The US Open 2024 starts this Thursday at Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina, with the brilliant world number one Scottie Scheffler just 14/5 to win his third Major.
Our best bets find another angle on backing the peerless Scheffler plus another of this season’s most consistent performers, while a 4/1 winning score wager is also flagged.
US Open 2024 best bets
Scottie Scheffler 1st-round leader @ 10/1
Collin Morikawa top-10 finish @ 6/4
Winning score – Even or –1 @ 4/1
Bet on the US Open 2024 at Betzone
Back the best player in golf to get his nose in front in round 1
Scottie Scheffler has been so dominant on the PGA Tour that it’s difficult to argue with his 14/5 favouritism at Pinehurst, with the son of New Jersey already enjoying a campaign for the ages.
Starting with the Arnold Palmer in mid-March, Scheffler has won five of the eight PGA tour events he’s contested and finished T2 in two of the other three. The worst result in that run was a T8 achieved despite his ridiculous arrest prior to the second round of the PGA Championship.
Despite that other-worldly form there will plenty for whom playing him at less than 3/1 to win the US Open feels too short. For those people the 10/1 about Scheffler leading the tournament after 18 holes could hold more appeal.
He hasn’t been first-round leader in any of his last eight tournaments but has finished the first round one shot behind the pace setter in four of them and has carded more rounds in the 60s than any other player on tour this season.
It’s surely a matter of time until he ends the opening 18 holes with the lead and at 10/1 it’s worth chancing that happens in North Carolina.
Tip: Scottie Scheffler first round leader @ 10/1
Consistent Californian generously priced for the top 10
Collin Morikawa has been in superbly consistent form this season, carding five top 10 finishes in seven tournaments beginning with his T3 showing at the Masters in April.
He followed up that shared of the bronze at Augusta with a ninth at the RBC Heritage before respectable finishes of T23 at the Zurich Classic and T16 at the Wells Fargo.
Since then, the two-time major winner has upped the ante again, finishing T4 at the PGA Championship, solo fourth at the Charles Schwab and a second to the imperious Scheffler at the Memorial last time out.
Morikawa has also proven he has the skillset to content on US Open courses in recent years with finishes of T4, T5 and T14 in the last three editions.
It’s all enough to make the 16/5 about a top-five finish at Pinehurst very tempting but given odds above even money are available about him gracing the top-10, the preferred option is to take the shorter odds to have another five places in your pocket.
Tip: Collin Morikawa top 10 finish @ 6/4
Evens fiendishly tricky to crack at past Pinehurst Opens
It’s an oft-repeated grumbling that tournament organisers the USGA choose and set up their US Open courses with an eye on keeping the winning score as close to even as possible.
Recent history points to this being wide of the mark, with nine of the last 10 renewals won with a score of –5 or lower but a winning score of evens or –1 still looks a great bet at 4/1 on account of this year’s host course.
The last three Opens at Pinehurst (1999, 2005 and 2014) have been won with scores of -1, E and –6, with that latter score, carded by 2014 winner Martin Kaymer, somewhat misleading.
Kaymer and 1999 winner Paine Stewart were the only players to break par across those three tournaments.
