US Open trends: Jimenez can finally arrest continental failure
Published:Ok, there’s a World Cup on, but the second golf Major of the year gets underway in tandem at North Carolina’s historic Pinehurst Resort and we’ve had a look into a few strong trends to help punters pick a potential winner of the 2014 US Open.
Stat: Three of the last four winners have been British
After Englishman Tony Jacklin’s 1970 triumph, few could have predicted a 40-year wait for another British player, Graeme McDowell, to strike gold again back in 2010.
But just like buses, having waited nearly half-a-century for one to come along, they arrive in close succession.
Justin Rose was the last, in 2013, but not since Curtis Strange back in 1988/89 has a player won back-to-back US Opens.
Of the other two winners McDowell has followed a Masters missed cut with 23,62,24 in his next three tournaments, whereas Rory McIlroy’s top-10 littered season culminated in the BMW Championship win before 15th at the preceding Memorial Tournament.
Stat: There has been no continental champion of the US Open
Astonishingly, there has not been a single winner hailing from mainland Europe of this famous competition.
The vast majority have gone the way of our Atlantic cousins and there have also been several spates of southern hemisphere success, not least South African Retief Goosen who has chipped in with two.
With two European Tour wins under his belt already this season, 50-year-old Jiminez is in the form of his life, currently sixth in the Race To Dubai standings ahead of Pinehurst and can improve on fourth at the Masters and finally put this anomaly to bed.
Stat: Aside from Tiger Woods the last two Americans to win have been maiden Major winners
Another anomaly of this tournament is the lack of big-name American champions who aren’t Woods – winner in 2008, 2002 and 2000 – with Payne Stewart’s 1999 triumph the last time a double Major winner struck gold.
Jim Furyk has never added to his solitary 2003 win, while Lucas Glover (2009) and Webb Simpson (2012) only had two previous PGA Tour wins apiece and remain shy of five Tour wins each overall too.
There are plenty of up-and-coming Americans or off the radar choices, but having made his way to sixth in the FedEx standings and coming off fourth at the Memorial Tournament, Chris Kirk could be the next.
The Alabama native has also only secured two Tour wins previously, including the McGladrey Classic back in October 2013.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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