With the U.S. Open little more than a week away, we move into a phase of the season where the list of favorites is growing more formidable and longer each week. This week we have defending Open champion Brooks Koepka; this year’s most remarkable rookie, Joaquin Niemann; and 2016 Open champion and no. 1 player in the world Dustin Johnson as the top three faves in the FedEx St. Jude Classic.

Koepka missed over three months earlier this year with a wrist injury. He’s been drastically improved with each appearance since his return – 139th in the Zurich, 42nd in the Wells Fargo, 11th in TPC, and then second at the Colonial two weeks ago. “Feel like I’m playing really well,” Koepka told sportingnews.com after his finish at Fort Worth. “You know, for some reason over the past two years I feel like we probably had more second-place finishes than anybody. That’s kind of disappointing. At the same time, I’m playing well. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks.”

Niemann was tied for the lead last weekend during the Memorial and ended up tied for sixth. It was his eighth appearance in an event that is included in the Hawley Ratings, thus enabling him to debut at 25th in the ratings. He has three top-10s in five appearances since mid-April. Golfdigest.com has a nice discussion of Niemann’s status on the PGA Tour for the balance of this season and his prospects for next.

Johnson is the top player in the field in terms of how his statistical profile matches up with characteristics most strongly correlated with success on the TPC Southwind track over the past eight years. Per the Hawley course fit statistics, the top two stats are greens in regulation and scrambling, in that order, and putting and driving distance are slightly behind. The remarkably steady Johnson has a significant edge over Henrik Stenson as best fit for the course, with Phil Mickelson and Tony Finau following.

Players worth considering based on strong recent appearance include Charl Schwartzel, who had three straight top-10s before missing the cut at the Memorial; Billy Horschel, who missed the cut at the Masters and Memorial but had a win, a top 10, and three other made cuts in between; Joel Dahmen, who has three straight top-20s; and Stenson, who has six straight made cuts and was in the top 10 three times in a row in early spring. Besides Horschel and Dahmen, players outside the top 50 who have been on the upswing include Ben Crane, Danny Lee, Kevin Tway, and Russell Knox.