2020 Virtual U.S. Open: The favorites to win at Winged Foot
By Bill Felber
Ben Hogan leads 11 champions at the virtual U.S. Open with the best chances in an all-time event.
This week’s virtual U.S. Open presents possibly the strongest field of golf greats ever assembled, even if only in cyberspace.
Among the 79 entrants, all of them former national champions, 11 particularly stand out as being favorites to win the event. In their actual careers, these 11 collected 28 U.S. Open titles including one in every decade except the 1990s and, curiously, the present one.
For the record, the 1990s misses out on having a representative only because Tiger Woods didn’t win a U.S. Open until 2000. The strongest representative of the present decade is two-time champion Brooks Koepka, whose name will be found among the second-tier of likely favorites we will look at tomorrow.
All but two of the top group of 11 favorites are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Two are amateurs and two more are brothers.
They do, however, share one trait in common: All 11 either were born in the United States or made their career marks playing golf here.
When the champion of our virtual U.S. Open hoists the trophy Sunday, it is likely – not certain but likely – to come from among the ranks of these 11 favorites.
The standard deviation of their average performance during their 10-year peak period ranges from a low of -1.29 to a best of just under -2.01 standard deviations superior to their contemporaries. No wonder they won so often.
Here’s a more detailed look at the pre-tournament credentials of these nine tournament favorites. For each, the introductory material includes the year(s) of their title(s), the 10-year period of their peak performance at the tournament – that’s the span on which their rating is based – and the standard deviation of their average performance during that peak. They are presented in the mathematical order of likelihood of contention.