U.S. Open 2019: Preview and predictions

Five more stories that could be fun on Sunday

11. Rickie Fowler

Here we are again with that same question: Is this the week that Rickie Fowler finally wins that elusive major championship? It’s crazy to think that he still hasn’t gotten one, but the talent pool is just so deep that it’s just going to keep getting more and more difficult with each passing tournament.

He’s still got the game to compete, but everyone else has gotten better as well. It’s just that he’s gotten so close on so many occasions and hasn’t been able to finish one off. Fowler has had nine top-10 finishes at majors, including this year’s Masters, and Pebble Beach would be an amazing place to get that first win.

18. Tommy Fleetwood

A year ago, Tommy Fleetwood nearly pulled off an amazing victory at Shinnecock Hills with a brilliant final-round 63 but came up just one shot short as Brooks Koepka held on to win his second consecutive U.S. Open. The Sunday 63 was 15 shots better than his third-round 78, which is what cost him his first major championship.

Fleetwood then tied for 12th at The Open Championship and had a strong finish to his 2018, even cracking the top 10 in the world rankings at one point. Since then, however, he hasn’t played his best golf, but he still hasn’t missed a cut in nearly a year. When he’s on, he’s one of the most fun players in the game to watch and it would be great to see some of those fireworks again.

24. Phil Mickelson

The biggest U.S. Open bridesmaid in history may be running out of chances to complete the career Grand Slam. Phil Mickelson has been the runner-up at the U.S. Open a record six times, beginning in 1999 with an emotional loss to Payne Stewart and most recently in 2013 at Merion, the year Justin Rose claimed his first and only major. Lefty hasn’t been a factor at the U.S. Open since then and is constantly frustrated with some of the USGA setups, as evidenced by that putting meltdown last year.

But this is still the golf tournament he’s always wanted to win most and Mickelson fans would go nuts if he were anywhere near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. He’s played well here in the past, including a tie for fourth back in 2010, and he’ll have a big following the first couple of days with Dustin Johnson in his group. How he starts will be key. If he gets annoyed early, it’s over.

28. Jordan Spieth

At long last, it finally seems as if Jordan Spieth is turning a corner. After a year of frustration with his game, especially with the putter, the former world No. 1 and 2015 U.S. Open champ has three top-10 finishes in a row, a tie for third at the PGA Championship, a tie for eighth at the Charles Schwab Challenge and a tie for seventh at the Memorial.

It’s been close to two years since Spieth has been in the winner’s circle, his last victory coming at The Open Championship in 2017, so a win at Pebble Beach would feel pretty nice right about now. He has too much talent to just fade away and I’m sure it’s not been easy watching some of the other youngsters in the game pass him by.

29. Hideki Matsuyama

Since we’re on the topic of someone who hasn’t had the greatest 12 months, we come to Hideki Matsuyama, who was once ranked as high as second in the world but dropped close to 30 spots due to inconsistent play. He also hasn’t won in nearly two years, his last coming in 2017 at the WGC-Bridgestone, the same year he tied for second at the U.S. Open, the closest he’s come to winning a major.

He had a solid finish to the 2017-18 PGA Tour season but then began to struggle. But he’s starting to show flashes that he might have turned things around a bit. He tied for 32nd at The Masters and has gotten better every week since then. He tied for 31st at Wells Fargo, tied for 23rd at the Byron Nelson, tied for 16th at the PGA Championship and played very well at the Memorial, finishing in solo sixth. He’s still a bit of a long shot at Pebble but a win would make him just the second Asian player to win a major, the first being Y.E. Yang in 2009.