Seldom has a golfing year begun under a backdrop of such controversy and conjecture. The launch of a Saudi Arabia-backed breakaway Super Golf League circuit has prompted as many unanswered off-the-course questions as those relating to the action on the fairways and greens.
The controversial Saudi-funded Super Golf League, fronted by Greg Norman, has led to an unprecedented power struggle in the game. But the biggest stars in golf, including Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Jon Rahm, have pledged their allegiance to the current ecosystem, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, which has thrown doubt on the kingdom’s radical plans to shake up the sport.
Elite players are driven by greatness and that is qualified by major championship glory. And with winter now behind us, fans can start looking ahead to the first major tournament of the year. The countdown to The Masters is on.
This major calendar is embellished by the 150th Open being hosted at St Andrews as the world’s best battle for the Claret Jug on the iconic links of the Old Course. The US Open and PGA Championship are also set to throw up surprises at exciting major venues.
With the help of freelance golf journalists and betting experts Matt Cooper (Planet Sport, UniBet etc) and Dave Tindall (Guardian, Betfair, etc), and Reach PLC’s golf writer Josh Lees, Mancunian Matters has previewed the upcoming four majors in 2022.
The Masters, April 7-10
Augusta National Golf Course, Georgia
Hideki Matsuyama inspired a new generation of Japanese golfers by becoming the first Asian player to win a Green Jacket last year. The historic victory, if anti-climatic on Sunday, was a seismic moment not only for the unerring 30-year-old but for a golf-adoring nation who had longed for their own major champion. Only Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Nick Faldo have defended their Masters crown and a repetition of Matsuyama’s feat would be monumental.
The next star to enter Butler’s Cabin as champion could well come from the chasing pack last time out. Xander Schauffele made a late charge to claim his maiden major last year but buckled with a sorry six on the par-3 16th. Such a collapse is enough reason to be unnerved when Schauffele is in major contention but concern was banished as he closed out a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games months later.
Schauffele is becoming a common name at the top of major championship leaderboards and a T2 and T3 finish in the last three years prove Augusta National suits his game down to the ground. He could be the next young American to make his major breakthrough.
But Tindall believes it could be time for Mexico to have their first major champion.
“Having your irons dialled in is a huge deal at Augusta and was an obvious reason for Tiger’s successes,” he said.
“It’s why I definitely see Morikawa as a future Masters winner too. But another player who strikes his irons incredibly well is Abraham Ancer. On debut in 2020 he was the halfway leader and second after 54 holes before sliding to tied 13th at the finish and last year he posted tied 26th. Four of his eight laps of Augusta National have been in the 60s.”
Ancer is amongst the world’s elite in the rankings but would still prove a surprise victor. And Cooper has tipped the more favoured Arnold Palmer Invitational champion Scottie Scheffler for his maiden major title.
“Even when the Masters winner is a surprise it’s only ever a relative concept,” he explained.
“The winner is almost always ranked in the world’s top 30, with solid course experience and good form. I like Scheffler’s chances of becoming another unlikely winner who, in reality, really isn’t that unlikely at all.”
Of course, predicting the Masters winner is an almighty task given the multitude of talent at the peak of their powers. Rahm, the current world number one and US Open champion, will be a hot favourite to join the illustrious list of Spanish compatriots to be clad in green. Jordan Spieth competed at Augusta even during his malaise and is ready to add to his three major titles.
Meanwhile, McIlroy will head down Magnolia Lane facing the perpetual questions over his dream to complete the Grand Slam of majors over a decade since his Augusta back-nine collapse. The Northern Irishman has shot a first round below 70 once since that dark Sunday afternoon in 2011. A faster start is essential to build a meaningful weekend platform.
PGA Championship May 19-22
Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Viktor Hovland sharpened his tools at the nearby state university before becoming a revelation on tour. The Norwegian will fancy breaking his major duck in Oklahoma. Hovland, 24, has emerged as Europe’s new golfing star and will be keen to add a major crown to cement himself as one of the world’s best.
“In general, this has been a young man’s major,” Tindall explained. “Eight of the last 11 have been won by golfers in their 20s and eight of those 11 hadn’t won a major before. This could prove a perfect storm for Hovland.”
Southern Hills is not shrouded in history but its two most recent Major winners are Woods (PGA Championship 2007) and Retief Goosen (U.S Open 2001). It is a course that rewards great ball-striking and Hovland is one of the game’s finest.
However, Open champion Morikawa is in fine form and there is a strong argument the arrow-straight American will add to his list of Majors this season. Morikawa knows what it takes and could be the man to beat if his putter is firing.
Cooper believes that the course could be the scene of Morikawa’s third Major.
“Southern Hills is where Tiger Woods won the 2007 edition of this championship and he highlighted the importance of long irons and fairway woods off the tee and into the greens,” he said.
“The doglegs and lush rough took his driver out of play. A sneaky option would be Jason Kokrak, but it sounds made for Morikawa.”
It would also be naive to overlook Brooks Koepka, the PGA Championship specialist with back-to-back wins in 2018 and 2019. Koepka is a different animal at majors and comes alive when it really matters. There is little doubt he will play some role in a major this year, providing he stays fit and healthy. Perhaps Tulsa will be the scene of a third PGA Championship title.
Louis Ousthuizen boasts a dreamy swing and so often comes good at majors. Dustin Johnson is irrepressible at his best and will also be desperate to return to the top this season.
But while Phil Mickelson made history by becoming the oldest player to win a major in South Carolina last year, the PGA Championship can often throw up less heralded champions. And it could be time for a player like Hovland to seize his chance.
U.S Open June 16-19
The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline hasn’t hosted a men’s U.S Open since Curtis Strange defeated Faldo in a play-off 34 years ago. That provides little evidence for the elite players of today in a major setting. Though it is difficult to look past the world’s best player Rahm, who thrives on the tougher tracks. Rahm claimed victory at last year’s U.S Open at Torrey Pines with an inspirational birdie-birdie finish. The Spaniard can replicate Koepka’s feat of back-to-back wins in the event should he remain laser straight from the tee.
The U.S Open provides one of the most brutal tests in golf and a tight Country Club layout will act no different. This event is won on mitigating mistakes and taking infrequent chances.
“The Country Club in Brookline is undulating with tiny greens,” Cooper clarified.
“It will also have raucous Boston sports fans lining the fairways.”
Fedex Cup Champion Patrick Cantlay is destined to soon make the major leap and the Country Club layout should suit his eye.
“Cantlay plays the small greens at Pebble Beach and Harbour Town extremely well, and he’s completely inscrutable too,” Cooper added. “It’s an ideal opportunity for his major championship breakthrough.”
Tindall has backed another uber-talented American to win the third major of the year.
“I want a big-hitting young American with talent around the greens and Matthew Wolff is the man,” he said.
“It’s fair to say that he’s taken to the majors like a duck to water and was prominent on the leaderboard at his first two US Opens.”
Meanwhile, Koepka holds the joint-record for lowest 72 hole score in the event and will be desperate to hit form at the right time. Bryson DeChambeau tamed the brutal Winged Foot to win in 2020 and there could be another Brooks vs Bryson showdown; this time with substance.
And Shauffele, who will hope to have a major title to his name before arriving in Massachusetts, is yet to finish outside the top ten in this notoriously tough tournament and cannot be ruled out.
The Open, July 14-17
St Andrews Old Course, Fife
The Old Course has no protective answer for a new age of ‘bomb and gauge’ golf but chaos will still ensue if the wind blows as hoped on the famous Fife links. An Open Championship held at the home of the sport is special and provides extra motivation for those walking the iconic Swilcan Bridge in contention on the final day.
Debate will be rife over the method of attack deployed at St Andrews, with driving distances now exponentially greater than they were just seven years ago when US Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson claimed the Claret Jug. The new Captain America is unlikely to make it an Old Course double but there is every chance the new Champion golfer will come from his US team. Johnson’s side head to Rome aiming to end a 30-year away drought with victory over Europe next year.
It will be fascinating to see how the game’s biggest-hitters negotiate the Old Course come July. DeChambeau’s transformation into a long-drive obsessive has shifted golf’s focus to maximum advantage off the tee but the Open is so magical as it is the purest test of the sport. DeChambeau is yet to have a top 30 finish in the event on these shores and the ‘Scientist’ remains a links novice. Not that will deter him.
Recent Open champions have won with guile, ingenuity and invention and there are few more exciting shot-makers in the game than Spieth.
Spieth came close to completing the third quarter of a Grand Slam at the Old Course in 2015 before lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale two years later. He is made for the big occasions and loves St Andrews. A fourth major title at the Home of Golf would lift him to a new level after his temporary decline.
Meanwhile, McIlroy will want to end his major drought before arriving in Fife but will doubtless be one of the main protagonists in the build up.
“The storyline of McIlroy winning at St Andrews will be a huge one,” said Tindall.
“He twice finished runner-up in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and that cemented his love for the Old Course.
“He has a win, a second, a third, a fourth and a fifth on his Open resume so that strong body of work really franks the idea that a second Claret Jug could come his way at St Andrews.”
But McIlroy won’t be the only top European desperate to get his hands on the iconic trophy. Cooper believes Rahm’s proficiency around the greens makes him a strong contender to become the first Spanish Champion golfer since the late Seve Ballesteros.
“With The Old Course’s huge putting surfaces and the modern golfer’s capacity to get close to a lot of the greens on the par-4s in just one blow, two factors are key,” he explained.
“There’s the avoidance of three-putting and the ability to get down in two from outside 30-yards.
“Rahm is excellent at both elements and is a two-time winner on linksland in the Irish Open.”
An Englishman hasn’t won the Open since Faldo at Muirfield in 1992 and Tyrell Hatton leads this year’s hopes in Fife. Hatton went back-to-back at the Alfred Dunhill Links in 2016 and 2017, the tournament where two rounds are played on the Old Course. He has the game to compete for a maiden major crown.
Main image credit: “Augusta National Golf Club” by danperry.com
