US Open Longshots 2025

Having once been the man that you’d most likely see filling an each-way place on any given week without seriously threatening a win, Tony Finau spectacularly took his career to the next level in 2022, winning first the 3M Open then the Rocket Mortgage Classic in consecutive weeks before adding the Houston Open and Mexico Open titles over the next few months.

From the butt of the joke to a 6-time PGA Tour winner in the blink of an eye, the only disappointment for Big Tone is that he didn’t make the Ryder Cup team last time round despite his efforts, and a couple of years down the line his chances of making Keegan Bradley’s team are slim unless he can produce some fireworks between now and August. In that quest there’s no better place to start than at a Major Championship.

With the very obvious danger this week being that Scottie could simply walk away with the title and a number of the each-way places could be filled with his nearest challengers in the market, finding a player with the ability and experience to fill one of the remaining paying places is the objective here – and in Finau we have plenty of evidence to suggest that he can do the job for us.

11 times the 35 year-old has finished inside the top 10 at a Major over the years, 7 of which were top-8 finishes to add encouragement for this particular bet, with 3 of those top-8s coming in the US Open specifically. The most recent in that sequence came last year at Pinehurst where Finau was prominent throughout, closing with a 67 to finish just 2 shots shy of eventual winner Bryson DeChambeau.

2025 has been solid if unspectacular with 5^th at the Genesis Invitational in February his best finish of the season, however there have been signs of late that he’s playing some decent golf. 6^th into Sunday at the Truist Championship, he was 8^th heading into the final day at the US PGA Championship last month before closing with a 74.

The absence of any water on this course can only be a positive for Tony who has the power to tackle Oakmont, having narrowly missed the cut here in 2016.

As Steve Bamford highlighted in his excellent US Open tips article, 12 of the last 16 US Open winners were capturing their first Major title into the bargain. Tony Finau fits the bill in that respect, as does Akshay Bhatia who’ll be looking to improve on his 16^th place finish last year at Pinehurst No.2 which still rates as his best effort in the Majors.

That effort 12 months ago followed 22^nd at the Memorial and was followed up by 5^th at the Travelers Championship and 2^nd at the Rocket Mortgage Classic as the Californian built momentum in success outings, much the same as he’d done earlier that year with progressive form of 17/11 culminating in him winning the Texas Open. It’s not as if that should have been a surprise as the 23 year-old had shown his hand the previous year by winning the Barracuda Championship off of improving results of 35/9 over his two previous outings.

All of this matters because there’s enough of a hint that he’s heading towards another peak right now for me to take a chance here this week. After missing the cut at the US PGA Championship, 22^nd at Colonial was much better and he followed that up with a 16^th place finish at the Memorial last time out where he ranked 5^th for SG Tee to Green and 4^th for SG Approach. He was prominent in both events, dropping away in the final round at the Charles Schwab from 4^th position heading into Sunday before a nightmare Saturday derailed him from 3^rd position at Muirfield Village, however there’s enough there to suggest to me that something’s percolating.

3^rd at TPC Sawgrass in elite company on a challenging course is Bhatia’s best finish of 2025 to date, and a similar level of performance this week could reward us from an each-way perspective and give us a sniff of a win should the favourites fail.

Finally, I make no excuses for backing Patrick Reed once again at a Major given that he’s being priced in the triple-digit bracket.

The 34 year-old gave us a full each-way return in this column at the Masters back in April, eventually finishing 3^rd thanks to a rollercoaster final round where he birdied 6, 7, 8 and 9 to give us hope before he 3-putted from 3 feet on the 13^th to all but take him out of the reckoning, before making a late eagle on the 17^th hole.

Augusta form might not be a bad starting point this week given that the last two winners here at Oakmont, Dustin Johnson and Angel Cabrera, both have Green Jackets, and the 2018 Masters Champion will be better equipped than many to tackle the treacherous greens here this week that rival the putting surfaces at Augusta National for speed and difficulty.

Reed’s wider Majors form is impressive with 8 career top-10 finishes including his aforementioned 2018 success in Georgia, with 4^th that same year being his best US Open result, and the Texan’s ability to battle and grind shouldn’t be underestimated when it comes to tackling golf’s toughest tests.

7^th at LIV Miami, 4^th at LIV Korea and 2^nd in Macau are Patrick’s best efforts of 2025 outside of The Masters, however with chances to accumulate Ryder Cup points at a premium given his choice of Tour, this week’s US Open and next month’s Open Championship are weeks where Captain America simply must perform if he wants to be in the conversation when push comes to shove for Team USA captain Keegan Bradley later in the summer.