US Open: Latest Tip

With one round to go in the US Open there is one man who is hogging all the limelight. With rounds of 65, 66 and 68, Rory McIlroy is making a mockery of tournament organisers’ plans to construct a challenge tough enough to ensure a winning score somewhere around level par. The rest of the field has found life tough enough; the 7500 yard course at Congressional is the second longest in the history of the event and stray shots are still being punished as rigorously as ever. Just ask Phil Mickelson what he thinks. His magical short game hasn’t stopped waywardness being punished to the effect that he is now +7. On the same score is world number one Luke Donald - the most consistent performer in the world in 2011. So how has McIlroy ended up at 14 under par?

The young man from Northern Ireland has produced standards of golf not seen since the 2000 US Open when Tiger Woods won by a barely fathomable 15 shots. That is still the greatest margin of victory in any major event ever. To put what we’re seeing in Maryland in perspective, Woods ended the final round at Pebble Beach on -12; the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland is currently two shots better than that after Saturday.

It would be fair to say that the rain in the current US Open has assisted the players, particularly in round three where the greens really softened, and the chasing pack is highly unlikely to fall back too far from its current peak of six under. So the big question now seems to be how many can McIlroy win by? The most pertinent point will be how will he handle the pressure?

Based on Saturday’s evidence, fans of the young man from Holywood should have no worries in that regard. Yes he stumbled badly at Augusta, but he has clearly learnt from his Masters nightmare. Yesterday, after bogeying the 10th, he dragged his drive left into the rough on 11, the toughest hole on the course. The pressure was on. The 22-year-old responded with a wondrous 7-iron and a delectable birdie putt to immediately get back on track. At 17 he drained a 10-footer for par to ensure he still hasn’t had a 3-putt all week. If he was going to start wobbling, it would have happened by now.

StanJames are offering 9/2 on McIlroy winning by 9-10 shots and this, ludicrous as it may sound, looks like a good value bet. Y E Yang is eight back and played pretty poorly in round three. There was never anything there to suggest that the South Korean could make inroads into that huge gap. Nine back are Lee Westwood, Jason Day and the man with the ‘Noddy’ putter, Robert Garrigus. The Englishman is improving as the week progresses and he looks like a good bet to finish second in a major yet again. It would seem reasonable to expect Westwood and McIlroy to shoot similar scores on Sunday and if that happens then the 9-10 shot margin of victory is highly plausible. Take the value on a gloriously emphatic win for the pride of Northen Ireland at 9/2 with StanJames.