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two names have been consistent year after year at the US Open why is that coming up we’re looking at Rory mroy and Xander schafle two reasons why they have been so good top 10 machines at the US Open but we have to start with this they talk about driving at any US Open well in general that has not been the case since 1999 the winner has been top 10 in driving accuracy only eight times out of 25 us opens but here’s the catch three of those eight times came at Pinehurst number two 1999 2005 and 2014 which means all three times they’ve been at Pinehurst it has been very important to drive the ball straight off the te Chris Bree Ben evil here to give you the key stats Ben and we start with that you got to drive the golf ball really well at Pinehurst pin gives you trouble if you’re not accurate off the tea it’s as simple as that mate you’ve got to be good off the tea like you said you got to be accurate there otherwise you’re just laying you know your your chances at the foot of the golf Gods cuz just off the side of every single Fairway are these wasy areas and toughs of grass and sand and junk uh in fact you want to miss it further left or further right to have a chance in Pine straw and trees because if you’re just a little off you’re you know as I said the lap of the Gods you could be in big trouble no surprise to me there that pin Earth number two has needed accuracy off the tea so here is what it looks like we’re really looking at two general stats driving the ball straight driving accuracy total driving in general and then scrambling around the greens including sand saves let’s start with the three winners here at Pinehurst Payne Stewart Michael Campbell and Martin kimer and there’s one reason why we chose these two stats driving it straight and scrambling around the greens cuz those are the only two stats where all three winners were inside the top 10 every single time driving accuracy and scrambling both every other stat out there Ben showed these winners all over the place drive it straight and make sure you get up and down when you miss the green the the reality is yeah you want to keep it out of the junk as much as possible but if you do get there on the OD occasion You’ got to be able to find a way uh you know we could make up a stat this week Strokes gained imagination trying to get it up and down from those tough spots both you know off just off the fair as we mentioned a minute ago or around those greens there’ll be players deciding you know do I putut up this slope do I do I chip low do I chip High how am I going to approach these uh difficult shots so you need the imagination and the skill around the greens and you need to try to give yourself less of those uh situations that you actually have to have to do that so it’s going to be fascinating viewing that’s for sure that’s what this should bring I know last time out 10 years ago we had a runaway winner that was just one of those out of the blocks things I don’t see that necessarily happening unless of course it’s the dude who won last week cuz he wins every week now it seems he’s possible he’s he’s accurate enough to sort of get going again Scotty Sheffer uh but you know we’ll see we’ll see it’s it’s it’s definitely going to be a test for all of these guys start off the tea work it out from there because in recent years the knock on the US Open has become it’s becoming too bomb and gou which we’ve seen a handful of times of winners the last few years the fact that all of these guys had to hit the ball straight and we showed the stat off the top of the show that in other us opens it really was not that important this week driving the ball straight is going to be very important now if we’re going to include driving accuracy and scrambling around the greens here’s what we’re going to do this week we are showing you the top players on tour in those two stats combined accuracy Rank and scrambling Rank and then on the right here you see their total number the number added up between those two Scotty sheffler’s second but look who’s number one on this list Ben it’s Tommy Fleetwood headlining a handful of guys who you might not want to pick this week if you’re looking at past success at recent Majors these names are fascinating because we’ve got some guys on here who you probably thought beforehand maybe I don’t want to touch them there might be some names on here who you might want to think about this week well 100% look look at look at what you got there though you’ve got Sheffer shuffler and Mar three absolute studs in form right now so there’s your chalk options straight off the bat but then you look at you said Fleetwood he’s been really close in US open’s past as well he’s had a chance he’s proven he can play this style of of golf and so all of a sudden he’s someone that you have to start thinking about absolutely to be fourth in accuracy and then combine it with good scrambling how do you leave him out now I know that I can sense that you Chris you’re going to start looking at him as a top 10 a top five you’re going to for head to heads uh and look I let me let me tell you this I’ll give away a little bit of some of our content asked a lot of guys you know who might be going under the radar heading to Pinehurst one of the names that came up many times Russell Henley yes third lot of players think Russell Henley is an absolute uh out andout horse for the course when it comes to us opens I remember following him intently at Tory pins a few years back in the US Open he chipped in at one point to go near the lead he was up the front wasn’t able to hold it down the stretch but definitely was in the mix for a good portion of Sunday’s final round and then you’ve got seaw who we mentioned last week he was a long shot for me last week there or thereabouts he he’s just very consistent for once in his in his lock this season you I only missed one cut it did come at the last major at the PGA uh but I like what I’m seeing there and the final guy on that list yeah what about big Oar it’s such a question mark though because you we you asked him the big rumor everyone’s talking about he won’t confirm or deny it but it’s a massive problem Ben I mean it’s how can you bet on a guy who clearly has something wrong with him won’t say what’s wrong with him the question is is it that big of a deal last week you could say maybe it was but he was in contention yeah if it is what if it is what we think it is which is a miniscus issue a slight miniscus issue you can play through it but it does give you discomfort and when you’re going at the ball as hard as he is off the tea you know you’re going to have squirly drives every now and then so even though he’s got a 25th there in accuracy uh he wasn’t quite as accurate at times at mirfield Village and that got him in trouble that was why he went from contending to not necessarily being there when the whips were cracking so my issue with him is the number like if he was fully fit it’s a good number for him uh where he is but if but not being fully fit you need more juice you need to wait and see uh unless you’re going very small unit size Etc and just sort of having a bit of a stab uh it’s one of those things he’s definitely got the game to be a major champion in in Waiting uh I just want want see him at full fitness before I really jump on so we have our two big stats driving the ball straight and scrambling now there’s two guys that you cannot ignore in the US Open how good they have been the last handful of years Rory maoy and Xander schafle Rory has five straight top 10s at the US Open it’s been his most consistent major ever since he won the PGA a decade ago and look at Xander’s finishes at the US Open ever since he started in 2017 ready for this fifth 6th third third 7th 5th 14th 10th his worst finish is 14th Place so we’re trying to figure out why are both of these guys so good we’re talking about driving it straight and scrambling but here’s the ironic thing about Rory and Xander those two guys Ben are not necessarily at the top and driving it straight or scrambling two things that I want to focus on here with both these guys why they’ve been so good at us opens and here’s another key stat for you out there how you start the tournament both of these guys have been very good after the first round Rory’s averaging sixth place after the first round Xander averaging seventh they are at the top at the start and everyone’s got to go catch them and stay consistent with them that’s number one number two they’re driving it generally good yes but they’re not making the mistakes they’re dinking and dunking they’re making their pars they’re avoiding the bogey so to speak they’re hitting theen make their pars put it in their pocket and let everybody else around you fold so my what I want to get your thoughts on here are position after the first round how you do on day one and day two and just not making a ton of mistake and grinding out those pars what kind of players fit that mold is what everybody has to answer so those two things position after round one dinking and dunking and making your pars no surprise for me there because that this is a US Open and what happens is it’s it’s difficult it’s usually one of the toughest tests out there on tour every year and the reality is if you have a slow start you cannot catch up there are not enough birdies out there for you to catch up so you must start well you must be in the mix look you can be a few back fullback five back but if you start to give eight nine shots on on anyone you just don’t have the birdie opportunities to catch then you’re relying on everybody to come back to the field and there’s there’s not that’s just not going to happen so you have to be good off the start you have to have your putot down from the start but you also have to be selective where you take your chances and I think that’s what these two have worked out Xander plays it straight and narrow down the middle gets a lot of you know gets it on the green and and relies on his somewhat hot putter when it gets going that’s what he’s been able to do he had all those finishes he’s making more say 12 to 15 to 18 Footers than anyone else in US opens and that’s what’s getting him up the board whereas ferari it has been uh a lot of bomb and gouge in in in certain places uh he will have to that in this week he will have to you know go back towards accuracy rather than distance it’s never a problem to be long but it is a problem to be you know wild at at Pinehurst so he’ll have to make sure he finds the the Fairway first and then hope that his putter gets warm as well because you know as we know when Rory pwell the rest of his game is usually on song so he can be right up there uh but you know again while we talk about Blacklist with me I said that Rory’s on there until we get to qu Hollow for the PGA next next year I just don’t think you get value in his numbers uh I think he’ll definitely be in contention I’m not sure if he’ll close out uh because he’s just been it’s just too many times he’s burned me before rander all those close finishes you talked about well those were a problem before all of a sudden after winning the PGA makes you wonder no problem no problem at all right they’re not a problem anymore uh and look he he was interesting at at Memorial this week he was he he basically came in Rusty hadn’t played obviously since changing life and I think that he just sort of took time to to really take it all in he spent parts of his rounds really you know focused in other parts he was definitely off with the fairies a little bit so I think he’ll be back focused at Pinehurst and he’ll definitely once again be in the mix I don’t think he’ll go back to back it’s so hard to do but I do think he’ll be in the mix now the content is over with uh people may be wondering why you’re on your phone why you’re sitting in a car that’s not moving by the way safety first uh then’s having some trouble getting to Pinehurst from Columbus Ohio yeah we just finished at the memorial and I was supposed to be on an 8:30 a.m. flight we sat in a plane for over 3 hours not moving not going anywhere before getting out of the plane and given there’s no other flights for me to get there tonight I’ve jumped in a rental we’re going to do the S or8 hour track down to Pinehurst we’ll get there tonight be good as you said I haven’t started yet don’t worry I’m just parked off to the side uh nice and safe uh but we’ll definitely be on the ground both will gry and I on the ground all all of our great all of our great content uh and I’m coming off a pretty good week just quietly I’m going to give myself a w okay yeah I was wondering if you were going to say this well look difficult it’s not difficult to pick Scotty Sheffer to win which is what I obviously did last week but what I did do also was tell you guys the best bet was the without shefer market and Colin morow so you hopefully you picked up on the double there which was also 10 to one yes t one that’s good form going in I know you wanted him to get there because you had him as you’re outright Chris we’ll give you props for that too because he had a definite chance and you got to give him props for chasing down shefer you know he started four back and only ended up one behind uh that’s a really good effort for Mara uh you know he’s got me really thinking about him this week to be honest even though originally I wasn’t sure Pinos was a fit I’m back on thinking very hard about Colin morau this week we’ll see if I what decision I make in the next 24 hours uh about in the car for you in the next you have8 hours to to talk yourself out of all your picks basically we’re not going to let anything get in our way of giving you the best coverage of the US Open this week Ben is going to get there no matter what it takes will also on his way and we cannot wait for the round table coming up as well as chalk talk to help you make all your bets for the US Open [Music]