Fitzpatrick to beat Clark and Woodland (1240 BST)

I did consider short-hitting Zac Blair in a low-key group given his experience and decent US Open record but we'll stick to those priced up more widely, with MATT FITZPATRICK fancied to get the better of fellow former champions Wyndham Clark and Gary Woodland.

Clark is struggling at the moment and while he drove the ball much better in Canada, that was a course made for power players like him. Significantly, I think, his best three driving displays this year have all come at places you might expect him to be able to get away with the odd big miss and I simply don't think he'll be able to do that, at least not for long, at Oakmont.

With Woodland's only notable performances lately having been putter-driven, and both these two inconsistent in the US Open, Fitzpatrick looks a solid bet. He's made nine of 10 US Open cuts, the exception when missing out by a shot at a course he hated, and he's much more accurate than his playing partners despite some driver troubles over the past year.

Things have been looking up of late and with a top-10 finish at the PGA Championship behind him, plus experience of making the cut here in 2016 that neither playing partner can match, he can prove too steady at a nice price.

Norgaard to beat Campbell and Lower (1313 BST)

I am generally in favour of good overall drivers this week, those who are neither wild nor short, but this is the US Open and any severe power mismatches have to at least be contemplated.

One comes in the form of NIKLAS NORGAARD against Brian Campbell and Justin Lower and while opposing Campbell didn't pay off in the Masters earlier in the year, around here I think it will. He's been driving the ball poorly, is just about the shortest hitter in the field, and withdrew from his latest start.

Lower meanwhile is without a top-30 finish anywhere since he contended for the AmEx back in January and while he scraped through to the weekend on his US Open debut last year, that was at a firmer Pinehurst, versus a soft Oakmont. It'll surely catch him out and I'd project a pretty high score.

Norgaard was a bit disappointing in Canada but that came just a couple of days after he qualified for this pretty impressively. With no time to prepare I can overlook his performance in Toronto, while the fact that he hit the ball so well at Quail Hollow has to go down as encouraging. He's a superb driver of the ball and can pound these two into submission.