The U.S. Open doesn’t randomly group golfers into threesomes when making tee times. Think themes.
For example, the English threesome of Tyrrell Hatton, Danny Willett and Ian Poulter tees off No. 1 at Shinnecock Hills at 6:51 (Central time). Spaniards Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm and Rafa Cabrero Bello tee off No. 1 at 12:14 p.m.
Money leader Justin Thomas, Official World Golf Rankings leader Dustin Johnson and TV ratings leader Tiger Woods tee off No. 1 at 12:47 p.m.
So it’s never too tough to guess Gary Woodland’s playing partners with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Think long ball.
Woodland, who ranks fifth on the PGA tour in driving distance (313.3), ranks third in his threesome in that statistic. Tony Finau (315.3) is second on tour, Luke List (314.6) fourth. They tee off at 12:03 p.m. from the first tee. FS1 and Fox will televise the U.S. Open.
Woodland, who on Super Bowl Sunday won the Phoenix Open for his third tour title, is coming off a slump-busting, tied-for-23rd finish in the Memorial two weeks ago. Knocked out of contention by a blow-up round on Saturday, Woodland shot 69-68-75-67 for the tournament.
The strong showing enabled Woodland to break a streak of five consecutive missed cuts.
This will be Woodland’s eight U.S. Open. He missed the cut three times and his best finish, tied for 23rd, came at Congressional in 2011.
A look at how Woodland, 34, stacks up statistically against the leaders in various categories heading into the U.S. Open:
Category | Gary Woodland rank | PGA tour leader |
---|---|---|
Official World Golf Ranking | 55 | Dustin Johnson |
2018 PGA Tour money list | 32 ($2,011,702) | Justin Thomas ($5,764,100) |
Vegasinsider.com odds to win | 175/1 | Dustin Johnson 7/1 |
Driving distance | 5 (313.3) | Trey Mullinax (318.4) |
Driving accuracy | T69 (63.57) | Henrik Stenson (77.9) |
Greens in regulation | 5 (71.35) | Henrik Stenson (75.0) |
Scrambling | 196 (52.47) | Louis Oosthuizen (67.98) |
Sand-save pct. | 192 (39.84) | Phil Mickelson (64.21) |
Strokes gained putting | 70 | Jason Day |
Source for stats: PGAtour.com |