The Fox Sports commentary team of Daniel Chopra, Anthony Kang and Jason de la Peña select their favourites for this week’s US Open and weigh in their views on Tiger Woods’ chances at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York.
Who’s your pick for this week’s US Open at Winged Foot and why?
Anthony Kang (AK): I will have to go with Dustin Johnson (DJ) … just because of the way he’s been playing. He’s been fairly dominant the last four, five weeks … only two players have beat him, Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa. If you look at the way he’s playing the game right now, he’s making it look so easy. And then you put him on a course that’s really brutal – Winged Foot – it’s gonna really separate guys that have control over their game, as opposed to guys that are coming in looking for their swings. DJ has so much control, so much confidence.
Daniel Chopra (DC): I’m going to go with a guy like Xander Schauffele … because you’re not going to be able to muscle the ball out of the rough no matter how strong you are. Even a guy like Bryson DeChambeau who’s going to bomb it out there and try to use his brute strength and muscle the ball out on the green – you’re not going to be able to do that out of this rough. Also, I don’t think he quite has the touch and the feel on these really challenging greens.
So I’m going to look for somebody who’s a really good driver of the golf ball, and somebody with an excellent wedge game – you’re going to have to get the ball up and down from 40, 50, 60 yards and then have great touch around the greens.
Every time you miss a fairway, you’re going to have to pitch it out and wedge it close and make that putt on which will be the hardest greens they’ll face anywhere in the world, bar maybe Oakmont and Augusta National. So I’m going to go with somebody who’s more of a complete player.
There are some right-to-left shaped driving holes, which don’t necessarily fit DJ that well. There are some left-to-right holes as well, but predominantly right-to-left off the tee is more of an advantage, and Xander likes to move it that way, he’s more of a complete player.
So if I was going to go with someone who’s a bit lower down on the world rankings, I would go with him, or somebody like Webb Simpson. The fairways are so narrow that nobody’s really out there that’s going to hit, on a good week, more than 70 percent of the fairways. That means you’re still missing four or five fairways every day, which means you’re probably going to make 3 or 4 bogeys, let alone the amount of bogeys you’ll make through putting on these greens.
Jason de la Peña (JDLP): DJ goes on these streaks, right. At the moment, I think Jon Rahm is probably the best player in the world. And I would go left field – Harris English, who strikes the ball well and could do well on Winged Foot, I think.
What about Collin Morikawa?
DC: Very good pick. That would be another guy. Again, he does tend to fade the ball a bit – not a lot but he likes to see holes shaped a little bit left to right. Some of the hardest holes on Winged Foot are shaped right to left … so he’s going to be fighting his natural shot shape, especially coming down the stretch when you’re at your most nervous. Under pressure you don’t want to be fighting your natural shot shape.
What about the Asian players?
AK: Just looking at the golf course, the guy who would fit the bill for what the course would require is Hideki Matsuyama. He finished second in strokes gained tee-to-green this year, just behind Justin Thomas. He didn’t putt all that well, but that’s the same story with Hideki year after year. He’s going to hit the ball good off the tee, going to hit great into the green. But then he just doesn’t take advantage of those situations … and I think because the guys at the top are playing so strong, Hideki will have to really be on his putting game, his short game.
Do you think that Tiger Woods will be a contender at Winged Foot?
JDLP: No, not at all. At the BMW Championship he shot 75-73-72-71 … he said it’s a great tune-up for the US Open. But I don’t think his short game is where it needs to be at, and his short game is generally incredible. It’s certainly way off what it should be for him to challenge.
You know, you never write people like Tiger off, but I don’t think his game is where it needs to be heading into Winged Foot.
DC: I agree with Jason, I don’t think so. In 2006, right after his father passed away, he went in there, perhaps slightly under prepared … he had a bit of a nightmare week, so he doesn’t have good feelings around Winged Foot. I walked with him all four days at The Northern Trust a few weeks ago and he was driving the ball beautifully … the fairways there albeit are far more generous than they’ll be at Winged Foot, so that in itself adds a little bit more tension and pressure if you stand over it even if you have been driving it nicely.
I don’t see his scrambling ability being as good as it was when he was at his absolute peak. And then obviously with the physical issues that he has going through, when you do miss that fairway, going after it out of that rough he’s always going to be a little bit scared … you don’t want to tweak something. So that’s always going to be in the back of his mind to be able to go after it 100%, which he’s not going to be able to do. I would be extremely surprised to see him contend even.
AK: I would love to see Tiger Woods contend, be there on Sunday because he’s always going to elevate the event. I mean I agree with Jason and Daniel. I’m going to come at you from a more statistical side. The past four events he’s played, after the pandemic break, his game – parts of it – it’s there. But he hasn’t yet put it all together. He may have done it for one round, but he hasn’t done it for consecutive days. Some days his driving might be really strong, his iron game – well his iron game is fairly strong, that’s the constant in his game – but his approach game from around the greens, up-and-down game and his putting, they just haven’t come together.
And I don’t think two weeks off was enough time for all that to mesh together, especially since Tiger has not had much competitive play in the last four, five months being in the heat. So now you put him on a really tough course with guys that are really playing well … I just don’t think he’s had enough reps under that stress situation.
Catch Daniel Chopra, Anthony Kang and Jason de la Peña co-hosting the US Open live from 18-21 September on FOX Sports 2, available on:
ASTRO: CH 836 (SD) | CH 816 (HD)
Unifi TV: CH 707 (HD)
