It’s going to be a thrilling rollercoaster of a ride this week in the world of golf, as the 150th edition of The Open Championship is all set to begin on Thursday. That means the world’s best golfers are in Scotland, each vying to win the Claret Jug and, of course, the large sum of money reserved for the last man standing at St. Andrews Links. Check out out below some of the favorites, sleepers, and long shots for the 2022 Open Championship.
There’s no doubt that the Northern Irishman is among the favorites to win 2022 The Open Championship. For one, he’s won this event before, back in 2014 at Royal Liverpool. The last time this tournament was played at St. Andrews which was in 2010, McIlroy finished T3. As for this performance this season, McIlroy is 11 of 12 with a pair of wins and seven top 10s. He’s also well-rested, given the fact that his last action was in late June’s 2022 Travelers Championship, where he got a T19 to extend his streak of made cuts to seven.
Rahm is going to try his luck again in The Open Championship. He has yet to win this tournament in five tries, but he has been getting better of late. After a missed cut at Carnoustie in 2018, Rahm went T1 the following year at Royal Portrush and had a T3 in 2021 at Royal St. George’s. He’s also almost a shoo-in to make the cut since he’s gone 14 of 14 in all of his last 14 starts. Over that stretch, Rahm has collected six top 10s, including a win at the 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta.
Sure, he missed the cut at the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open, but that does little impact on the tremendous season Scheffler is having thus far. Scheffler is 18 of 21 in the 2021-22 PGA TOUR season and that includes four victories and three runner-up finishes. Over his last five starts, he’s placed second twice and cracked the top 20 four times. He doesn’t have a lot of experience playing for a major event across the pond, as he’s only appeared in just one The Open Championship, but he finished inside the top 10 there, placing T8 at the 2021 edition of this event at Royal St. George’s.
Here’s what we said about Wise in our 2022 Open Championship Sleepers preview:
Wise got cut in his last start (2022 Travelers Championship), but overall this season so far, he’s been pretty solid. He is 14 of 19 in the 2021-22 PGA TOUR campaign, with eight top 25s and four top 10s. He has yet to win an event this season but recently came so close to topping the field at the 2022 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday where he placed second. He followed that up with a T27 at the US Open, which also means that Wise has now made the cut in all of his last seven appearances in a major tournament, including his T41 at the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
Here’s what we said about Conners in our 2022 Open Championship Sleepers preview:
Conners warmed up for the 2022 Open Championship with a T61 at the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open. That wasn’t much, but at least he was able to rebound nicely from a missed cut at the 2022 US Open, which was the last event he played prior to crossing the Atlantic. On the season, Conners is 15 of 20 with three top 10s and a third-place finish. Conners, who is also fifth this season overall in terms of greens in regulation percentage (70.15%), has played twice before at The Open Championship, missing the cut on his first try in 2019 at Royal Portrush and going T15 in 2021 at Royal St. George’s.
The pro out of Bendigo, Australia is only 8 of 17 this year, but he has one more PGA TOUR win this season than most other golfers, having won the 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. He struck out in all but one of his four most recent major starts, with the exception being a T13 at the 2022 PGA Championship.
After back-to-back missed cuts in his first couple of tries at The Open Championship, Frittelli went T32 in 2019 at Royal Portrush and zoomed to a T5 finish in 2021 at Royal St. George’s.
