Bryson DeChambeau Favored to Beat Brooks Koepka at US Open

Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are now firmly established as the biggest rivalry in professional golf.

The issue between the two golfers has slowly developed since Koepka criticized DeChambeau’s slow play back in 2019, but it exploded into the public’s conscious this year when a leaked clip from the PGA Championship showed a disgruntled Koepka rolling his eyes at DeChambeau during an interview.

I would show you the clip, but in true PGA Tour fashion, they scrubbed it from the internet because they don’t know how to market their sport.

With the two golfers being past US Open winners (Koepka in 2017 and 2018, DeChambeau in 2020), everyone was begging to have the two paired up together for the first two rounds of this week’s major championship.

As it turns out, the USGA (surprisingly) was going to do it, but DeChambeau refused, according to Brad Faxon on SiriusXM radio.

We may not get the Koepka/DeChambeau pairing that we were hoping for (unless fate brings them together on the weekend), but we can still bet on who will perform better.

WynnBET has released odds on who will finish with a better score at the US Open. They have DeChambeau set as the slight -120 favorite (bet $120 to profit $100), with Koepka set as the +100 underdog (bet $100 to profit $100).

My brain wants me to take DeChambeau in this match up, as the defending US Open champion’s game is built to thrive at courses that have the USGA flair. Long courses with deep rough are DeChambeau’s speciality, as his length of the tee and his ability to hit the ball out of treacherous rough are the two biggest strengths of his game. He also ranks first on the PGA Tour in total strokes gained this season.

Koepka, who is still dealing with a nagging knee injury, had a chance to win the PGA Championship last month, but couldn’t deliver on Sunday on his way to a T2 finish. Brooks has clearly proven that he can also succeed at major championships, especially the US Open where he’s a two-time champ. He also ranks sixth in total strokes gained this season, including 14th in strokes gained: approach the green.

Neither golfer has historically performed well at Torrey Pines, as DeChambeau missed the cut in both career starts at the Farmers Insurance Open, while Koepka has two missed cuts and a 41st place finish.

The numbers make me lean DeChambeau in this matchup, but I don’t know if I can stomach cheering for him after he showed his true colors by refusing to be paired up with Koepka in the first two rounds. Given that Brooks is offering some better value with his +100 odds, I’ll go ahead and bet on him so I can be free to cheer against “the scientist” all weekend long.