The USGA spends years working on U.S. Open preparation and it takes just that to pull off one of the largest sporting events of the year. And the boys in the blue jackets always like to put some thought into their opening round groupings pairing players with some common theme, some more apparent than others.
They got a bit carried away back in 2014 when they took some heat for pairing some “larger” players together in what many termed the “fat grouping”. But this year the USGA has tread lightly and there seems to be no politically incorrect groupings but you can see they still gave this some thought.
To this observer there appears to be two super-marquee groups that fans will be following intently at Shinnecock Hills.
Any group with Tiger Woods is bound to draw the largest crowd and defending PGA Champion Justin Thomas and former U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson will need to deal with all the commotion that 
follows Tiger. But this will be a comfortable group for JT as he and Tiger are “new” buddies. But we, and JT knows that when Woods is on the course he has no friends. DJ will mosey along just fine as nothing seems to bother the unflappable bomber.
The second super-marquee group could be called The Nearly There Grouping. Three golfers entered this season with a chance to earn their career grand slam. Rory McIlroy missed his chance at The Masters, Jordan Spieth will have his chance at The PGA Championship and Phil Mickelson needs this one to finally get his slam and get that monkey of second place (six times) at the U.S. Open off his back.
The new Spanish Armada grouping has the best Spanish players in the world together as Sergio Garcia, Rafael Cabrera-Bello and Jon Rahm should feel comfortable, at least for the first two rounds. Theses three are close and show plenty of support for each other.
Rickie Fowler headlines another group that could be labeled with the dreaded Best Player to Never Win a Major tag. Fowler is seventh in the World Rankings, Hideki Matsuyama is tenth and Marc Leishman is sixteenth. None have a major but have been close. Rahm is actually the highest ranked player in the world at number four but he was recruited to the Armada.
Another intriguing group consists of three major champions: Adam Scott, who qualified for Shinnecock, Henrik Stenson and Martin Kaymer. Scott and Stenson could be a threat if either of them can find their putting stroke and Kaymer always shows up for the majors.
Bubba Watson, Jason Day and Brooks Koepka make up the Long Ball group as these three can pound it miles. Day and Koepka like to flex their muscles through their skin tight shirts and Bubba uses his creativity to get round the course. This will be a fun group to watch.
The Masters Champions group is represented by current champ Patrick Reed, Zach Johnson and Charl Schwartzel
Goosen, ’04 US Open
And the “Respect Our Elders” group is made up of two time winner Ernie Els, one time winner Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker who qualified for this Open and is playing better than both of his companions. But the USGA missed the boat here. Both Els and Furyk did not earn their way in here, both were awarded Special Exemptions to Shinnecock and that’s great. They deserved them but where is two time Open Champion Retief Goosen? He won here in ’04 and his game is in just as good shape as Els or Furyk…probably better. Couldn’t the USGA have extended an invite to the past champion who survived the brutal Shinnecock setup back in 2004? They blew it…Goose should be here.
Related Articles
