US Open Preview

Today the US Open tees it up at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, California.  Here are some notable groups, tee times (Eastern Time), and stories that go along with them:

10:33am – Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Tiger Woods

Story: Need I say more

10:59am – Jonathan Byrd, Patrick Cantlay (A), Kyle Stanley

Story: Last year, UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay was the low amateur on the US Open leader board.  This year he looks to continue his success a little bit closer to home.  Cantlay will also be playing with two stronger young players in Byrd and Stanley.

11:10am – Retief Goosen, Zach Johnson, Vijay Singh

Story: All three have won majors on the PGA Tour with Retief Goosen leading the way with two US Open victories.  Although the three are aging and may not have the best shot to top the leader board on Sunday, they are still big names in the field that people will be watching.

11:32am – Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson

Story: Here is a good group of players.  Don’t be surprised if one of these guys can crack the top five at the end of the weekend.  These three guys are not strangers to winning on the Tour.

4:29pm – Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood

Story: Three of the top players in the World Golf Rankings and all from Europe.  The American media will be following this group closely, but the European media will be hounding this group on Thursday and Friday.

4:47pm – Martin Kaymer, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose

Story: Kaymer is always a candidate to either play spectacular or terrible so we will see which Martin Kaymer we get at the US Open.  Hunter Mahan has been playing some strong golf this year so we will see if he can translate it into a major victory.

4:58pm – Rickie Fowler, Ryo Ishikawa, Dustin Johnson

Story: Hold back the 14 year old girls!  Fowler has been having a fantastic year and Dustin Johnson looks to capitalize on last week’s victory at the FedEx St. Jude Classic.

Other Notable Groups:

10:55am – Padraig Harrington, Davis Love III, David Toms

11:17am – Charles Howell III, Carl Pettersson, Charl Schwartzel

11:28am – KJ Choi, KT Kim, YE Yang

11:54am – Peter Hanson, Francesco Molinari, Bo Van Pelt

4:14pm – Bill Haas, Brandt Snedeker, Nick Watney

4:36pm – Matt Kuchar, Ian Poulter, Steve Stricker

4:40pm – Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell

4:47pm – Jason Day, Jason Dufner, Louis Oosthuizen

4:51pm – Stewart Cink, Lucas Glover, Trevor Immelman

5:02pm – Angel Cabrera, Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy

5:13pm – Ben Crane, Anders Hansen, Martin Laird

5:24pm – Aaron Baddeley, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Matteo Manassero

The US Open is perhaps the toughest tournament on the PGA Tour schedule year in and year out.  This year looks to be no different.  Usually the weather plays a big factor, especially when the tournament is held on the east coast.  Being that the US Open is in San Francisco this year, the weather looks great so scores should be good compared to past US Opens.  McIlroy looks to repeat this year, but another score of 16-under is highly unlikely.  Look for the winner to be somewhere around 8-under with the wide open field this year.

Here is the million dollar question… Who ya got?