As the cliché goes a Major does not begin till the back nine on Sunday. It will be so once again as the 119th US Open winds down as daylight rushes into India on Monday. There is a bunch of claimants for that.

They range from established stars like four-time Major champ Rory McIlroy, who has not won since Koepka started making Majors his personal stage. McIlroy last won a Major at the 2014 PGA in Valhalla, while the last 23 months have seen Koepka win two US Opens and two PGAs, besides which he has finished in Top-10 on two other occasions. All in a span of eight Majors.

Justin Rose is a US Open winner from 2013 besides that Olympic gold from 2016. Louis Oosthuizen, winner of the Open on the other side of the Atlanta at St. Andrews, knows a thing or two about contending – he has been runner-up at each of the four Majors at least once! So, they are capable of grabbing one more.

Yet, the leader for the past two rounds is the never-say-die Gary Woodland, who strength and power somehow make you wonder why he has not won a Major yet. Time and again he has been up on the leaderboard in the first two rounds, but has never played the final group of the final round of a Major. He was T-6 and T-8 in two of his three previous Majors and both were the PGA Championships - 2018 and 2019 - and both were won by Koepka.

Woodland has had a great two days – he shot a 65 in the second round and in the third he managed two-under with a round that needed a lot of grit and ability to get crucial pars with some gutsy chip-ins and a monster par putt. Now he is 18 holes away from the greatest moment of his career.

What about Koepka? He threatens to take the place of Woods as the most dominant player of the current era. Is he not the man everyone wants to catch these days; and doesn’t he intimidate everyone in a manner that resembles Tiger Woods of the past. World No. 1 Koepka without doubt is the pick among all top stars, more so at the Majors.

Rose is just one behind Woodland. In 2017 and 2018 Rose seemed to be steam-rollering over all others on all Tours. In that period, when it came to the Majors, he was second at Masters in 2017, losing by a whisker to Sergio Garcia, and was again T-2 in a four-way tie for second at the Open at Carnoustie last year.

Last year Rose was between tenth and 19th in the other three Majors, too, but this year he missed the cut at Masters and was T-29 at PGA. He has been No. 1 in the world and is the reigning FedExCup champion, but another Major would go a long way in establishing how good a golfer he is.

Phil Mickelson these days seems to be a side story and Woods has not been in the kind of form that saw him register a sensational win at the Masters in April.

But Henrik Stenson is making his comeback and is in Top-10 here, while Matt Kuchar, one of the most successful active players without a Major, is going through a resurgence and leads the FedExCup standings, too. Kuchar has won twice this wraparound season; been second twice and been in Top-10 on four other PGA Tour events. A maiden Major would help, especially as his off-course image of being a ‘great’ guy over the past two decades has taken some beating following the ‘caddie’ controversy in Mexico; the ‘incident’ with Sergio Garcia and the run-in with rules officials.

Amidst all these big names, where are Justin Thomas, so successful in 2017 and 2018, and Jordan Spieth, who ran up a string of Majors in the 2015-17 period. Thomas won twice in 2018, but injury forced him to miss the PGA last month; and he has missed the cut here.

Spieth despite lurking close by with Top-10s in three of the seven Majors has been winless since his third Major, the 2017 British Open.

Another 18 holes and we shall know if Koepka wins a fifth Major and a become only the second player in history to win three straight US opens; or will Rose add a second US Open to his kitty or whether Woodland takes his first Major. However, keep an eye open for others, too!

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