Power Rankings: U.S. Open

Disappointing slide at his national open at Oakdale where the Canuck co-led with a 67 in R1 before coming to rest at T20. But hey, expectations are high for great ball-strikers in form. Although 0-for-4 in the U.S. Open, he has six top 20s in majors.

Timing is everything. It’s even better when momentum gains traction in majors season. After months of teasing, the Aussie has connected for a trio of top 10s in his last four starts. While none was in a major, he’s lurking in plain sight.

He’s acknowledged how his chronically sore neck has been an issue but it hasn’t negatively affected his game enough to dismiss the possibilities. In the last three months, he’s 6-for-6 with four top 20s in stroke-play competition.

Form has tailed just a bit but not enough to be excluded when going 20 deep in the Power Rankings. Top 20s in Masters, PGA Championship and Memorial in recent starts reinforce confidence. Tee-to-green game remains sublime.

Although he was victimized by Nick Taylor’s historic eagle conversion, that the Englishman led the field at Oakdale in Strokes Gained: Putting on unfamiliar greens is the best kind of potential carryover to this week’s set of the same.

Unrelenting force who is celebrating the 10th anniversary of his U.S. Open title at another cozy classic – Merion. Since a T6 at TPC Sawgrass, the total package is 7-for-7 with three top 10s among six top 25s. Also won at Pebble in February.

With a T4 at the Masters and a T18 at the PGA Championship already on the board in the majors this year, the short-game wizard has piled onto a strong record in the series that now include 17 top 20s, five of which in the U.S. Open.

Silenced worries over his left wrist with a T5 at the Memorial just in time to elicit hope at the U.S. Open. Like Muirfield Village, LACC gets tougher closer to the hole, so his comfort level in attacking from unfavorable lies is a weapon.

Doesn’t feel like all that long ago that he was still in pursuit of his first TOUR title, but here he is already defending it. Presumably over impactful discomfort in his neck with a win among four top 20s in his last six starts on his own ball.

For a guy who, for a while at least, was comped as a Leonardo DiCaprio lookalike, the story writes itself that Fowler would win the award for Best Performer of the 2023 U.S. Open. In fact, he’s in phenomenal form. Cue the memes.

If this was a movie script, he’d emerge as the winner because it’s believable. It’s a backyard major for the 32-year-old who leads the league in perspective, and it means so much to him, but he’s had only one top 35 in the series (T13, 2022 PGA).

No matter what happens, he’ll be defending at the next major, but expectations are high that he’ll piggyback the T9 at Oak Hill with another leaderboard appearance. It’s a made-for-TV special to focus on him around and on these greens.

In the land of surprises on the silver screen, a breakthrough in the U.S. Open at LACC wouldn’t qualify as such for the wildly talented Californian who is 6-for-6 in the tournament with no worse than a T14 (2022). But he’ll take it!

If the red-hot, 31-year-old Brit ever wins a major, it would make sense that it’d be a U.S. Open. The exterior nicely masks how much of a scientist he is with every facet of his game. Indeed, it’s this championship that would reveal it.

The UCLA product was among the early surveyors of the restoration of the North Course, but his form and fit are what’s relevant today. Leads the TOUR in the all-around and possesses the mettle required to break through in this major.

Didn’t convert on the threepeat in Canada where the drought among native winners ended. Now it’s his turn to reconnect in a major. A T7 at Oak Hill sparked three straight top 10s upon arrival. Four consecutive top 10s in the U.S. Open, too.

Just 25, he’s scaled into the conversation of best without a victory in a major. He’s now fresh off just that at Memorial. Previously, he was a co-runner-up at the PGA Championship, T7 at the Masters, T3 at THE PLAYERS, etc.

The last winner of a major in California (2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines) added a Masters title to his record two months ago. It’s the most recent win of four this season for the FedExCup frontrunner. Slots second in the all-around ranking.

The messaging is the same as it was when he dominated at Oak Hill a month ago. He’s healthy and he’s undeterred. That victory also answered a T2 at the Masters. And of course, he’s a two-time champion in the U.S. Open (2017, 2018).

It’s shake-the-head kind of stuff. The world No. 1 gives away strokes on the greens, yet he still leads the PGA TOUR in adjusted scoring. Co-runner-up at the 2022 U.S. Open and co-runner-up at the PGA Championship a month ago.