2022 US Open: The Complete Betting Guide For The Country Club

The US Open is the hardest golf tournament to win. The US Open annually has one of the top three fields in golf and par is almost always a good score.

The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts is the host this week and the course is going to play tough.

The US national championship tests every aspect of a player’s game and will expose any shortcomings.

A player must have great mental fortitude to win the US Open and that may be why the game’s elite tend to win this event year after year.

If you love watching the world’s best struggle to make par, this is the tournament for you.

Who’s playing in the 2022 US Open?

Every player in the top 60 of the OWGR is playing this week with the exception of Paul Casey.

Every qualified player who played in the LIV event in London last week will be playing. Tiger Woods is taking the week off to prepare for the Open Championship next month at St. Andrews.

Phil Mickelson is playing in the US for the first time since January and it’s going to be interesting to see how the crowd reacts to the guys who took the Saudi money.

A handful of players in the field this week have played Brookline previously at the 2013 US Amateur.

Matthew Fitzpatrick won that event and Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Corey Conners, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Rodgers, and Adam Schenk all advanced to the top 64 match play at The Country Club.

Max Homa, Will Zalatoris, Talor Gooch, Cameron Young, Aaron Wise, Matthew NeSmith, Denny McCarthy, Davis Riley, Beau Hossler, and Grayson Murray also played in the 2013 US Amateur but failed to make it out of stroke-play qualifying.

The US Open is literally open to anyone. Any professional or amateur with a USGA Handicap of 1.4 or below can go through qualifiers to earn a spot in the field.

The field is capped at 156 players and over half of them are fully exempt. Here’s a list of the exemptions.

• Winners of the U.S. Open for the last ten years.
• Winner and runner-up from the previous year’s U.S. Amateur and winners of the
  previous year’s U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur.
• Winner of the previous year’s Amateur Championship.
• The previous year’s Mark H. McCormack Medal winner for the top-ranked amateur golfer in the world.
• Winners of each of the Masters Tournament, Open Championship, and PGA Championship for the last five years and winners of the last three Players Championships.
• Winner of the current year’s BMW PGA Championship.
• Winner of the last U.S. Senior Open.
• Players who win multiple U.S. PGA Tour events during the time between tournaments.
• Top 10 finishers and ties from the previous year’s U.S. Open.
• Players who qualified for the previous year’s Tour Championship.
• The top 60 in the OWGR.
• The top player in the PGA Tour second-tier developmental series points.
• Special exemptions selected by the USGA.

All remaining spots after the second top 60 OWGR cutoff date are filled by alternates from qualifying tournaments.

2007 US Open champion Angel Cabrera wouldn’t have been granted an exemption but it’s worth noting that he’s still in prison for punching his former partner in the face and attempting to run her over with his car.

Here’s a look at the entire field and their OWGR if they are in the top 1500.

2022 US Open at The Country Club

The Country Club is one of five charter clubs that founded the USGA and is one of the most historic golf clubs in the United States.

Established in 1882, The Country Club was the first country club in the United States.

Initially, it was an equestrian, riflery, and social club, but in 1893 it added a six-hole course designed by Willie Campbell.

Campbell expanded the course to nine holes that summer and by 1899 after acquiring more land, the Country Club had 18 holes.

In 1927 the course added another nine and today’s championship will be played on holes from all three nines.

The Country Club is no stranger to hosting big events. The club has hosted the US Amateur six times and the 1999 Ryder Cup.

This will be its fourth US Open and the previous three were all decided in a playoff.

The last one played here was in 1988, but the course will look much different now than it did then.

In 2009 Gil Hanse, the same architect who renovated Southern Hills, renovated the course. Hanse pushed back the tees, removed trees, and expanded the greens to allow for more hole locations.

Despite the enlargement, the Bentgrass greens are still small targets. The average green size on tour is about 6,600 square feet.

After the expansion, The Country Club’s firm, contoured, and undulated greens average below 4,400 square feet.

Outside of Pebble Beach and Harbour Town, these will be the smallest greens that will be played this season.

At 7,264 yards the course is about tour average in length, but that might be the only average thing about this course.

It’s unusual that length isn’t one of the main defenses of the US Open. Any designer can make a course difficult by adding distance.

A short, challenging course is the ultimate test and a testament to the designer’s skill.

The course setup is what makes US Open courses difficult, and the Country Club has the makings of a classic US Open venue.

The Bentgrass fairways are exceptionally narrow and the penalty for missing them is severe.

The rough is a mix of Kentucky bluegrass, Perennial ryegrass, and Poa annua.

As is the tradition at the US Open, the rough is the thickest that will be seen all year and the most penal.

Missing the fairway will make it especially difficult to hit greens so accuracy off the tee is critical this week.

The Country Club will be set up to play like a US Open, but the architecture certainly will be more influential in the difficulty than in years past.

Significant elevation changes, uneven lies, and blind tee shots and approaches are the natural, primary defenses of Brookline.