Jaidee’s ability to make cuts can make him US Open’s top Asian
Published:Based on the Masters earlier this year, simply making the cut may be enough to secure Top Asian honours at the US Open and this bodes well for Thongchai Jaidee.
Ryo Ishikawa, who is absent here, finished in a share of 38th at the Masters to scoop top Asian honours and only he and KJ Choi made the cut from their representatives.
Choi leads this particular market here at 11/4 and given his knowledge of US courses and major experience, he would represent the safe bet to be Top Asian.
However, in his last five appearances on the PGA Tour, Choi has only broken 70 on two occasions, which suggests he is not on top form in the birdies department.
His lack of driving distance could be an additional hindrance at Merion, while he does not rate particularly highly on the PGA Tour for driving accuracy or finding greens in regulation either.
Therefore, there are grounds to oppose him and YE Yang at 5/1, who is arriving at Merion in dire form.
Yang has missed the cut in his last five tournaments, with a proposed change of swing thought to be a contributing factor to this.
Hiroyuki Fujita made the cut at the US Open last year and is 12/1 to be Top Asian this time, but his major pedigree is dreadful as this is the only cut he has made in his last 10 major appearances.
These all help to boost the appeal of Jaidee at 5/1 to be the Top Asian.
Jaidee may not do much spectacularly, but he has made the cut in his last 17 worldwide tournaments and although his major appearances are sporadic to say the least, he has survived all four rounds in his only two US Open starts.
Finding greens in regulation is the staple of Jaidee’s game and should he manage to sink a few putts too, he could be knocking on the door of a top-10 finish, for which he can be backed at 14/1.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
