The U.S. Open's 10 greatest players: career performance

The U.S. Open’s 10 greatest players: career rating

By Bill Felber | Jun 14, 2021

Tiger Woods warms up on the driving range before playing facing off against Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose with Justin Thomas in the Payne's Valley Cup, the inaugural event at the new Payne's Valley Golf Course in Ridgedale, Mo., on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020.Tpaynes Valley Cup00016 /

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Brooks Koepka after successfully defending his U.S. Open title in 2018. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) /

5. Brooks Koepka, -0.89 (2012-2019)

Already a two-time U.S. Open champion, Brooks Koepka is the one player with a chance to improve his standing on this list at Torrey Pines.

Koepka has qualified for seven U.S. Opens as a pro, and he has played superbly in all of them but the first. As a rookie at Merion in 2013, Koepka missed the cut. Since that embarrassment, he has never finished worse than 18th. That includes his 2017 and 2018 victories at Erin Hills and Bethpage, as well as his 2019 runner-up to Gary Woodland at Pebble Beach.

Injuries prevented Koepka from competing at Winged Foot in 2020.

What is the short-term limit of Koepka’s potential? Were he to win at Torrey Pines, his third Open title would be likely to advance one spot on this list and he would qualify as the fourth greatest Open player – for career performance — of all time.

If healthy, Koepka is on that kind of run. In his two wins and his runner-up, he averaged a finish equating to 2.31 standard deviations better than the field, an extraordinary pace.

Of course, since Koepka will be making only his eighth Open start at Torrey Pines, even one bad performance could knock him entirely out of the career Top 10. Statistics are funny that way.

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