Who will win?

Bacon: Jordan Spieth

I initially was going to put Jon Rahm here, considering his insane length and ability to overpower even the roughest of golf courses with his driver. But after walking the course and seeing the conditions, I’m going Spieth. The 2015 champion is first on the PGA Tour in strokes gained approaching greens (which means he will have a lot better chance of making par when he inevitably misses these fairways) and he’s seventh amongst everyone in strokes gained total. If he finds fairways, he wins. Simple as that.

Chase: Francesco Molinari

A big name has won the Open in five of the last six years (Webb Simpson was the exception), a change from the not-so-distant days of Lucas Glover, Geoff Ogilvy and Michael Campbell. At Erin Hills, we'll go back to the future with a surprise, mostly unknown name holding the trophy aloft on Sunday night. Molinari, the 34-year-old Italian, has played on two Ryder Cup teams and has six wins worldwide. So he isn't exactly anonymous — but he's no DJ either. Nor is he the most accomplished Molinari. His younger brother, Eduardo, has 10 worldwide victories. So why Francesco? At Erin Hills, if you're not in the fairway, you're dead. The good thing is that the fairways are perhaps as wide as the Open has ever seen. Still, all it takes is one or two trips to put up some huge numbers that take you out of contention. So a look at the driving distance, driving accuracy and greens in regulation stats (which always matter, obviously) take on added importance this week, and Molinari does well in each. (Of the big names, I'd take Spieth above DJ, Rory, Rickie and Rahm.)

Schwartz: Sergio Garcia

Dustin Johnson is the clear favorite to win at Erin Hills, as he should be, but this is hardly a Tiger Woods-against-the-field situation.

Sergio Garcia is one of the best overall drivers of the ball in the field, and sits in the top 40 on tour in both average distance and accuracy. He’s always been an elite ball striker, and he’s in decent form. Since winning the Masters and wrangling the "best player never to win a major" monkey off his back, Garcia was in contention at the Players until a final-round 78 spoiled his tournament, and he’s posted two other top 20s.

Scott: Rickie Fowler

Why not this be the one where Rickie breaks through? The stat that jumps out at me right now is Fowler’s hit fairway percentage: He’s hitting fairways just shy of 70 percent of the time off the tee, which is top five on tour. With the way this course is set up, there’s no margin for error — you either hit the fairways or you’re done. If Rickie is accurate off the tee, and the putter gets going, I think this is his time.