The best in golf are set to gather for the 2024 U.S Open on Thursday with narrow sights on grabbing an early edge over a challenging course at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina.
A quick scroll through social media reveals the property’s cynical slopes in and around its greens, many of which are guarded by thick rough and deserted bunkers that can turn a player’s steady round into a freefall in the blink of an eye.
Wyndham Clark enters the tournament as the reigning champion, coming up victorious over chasers Rory McIlroy and Ricky Fowler at Los Angeles Golf and Country Club last July.
The chase for his crown will commence on Thursday, with a trio of groups headlining the bulk of the action in the first round.
1:14 p.m ET / 10:14 a.m. PT
Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
Rory McIlroy
Featuring winners from this year’s first two majors (Scheffler at The Masters and Schauffele at the PGA Championship) this group will easily garner all the eyeballs on Thursday with each of the three entering play in striking form and with full confidence.
Victorious in five of his last eight starts and in the midst of perhaps the most dominant stretch of golf since Tiger Woods’ run in the early 2000s, Scheffler is looking to add a second major trophy to his mantle and further cement himself as the best player in the game of golf with a victory in North Carolina.
The 27-year-old will tee up his opening round alongside Schauffele and McIlroy, the former finishing 10 of his 13 starts this season inside the top 10 and knocking a near two-year winless drought off his shoulders last month at Valhalla.
McIlroy rounds out the trio as the only player in the group to have ever played a U.S Open at Pinehurst No. 2, doing so in 2014 with a T-23 finish.
1:25 p.m / 10:25 a.m. PT
Bryson DeChambeau
Viktor Hovland
Max Homa
Despite sharing just one major victory between the three of them, this group is sure to produce fireworks before the weekend gets underway.
Despite coming off a shaky weekend that stripped his name out of contention last week at Muirfield Village, Hovland has started to find the game that helped earn him the FedEx Cup last August.
DeChambeau has played in just one LIV event since capturing the hearts of fans during his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship in May.
Averaging over 72 feet of distance in his successful putts through each of the season’s two major tournaments, DeChambeau is sure to attract attention on the sloping greens leading up to the weekend.
1:03 p.m ET / 10:03 a.m. PT
Robert MacIntyre
Nick Taylor
Mackenzie Hughes
Having become household names in the game of golf for their individual successes north of the border in recent years, these three will be hoping to relive their form from past RBC Canadian Opens as they tee up alongside one another this week at the season’s third major tournament.
MacIntyre, the Scot, enters the tournament just two weeks removed from claiming his maiden win on tour and featuring a new caddie in Englishman Mike Burrow to try and sniff out a first major victory.
He will start his week the same way he ended off his final round at Hamilton Golf and Country Club by duelling things out with the Canadian Hughes, who became one of MacIntyre’s perennial chasers over his victorious weekend in Canada.
Taylor, from Abbotsford, B.C., will accompany the duo, searching for his first top-10 finish since claiming the WM Phoenix Open in a dramatic playoff over Charley Hoffman in February.
Two missed cuts in his last three starts, including a short week at his national open, will leave Taylor hungry for redemption over the man who took his Canadian Open crown last month.
The U.S Open kicks off on Thursday with other notables such as Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Collin Morikawa in the field, as well as seven Canadians.
