US Open / Steven Rawlings / 15 June 2009 /

The Punter looks to an experienced, straight hitting player to make the early running at Bethpage on Thursday.

Looking at the last two years' first round leaderboards at the US Open was almost enough to see me dismiss this particular market and move on. Anyone that managed to find either of last years joint leaders, Kevin Streelman or Justin Hicks, must have seen a clairvoyant before pressing the blue button, and back in 2007, Nick Dougherty was just as difficult to find. So if you fancy a fun bet at big odds this may well be the market for you.

Digging out this year's Streelman, Hicks or Dougherty is almost impossible though, and almost certainly an exercise in futility so I've concentrated on those a bit closer to the head of the market and I think I've picked out one that's well worth a bet.

Steve Stricker, who was the U.S. PGA Tour's comeback player of the year for both 2006 and 2007, and heaven knows how that works, is my man.

Stricker certainly has the game for the US Open; he's an experienced, straight hitting player who was 2nd after day one in 2006. He currently tops the Scoring Average Before Cut stats, proving what a fast starter he can be, and he's in fine form again this year, having recently won the Colonial.

He can be wobbly in the mix and I couldn't see him having the mettle to win but, with the added bonus of an early tee-time on Thursday, I could certainly see him getting off to a fast start and at anything around [40.0] he's a value play.

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