Golf Briefing ⛳ | This is The Athletic’s newsletter for the 2026 U.S. Open. Sign up here to receive the Golf Briefing directly in your inbox.Good afternoon! Welcome to our special-edition newsletter covering the U.S. Open, starting tomorrow at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, N.Y.I’m Alex, and as usual, staff writer Gabby Herzig will be here shortly to tell you what it’s like on the ground. We (and some friends) will check back with you after all four rounds. Tell a friend to sign up here for free.The Field: Four types of U.S. Open players Here’s our full big board. In a 156-man U.S. Open field, there are four types of players worth watching closely. Anyone not in one of these groups will be just a guy as the week progresses:
The favorite: Scottie Scheffler. He’s the likeliest winner every time he steps to the first tee on a Thursday, but Scheffler has on-paper separation this week. (His odds to win are roughly twice as good as Rory McIlroy’s and Jon Rahm’s.) We don’t have to spend that much time on him, other than to point out he’s playing great despite not winning lately.
The bomb-and-gouger: Bryson DeChambeau, plus dozens of other players emulating him. You know the game plan, and the USGA knows it too. DeChambeau’s 2020 win at Winged Foot was a seminal moment in U.S. Open strategy, as the big man hit the ball into the moon, hacked it out of the rough from relatively short distances and made enough putts to win. Executing this at Shinnecock will be extremely hard, with just a few yards of rough before the stuff gets untenable. But some bomb-and-gougers will hit the fairway and become merely bombers. These players will do well.
