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The 2022 U.S. Open begins on Thursday, June 16 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

Rory McIlroy, fresh off a win at the RBC Canadian Open, is currently the tournament favorite at +1000, but the Northern Irishman has plenty of company at the top of the board as there are six other golfers currently priced between +1000 and +2200.

As usual, the U.S. Open is expected to provide one of the toughest tests on the golf calendar. Only two of the past 10 winners posted a score in the double-digits under par and three of the past 10 champions won with a score over par.

Thus, it’s not surprising that, of the last 10 winners, only one closed at higher than +5000 (Gary Woodland, 2019) and none exceeded +8000.

That said, the chaos and carnage that’s expected this week should at the very least leave the door open for a sleeper to crash the party at the Country Club.

Quietly, Tommy Fleetwood has become quite the player when it comes to Major Championship golf. The 31-year-old Merseysider has finished runner-up at the U.S. Open and Open Championship, T5 at the PGA Championship and has three top-20 results at the Masters. Overall, Fleetwood has eight top-20 finishes in 27 major starts in his career.

In addition to his major pedigree, Fleetwood also comes into Boston in decent form after finishing T10 in Europe over the weekend. Two weeks prior to that, the bearded Englishman finished T5 at the PGA Championship.

Fleetwood fits the profile of a player who should do well in tough conditions as he’s a solid ball-striker who can scramble his way out of trouble and should be able to hang around long enough to give himself a chance come Sunday.

A newly announced LIV golfer, Patrick Reed has doubled down as his status as one of golf’s black hats. That means that people are often weary of betting Reed as most folks tend to avoid punting on players they don’t particularly like. That’s good news for value hunters as Reed’s odds often drift beyond comparable players, even when he’s in good form. Although it’s been a while since Reed has contended on the PGA TOUR, he has shown some flashes of late, including a T7 finish two weeks ago at the Charles Schwab. 

Like Fleetwood, Reed has a terrific history of results under the bright lights. He’s won a Masters and has finished inside the top 10 in all four majors — including a T4 at the 2018 U.S. Open. 

Getting triple digits on Patrick Reed is always worth considering and he could also be a good first-round leader punt as he’s posted a 69 or better in five of his last six opening rounds.

There were times over the past few seasons where Russell Henley’s name would pop up near the top of the oddsboards for certain tournaments. That hasn’t really been the case lately, though, as Henley’s recent results leave something to be desired. That said, the Georgia Bulldog still ranks as one of the game’s best iron players — he’s tied with Cam Smith in strokes gained: approach in 2022 — and that go a long way in giving Henley some decent scoring opportunities on a weekend where birdies will be at a premium.

Henley is as low as 65/1 at some sportsbooks, so getting him at this number feels like a great bet.

 Si Woo Kim is a classic boom-or-bust PGA TOUR golfer. We know that the 26-year-old South Korean has the game to win big tournaments, he took down the field at the 2017 PLAYERS Championship, but we also know that it could go downhill quite fast for him, too. That’s just part of the charm of betting on Kim. And although that may not sound like a recipe for success at an event where being able grind out pars and avoid big numbers will be paramount to success, but Kim has proven over his career that he can handle these kind of conditions.

Coming into the U.S. Open off a T13 finish at Memorial — another stiff test —  Kim’s game should be where it needs to be to grind his way into contention at The Country Club.