U.S. Open 2025 big board: Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and other favorites, ranked

Here’s all you need to know about the world No. 1 coming into Oakmont: 1-1-T4-1. Scheffler has won three of his last four starts, including the PGA Championship, his third major victory. Scheffler’s peers consistently laud him for his ability to avoid mistakes in competition. His misses are minuscule, and when he does hit a wayward shot, it is placed strategically in the best position for recovery. It’s surprising, therefore, that Scheffler has not necessarily contended for a U.S. Open. He’s been up there — T2 at Brookline and third at Los Angeles Country Club — but has yet to sniff the title. Perhaps the best ball-striker and tee-to-green player on the PGA Tour is due to win golf’s toughest test.

The winner of half of last year’s majors, Schauffele is the type of golfer who can plod along at any golf course and stay steady while the rest crumble. He’s known for his consistency — he has an active streak of 65 made cuts in a row — and the U.S. Open could very much favor this style of play. Schauffele suffered from a rib injury earlier this season but seems to be recovering nicely into the spring season. The only statistic that could hold Schauffele back at Oakmont is driving. He’s ranked 127th on tour in strokes gained off the tee.

The No. 7-ranked strokes-gained player on the PGA Tour, Morikawa has seemingly been in contention week to week but has yet to pull out a victory this season to prove his consistency is paying off. He has two solo second-place finishes, and his irons are some of the best in the world right now — he’s ranked sixth in strokes gained approach. He has a strong record at U.S. Opens with two top-five finishes and two top-15s in the last four years, but does he have the momentum to win at Oakmont? It isn’t clear.

Thomas ended his three-year winless streak by winning the RBC Heritage, and besides a missed cut at the PGA, he has put together one of his strongest seasons in recent memory: three second-place finishes, two top-10s and only one missed cut, at Quail Hollow. Thomas’ putting could be a major advantage at Oakmont, which boasts greens that will run at just under 15 on the stimpmeter. Thomas is strong all around in putting, ranking 14th in strokes gained and sixth on the PGA Tour in putting from 15-20 feet.

Sometimes you just have to acknowledge a man is on an extended heater and say, “Why not?” Griffin went into the 2024 Canadian Open 91st in the world, and now he’s 15th. He has won twice since the Masters (the Zurich Classic with partner Andrew Novak, then the Charles Schwab Challenge solo) and went head-to-head with Scottie Scheffler at the Memorial before finishing second. There are four more top-10s since 2025 began. It’s a heck of a story — Griffin was ready to give up golf and was working as a mortgage loan officer four years ago — and it could end up with him on the Ryder Cup team this fall. So why not a top finish at his first U.S. Open?

We’re coming up on three years since Cantlay’s last professional win, which is less of a big deal than it would be for others because Cantlay’s thing has always been about racking up top-10s over medalist finishes. But since flirting with that big breakthrough win at Pinehurst a year ago, Cantlay has been a different, lesser golfer. The approach and iron play have remained relatively consistent, but he’s getting less off the tee and not putting as well. The most recent results have been more encouraging, but it does not feel like Cantlay’s first major win is imminent.

A final-round 62 at the RBC Canadian Open was a heck of a way to begin U.S. Open week, though mucking up the playoff did take considerable shine off of it. In the bigger picture, Burn’s putting the ball as well as ever, gaining strokes off the tee and again looking like a top-20 golfer in the world. Burns credited a simpler mental approach to the upturn, and given the mental anguish a U.S. Open is known to cause, coming in with a free mind feels like a good thing.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational win was not only a breakthrough moment in Henley’s career but also was supposed to lock him into a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. It’s only three months later, and still months until Bethpage, but are we still 100 percent sure about that? Henley missed the cut at the Masters and the PGA Championship, and he was a nonfactor at the Players. He’s not near the longest players in men’s professional golf, so for Henley to succeed at Oakmont, he’ll need to be extraordinarily accurate and have his irons working.

On the one hand, Oakmont is going to put even the most in-form players in the field in tough positions and demand them to find an answer. Who better than Spieth, the man who has built an entire brand around his ability to creatively problem-solve on a golf course, to answer that test? On the other hand, are we sure this version of Spieth is good enough not to get himself into enough trouble for three men? This is why we watch. If nothing else, Spieth will entertain.

The good news: Berger is a gritty, confident golfer who fought through years of back issues to return to a place among the top 30 in the world. He’s as accurate as anybody off the tee and a fantastic iron player, two essential qualities at Oakmont. The bad news: Since 2022, he’s been an average to below-average putter, and he’s coming off multiple missed cuts at the Memorial and Charles Schwab with horrific — horrific — putting weeks. He has lost strokes on the green in five consecutive starts. Not good on these comically fast greens!

OK, so Novak was the hottest golfer outside of Rory McIlroy in the spring with four top-three finishes, including three in a row thanks to excellent iron play. Then, he won the Zurich Classic team event with Ben Griffin, and soon Griffin was the hottest golfer in the game. Novak’s transitive powers aside, he has proven to be a well-balanced golfer who’s not afraid of going up against the best. The only problem is that this is just his third career major championship. He missed the cut at the other two, including last month’s PGA Championship.

Even aside from English’s overall capabilities — a former Ryder Cup winner with three impressive PGA Tour wins in the last four years — the case for English resides in his fit at Oakmont. He’s one of the better putters in golf, but more specifically, data guru Edoardo Molinari wrote for Golf Digest that English is one of the three best putters in the field on greens faster than a 13 on the stimpmeter. Add in the fact that English is coming off an impressive T2 last month at the PGA Championship and a T12 at the Memorial, and there’s a strong case for English at Oakmont.

McNealy has made enormous strides in the past 12 months, skyrocketing from No. 176 to No. 11 in the world thanks to his first career win in the fall and close calls at Torrey Pines, Valero and Hilton Head. He went from a career negative iron player to gaining 0.49 strokes in approach this season (very good). He has never finished better than T23 at a major and made only four cuts, but maybe the more important detail is that in his two majors this season, as a better player, he has finished a respectable T32 and T33. He’s one of those golfers who either has it or doesn’t most weeks, so we’ll know where McNealy stands quickly.

The case for McCarthy is quite simple. Ask any golfer who the best putter on tour is. You’ll get varying answers, but nearly every one of them has McCarthy toward the top of the list. No, he doesn’t hit it far (although he’s closer to the mean in distance this year), and he’s only slightly above average as a ball-striker, but when talking about those epic Oakmont greens, it’s a necessity to have McCarthy as a contender. He also has a good short game. Despite all of us talking at length about driver and the challenge of putting on the greens, we tend to undervalue saving par. It matters, and McCarthy is a great pick to hang around and battle all week.

Weird stat alert. The 23-year-old Bhatia has six tournaments this season in which he gained more than a stroke on the field in approach (that’s elite). He also has six in which he straight up lost strokes with those irons. It’s why Bhatia tends to either finish top-20 or miss the cut. But if he does have it with his ball-striking, he’s an excellent pick at Oakmont. He’s one of the better putters on tour, and he values accuracy off the tee. Also, Bhatia has more of an advantage hitting longer shots into greens, something Oakmont demands of players. He’s a sneaky-great pick. Just don’t blame us if he doesn’t have it.