US Open: Form stats for this season's third major championship

For the first time in 34 years, major championship golf returns to The Country Club, in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Not since 1988, have the world's top players descended en masse to compete over one of America's foremost and oldest courses.

Back then the country's leading player, Curtis Strange, required 18 play-off holes to end the challenge of the UK's No 1 golfer Nick Faldo.

All three majors to be staged at The Country Club have needed a play-off.

More recently, the course was the location for one of the most dramatic Ryder Cup matches in history, as the Americans overturned a 10-6 deficit on singles day to win back the trophy in 1999.

Course Details

This week's layout, as with all three previous majors to be staged here, is a composite of the club's three nine-hole courses - Clyde, Squirrel and Primrose.

The overall length has increased by more than 250 yards since the Ryder Cup was contested here, while the routing has been altered slightly to accommodate a short par-three that was last used for the US Open in 1913.

This particular hole did not feature in either 1963 or 1988, but returns to test those teeing-up this week.

In order to insert the US Open's 'new' 11th hole, the original par-4 fourth has been decommissioned for seven days only.

The Country Club, which is located just a few miles from downtown Boston, is a typical parkland venue in New England.

Water is not a major concern but does come into play on four holes.

More important than avoiding the many bunkers, will be a golfer's ability to manage their way around a venue that has plenty of subtle changes in direction between tee and green.

Those, who competed last week in Toronto, will have travelled around 550 miles east to tee-up on Thursday.

Latest betting for this week's US Open

Testimony

According to the American magazine Golf Digest, The Country Club has changed very little over the past century - the first nine holes of the course were designed in 1895.

Few members of this week's field will have faced the course in competition. This small 'elite club' include world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Corey Conners who all competed in the 2013 US Amateur Championship won by England's Matt Fitzpatrick.

The greens are famously small and architect Gil Hanse, who helped to renovate the course ahead of staging this week's US Open, told Golf Digest: "It's going to be an interesting mental test because many of these guys are going to see holes they've never seen before in their lives.

"They're going to have to play some shots that aren't going to register on their fairness meter."

Former course superintendent Bill Spence added: "One of the great things about The Country Club is the smallness of the greens and the difficulty of the long grass that surround them."

The average green size at the composite layout is a little below 4,400 square feet. Not quite as small as Pebble Beach but close enough.

And as a historic footnote to all of this, The Country Club is one of the five founding members of the United States Golf Association which runs the US Open.

Latest betting for a top-five finish at the US Open

Stroke Averages

Lowest 15 at US Open (2016-21)
Average .... (Rounds)
69.65: Brooks Koepka (20)
70.40: Xander Schauffele (20)
70.88: Louis Oosthuizen (24)
71.05: Dustin Johnson (22)
71.40: Collin Morikawa (10)
71.41: Patrick Reed (22)
71.44: Jim Furyk (16)
71.50: Bryson DeChambeau (22)
71.59: Hideki Matsuyama (22)
71.61: Tommy Fleetwood (18)
71.65: Harris English (20)
71.71: Francesco Molinari (14)
71.73: Justin Thomas (22)
71.80: Jon Rahm (20)
71.81: Brian Harman (16)
Min. No. of Rounds = 10
Only those entered this week are included in table

PGA Tour Consistency Chart

Most Times Within 8 Shots Of Winner (Since Jan 1st, 2022)
8: Justin Thomas
7: Corey Conners
7: Max Homa
7: Scottie Scheffler
7: Cameron Young
6: Daniel Berger
6: Keegan Bradley
6: Patrick Cantlay
6: Matt Fitzpatrick
6: Shane Lowry
6: Joaquin Niemann
6: Guillermo Pereira
Only those entered this week are included in table

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MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves