Round 1 of the 2023 U.S. Open is now in the books, and what a round it was. Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele each set U.S. Open records by shooting a 62 on Thursday as both golfers hold a one-stroke lead over the rest of the field at 8-under.
The forecast calls for the same type of weather from Thursday, although there’s a slim chance of rain during the afternoon. Below, I look ahead at the current U.S. Open odds and give you my best U.S. Open picks for the second round.
U.S. Open Round 2 picks
Picks made on 6/15/2023 at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Click on each pick to jump to the full analysis.
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Best 2023 U.S. Open Round 2 picks
Sam Bennett Top-20 finish
This week is Sam Bennett’s first tournament as an official professional golfer, and boy is he not disappointing. The Texas A&M product became a bigger name in the golf world after his T16 performance at the Masters, and now the former US Amateur champion possesses a Korn Ferry Tour card.
There is no doubt that we will see him on the PGA TOUR soon, as Bennett continues to thrive when given the opportunity among the best of the world. Not only did he finish T16 at the most prestigious tournament in golf, but he also finished T20 at last week’s RBC Canadian Open.
Starting off the U.S. Open in great form, Bennett is T7 at 3-under par after shooting a 67 on Thursday. It was quite an up-and-down round for the 23-year-old, but that is to be expected at a course that gives a lot of birdie opportunities but will also eat your mistakes alive.
His ball striking suggests that regression is unlikely for Bennett, ranking in the Top 24 amongst the field in strokes gained on the approach, strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained tee to green and greens in regulation percentage. Finally, he’s part of the morning wave on Friday, so this may be the lowest price we get on him in this market for the rest of the tournament.
Best odds: Sam Bennett Top-20 finish (+275 at DraftKings – 0.5 units)
Denny McCarthy Top-20 finish
Denny McCarthy’s performance on Thursday was not the start he was looking for, finishing T56 at 1-over. However, his biggest issue was the inability to finish putts, and that is a fixable issue.
Prior to grabbing the flat club out of the bag, McCarthy was working his way around the course smoothly. In fact, he ranks 18th amongst the field in greens in regulation percentage, and if he just starts to get a few of those putts to drop on Friday, then he should shoot back up the leaderboard.
Currently, he ranks 96th amongst the field in strokes gained putting at –0.39 strokes, which is well below his season average. McCarthy is one of the best putters on the PGA TOUR, and Thursday’s poor showing on the greens is unlikely to be repeated.
On TOUR this season, he ranks fourth in strokes gained putting with a per-round average of +0.75 strokes. McCarthy is coming off his runner-up performance at the Memorial Tournament and boasts five Top-20 finishes over his past nine tournaments, and we should expect a strong performance from him over the next three days.
Best odds: Denny McCarthy Top-20 finish (+500 at DraftKings – 0.5 units)
