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JoePa's U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP Picks
THE U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
SERGIO GARCIA 20 / 1 - He's certainly shown that he is a going to be a force this season. He "manned-up" at The Players this year in a come-from-behind victory, and a victory here would he help erase the bad taste of his British Open implosion last year. Sergio has taken his game up a notch in driving, at least in two of his last three outings. Even though he ranks 106th in driving accuracy, 62.03%, he ranked first in driving at The Players hitting 76.8% of the fairways, T37th at The Memorial despite a 73.2% rating, but slipped last week to 57.1%. Nonetheless his name showed up on the leaderboard last week and he finished T4th with a -4 under final round 66....one of the best rounds of the day! Sergio is 3rd in GIR from Bunkers on tour at 65.4%, and 5th in scoring average at 69.66. He'll need those bunker shots and to hit the fairways this week!
JEFF QUINNEY 100 / 1 - My longshot of the week and why not?! Two of the last three U.S. Open winners made this their maiden voyage into tour victories.....and he's also in that crowd of 20 somethings where quite a few have broken thru this year. He finished 2nd to Mickelson at the Northern Trust Open, the PGA's last stop in Cali this season. He was a solo 3rd at The Players and missed making it a threesome in the playoff with Goydos and Garcia by 1 stroke. Quinney is 2nd on tour in putting with a 1.72 average thru 54 rounds this season. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes......Amazing that he's my top "American" pick this week.....actually he's my only American pick...who knew!?
ROBERT KARLSSON 66 / 1 - On US soil this season he's finished T8th at The Masters, and T30th at the WGC-CA. On the Euro Tour he currently ranks 2nd on the Order of Merit and has 4 Top4 finishes with a 3rd in the Methorios Italian Open, T3rd in the Irish Open, T3rd in the BMW PGA Championship where a final round 74 left him short of the winners by 2 strokes after leading through 3 rounds, and last week finished 2nd at the Celtic Manor Wales Open. 2008 has been kind to Karlsson as he is enjoying his best career ever....his best career scoring average at 69.52, best career GIR of 72.99%, best career putts per GIR at 1.73, best career sand saves percentage of 70.73% (former best was 66%), and career 3rd best putts per round average of 28.78. He has 7 Euro Tour wins which makes him Sweden's most prolific champion, and at 6'5" tall he's an imposing partner to play with. I guess all those personal accountability sessions with his shrink have been working for him!
MIKE WEIR 50 / 1 - At least he's from "north" America, so he's by definition American! The other "lefty" finished T2nd at The Memorial, and was 4th at the Mercedes Benz (that's 2 Top10s) and has made 10 of 15 cuts on the season. His recent form in the Crowne Plaza and Jack's Tournament warrant him attention because his 2nd ranked sand save percentage got a lift in those tournaments with 83.33% and 77.78% showings which could help him at Torrey Pines, his front 9 scoring average of 33.50 should keep him around for the weekend, his putting average in the Crowne Plaza and Memorial were his lowest of the season at 1.813 and 1.643. Seems he may be poised to strike and is a big tournament player, or PTP'er as Dickie V would tag him!
PADRAIG HARRINGTON 25 / 1 - Paddy Power for me this week. Harrington has made 7 of 8 cuts on the year with a 3rd place finish in the Northern Trust, T4th in Zurich Classic, T5th at The Masters, and T4th last week at the St. Jude. His worst finish of the year on the PGA Tour was T26th at the Shell Houston Open where he shot a -5. He's 5th in putting average, 6th in sand saves, 1st in putts per round, and 2nd in scoring average (69.61). Recent form at the St. Jude found him 5th in driving accuracy (67.9%), T7th in GIR, T11th in sand saves at 80%, 5th in driving distance at 313.4 yards. And, he has a penchant for stepping up his driving in the big tournaments.....his showing at The Masters, 65.28% and the St. Jude, 67.86% were his most accurate tournaments of the year. On the par 4s and par 5s at St. Jude Paddy was -8 for the week, he'll have to brush up on the par 3s where he was +5 and eventually taken out of contention on the final day.
SERGIO GARCIA 20 / 1 - He's certainly shown that he is a going to be a force this season. He "manned-up" at The Players this year in a come-from-behind victory, and a victory here would he help erase the bad taste of his British Open implosion last year. Sergio has taken his game up a notch in driving, at least in two of his last three outings. Even though he ranks 106th in driving accuracy, 62.03%, he ranked first in driving at The Players hitting 76.8% of the fairways, T37th at The Memorial despite a 73.2% rating, but slipped last week to 57.1%. Nonetheless his name showed up on the leaderboard last week and he finished T4th with a -4 under final round 66....one of the best rounds of the day! Sergio is 3rd in GIR from Bunkers on tour at 65.4%, and 5th in scoring average at 69.66. He'll need those bunker shots and to hit the fairways this week!
JEFF QUINNEY 100 / 1 - My longshot of the week and why not?! Two of the last three U.S. Open winners made this their maiden voyage into tour victories.....and he's also in that crowd of 20 somethings where quite a few have broken thru this year. He finished 2nd to Mickelson at the Northern Trust Open, the PGA's last stop in Cali this season. He was a solo 3rd at The Players and missed making it a threesome in the playoff with Goydos and Garcia by 1 stroke. Quinney is 2nd on tour in putting with a 1.72 average thru 54 rounds this season. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes......Amazing that he's my top "American" pick this week.....actually he's my only American pick...who knew!?
ROBERT KARLSSON 66 / 1 - On US soil this season he's finished T8th at The Masters, and T30th at the WGC-CA. On the Euro Tour he currently ranks 2nd on the Order of Merit and has 4 Top4 finishes with a 3rd in the Methorios Italian Open, T3rd in the Irish Open, T3rd in the BMW PGA Championship where a final round 74 left him short of the winners by 2 strokes after leading through 3 rounds, and last week finished 2nd at the Celtic Manor Wales Open. 2008 has been kind to Karlsson as he is enjoying his best career ever....his best career scoring average at 69.52, best career GIR of 72.99%, best career putts per GIR at 1.73, best career sand saves percentage of 70.73% (former best was 66%), and career 3rd best putts per round average of 28.78. He has 7 Euro Tour wins which makes him Sweden's most prolific champion, and at 6'5" tall he's an imposing partner to play with. I guess all those personal accountability sessions with his shrink have been working for him!
MIKE WEIR 50 / 1 - At least he's from "north" America, so he's by definition American! The other "lefty" finished T2nd at The Memorial, and was 4th at the Mercedes Benz (that's 2 Top10s) and has made 10 of 15 cuts on the season. His recent form in the Crowne Plaza and Jack's Tournament warrant him attention because his 2nd ranked sand save percentage got a lift in those tournaments with 83.33% and 77.78% showings which could help him at Torrey Pines, his front 9 scoring average of 33.50 should keep him around for the weekend, his putting average in the Crowne Plaza and Memorial were his lowest of the season at 1.813 and 1.643. Seems he may be poised to strike and is a big tournament player, or PTP'er as Dickie V would tag him!
PADRAIG HARRINGTON 25 / 1 - Paddy Power for me this week. Harrington has made 7 of 8 cuts on the year with a 3rd place finish in the Northern Trust, T4th in Zurich Classic, T5th at The Masters, and T4th last week at the St. Jude. His worst finish of the year on the PGA Tour was T26th at the Shell Houston Open where he shot a -5. He's 5th in putting average, 6th in sand saves, 1st in putts per round, and 2nd in scoring average (69.61). Recent form at the St. Jude found him 5th in driving accuracy (67.9%), T7th in GIR, T11th in sand saves at 80%, 5th in driving distance at 313.4 yards. And, he has a penchant for stepping up his driving in the big tournaments.....his showing at The Masters, 65.28% and the St. Jude, 67.86% were his most accurate tournaments of the year. On the par 4s and par 5s at St. Jude Paddy was -8 for the week, he'll have to brush up on the par 3s where he was +5 and eventually taken out of contention on the final day.
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