The 2022 Open Championship, officially the 150th Open Championship, was a golf tournament played 14–17 July on the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland. The championship was won by Cameron Smith with a score of 268, 20 under par, one stroke ahead of Cameron Young.
Originally scheduled for 15–18 July 2021, the championship was put back one year after the 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that the sesquicentennial celebration was at the "home of golf".
Organisation The Open Championship is organised by the R&A, and is included in the PGA Tour, European Tour, and Japan Golf Tour calendars under the major championships category. The tournament is a 72-hole (4 rounds) stroke play competition held over 4 days, with 18 holes played each day. Play is in groups of three for the first two days, and groups of two in the final two days. Groupings for the first two days are decided by the organisers, with each group having one morning, and one afternoon tee time. On the final two days, players tee off in reverse order of aggregate score, with the leaders last. After 36 holes there was a cut, after which the top 70 and ties progress through to compete in the third and fourth rounds. In the event of a tie for the lowest score after four rounds, a four-hole aggregate playoff will be held to determine the winner; this will be followed by sudden-death extra holes if necessary until a winner emerges.
Venue
The 2022 event was the 30th Open Championship played at the Old Course at St Andrews. The most recent was in 2015, when Zach Johnson won the four-hole playoff for his second major title.
HoleNameYardsPar HoleNameYardsPar1Burn3754 10Bobby Jones38642Dyke452411High (In)17433Cartgate (Out)398412Heathery (In)34844Ginger Beer480413Hole O'Cross (In)46545Hole O'Cross (Out)570514Long61456Heathery (Out)414415Cartgate (In)45547High (Out)371416Corner of the Dyke41848Short174317Road49549End352418Tom Morris3564Out3,58636In3,71136Source: Total7,29772 Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):
2015: 2010: 2005: 2000: 1995: 1990:
1984: 1978: 1970: 1964: 1960: 1955:
Field The Open Championship field is made up of 156 players, who gained entry through various exemption criteria and qualifying tournaments. The criteria included past Open champions, recent major winners, top ranked players in the world rankings and from the leading world tours, and winners and high finishers from various designated tournaments, including the Open Qualifying Series; the winners of designated amateur events, including The Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur, also gained exemption provided they remain an amateur. Anyone not qualifying via exemption, and had a handicap of 0.4 or lower, can gain entry through regional and final qualifying events.
Criteria and exemptions Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.
1. The Open Champions aged 60 or under on 17 July 2022
Mark Calcavecchia Stewart Cink (12) Darren Clarke (2) John Daly David Duval Ernie Els (2) Pádraig Harrington Zach Johnson (2) Paul Lawrie Shane Lowry (2,4,5,15) Rory McIlroy (2,4,5,11,12,15) Phil Mickelson (2,10) Francesco Molinari (2,6) Collin Morikawa (2,3,4,5,10,12,15) Louis Oosthuizen (3,4,12) Jordan Spieth (2,3,4,12,15) Henrik Stenson (2) Tiger Woods (9)
Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, and Justin Leonard did not play.
2. The Open Champions for 2011–2021
3. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2021 Open Championship
Dylan Frittelli Mackenzie Hughes Dustin Johnson (4,9,12,15) Brooks Koepka (4,8,10,12,15) Robert MacIntyre (5) Jon Rahm (4,5,8,12,15) Scottie Scheffler (4,9,12,15)
Daniel Berger (4,12,15) did not play.
4. Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2022
Abraham Ancer (5,12) Keegan Bradley Sam Burns (12) Patrick Cantlay (12,15) Paul Casey (5,15) Corey Conners (12) Bryson DeChambeau (8,12,15) Harris English (12,15) Tony Finau (12,15) Matt Fitzpatrick (5,8,15) Tommy Fleetwood (5,15) Talor Gooch (OQS) Tyrrell Hatton (5,6,15) Russell Henley Lucas Herbert (5) Tom Hoge Max Homa Billy Horschel (5,6,12) Viktor Hovland (5,12,15) Im Sung-jae (12) Kevin Kisner Jason Kokrak (12) Lee Kyoung-hoon Marc Leishman Hideki Matsuyama (9,12) Kevin Na (12) Joaquín Niemann (12) Mito Pereira Thomas Pieters (5) Séamus Power Patrick Reed (9,12) Xander Schauffele (12,15) Adam Scott Webb Simpson Cameron Smith (11,12) Justin Thomas (10,11,12,15) Cameron Tringale Harold Varner III Cameron Young Will Zalatoris (5)
5. Top 30 in the final 2021 Race to Dubai standings
Alexander Björk Richard Bland Dean Burmester Laurie Canter Thomas Detry Justin Harding Garrick Higgo Nicolai Højgaard Min Woo Lee Guido Migliozzi Ian Poulter (15) Jason Scrivener Bernd Wiesberger (15) Danny Willett (6)
Justin Rose did not play.
6. Recent winners of the BMW PGA Championship (2018–2021)
7. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2022 DP World Tour Rankings through the BMW International Open
Adri Arnaus Sam Horsfield Pablo Larrazábal Li Haotong Jordan Smith
8. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2017–2022)
Gary Woodland
9. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2017–2022)
Sergio García (12,15)
10. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2016–2022) Jimmy Walker did not play.
11. Recent winners of the Players Championship (2019–2022)
12. The top 30 players from the 2021 FedEx Cup Playoffs Erik van Rooyen did not play.
13. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2021–22 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship
14. Winner of the 2021 Visa Open de Argentina
Jorge Fernández-Valdés
15. Playing members of the 2021 Ryder Cup teams
Lee Westwood
16. Winner of the 2021–22 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit
Jediah Morgan
17. Winner of the 2021–22 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit
Shaun Norris (18)
18. Winner of the 2021 Japan Open Golf Championship
19. Winner of the 2022 Asia Pacific Open Golf Championship Diamond Cup
Shugo Imahira
20. Top two players on the 2020–21 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List
Takumi Kanaya Chan Kim
21. The top player, not already exempt, on the 2022 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List through the Japan Golf Tour Championship
Kazuki Higa
22. Winner of the 2021 Senior Open Championship
Stephen Dodd
23. Winner of the 2022 Amateur Championship
Aldrich Potgieter (a)
24. Winner of the 2021 U.S. Amateur
James Piot
25. Winner of the 2022 European Amateur
Filippo Celli (a)
26. Recipient of the 2021 Mark H. McCormack Medal
Keita Nakajima (a) (27)
27. Winner of the 2021 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship
28. Winner of the 2022 Latin America Amateur Championship
Aaron Jarvis (a)
Open Qualifying Series The Open Qualifying Series for the 2022 Open Championship consists of 12 events. Places are available to the leading players (not otherwise exempt) who finished in the top n and ties. In the event of ties, positions went to players ranked highest according to that week's OWGR.
Location Tournament Date Spots Top Qualifiers South Africa Joburg Open 28 Nov 2021 3 10 Ashley Chesters, Thriston Lawrence, Zander Lombard Singapore SMBC Singapore Open 23 Jan 2022 4 12 Sadom Kaewkanjana, Yuto Katsuragawa, Tom Kim, Sihwan Kim Australia Vic Open 13 Feb 2022 3 10 Ben Campbell, Matthew Griffin, Dimitrios Papadatos United States Arnold Palmer Invitational 6 Mar 2022 3 10 Talor Gooch (4), Chris Kirk Japan Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open 29 May 2022 4 12 Justin De Los Santos, Brad Kennedy, Anthony Quayle, Scott Vincent Netherlands Dutch Open 29 May 2022 3 10 Ryan Fox, Adrian Meronk, Victor Perez Canada RBC Canadian Open 12 Jun 2022 2 8 Wyndham Clark, Keith Mitchell Korea Kolon Korea Open 26 Jun 2022 2 8 Cho Min-gyu, Kim Min-kyu Ireland Horizon Irish Open 3 Jul 2022 3 10 John Catlin, David Law, Fabrizio Zanotti United States John Deere Classic 3 Jul 2022 3 10 Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Emiliano Grillo, J. T. Poston Scotland Genesis Scottish Open 10 Jul 2022 3 10 Jamie Donaldson, Kurt Kitayama, Brandon Wu United States Barbasol Championship 10 Jul 2022 1 5 Trey Mullinax
Final Qualifying Final Qualifying events were played on 28 June at four locations. Four qualifying places were available at each location, with 72 golfers competing at each.
Location Qualifiers Fairmont St Andrews David Carey, Robert Dinwiddie, Lars van Meijel, Alex Wrigley Hollinwell Barclay Brown (a), Oliver Farr, Richard Mansell, Marco Penge Prince's Jack Floydd, Matt Ford, Ronan Mullarney, Jamie Rutherford St Annes Old Links Marcus Armitage, Sam Bairstow (a), Matthew Jordan, John Parry
Additional players added to the field In order to fill additional places or replace exempt players who had withdrawn prior to the start of the Championship, and maintain the full field of 156, additional players were either taken in ranking order from Official World Golf Ranking at the time they were added, or from Final Qualifying.
From the Week 26 (26 June) Official World Golf Ranking:
Aaron Wise (ranked 45) Brian Harman (49) Sebastián Muñoz (50) Sepp Straka (55) Luke List (60) Kim Si-woo (62)
From the Week 27 (3 July) Official World Golf Ranking:
Sahith Theegala (62) Rikuya Hoshino (71) Aaron Rai (127)
Round summaries First round Thursday, 14 July 2022
PGA Tour rookie Cameron Young had a two-shot lead after a bogey-free round of 8 under par, two shots ahead of pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy. Defending champion Collin Morikawa opened with a level-par 72 while three-time winner Tiger Woods double-bogeyed the first and continued to struggle there on, finishing at 6 over.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Cameron Young 64 −82 Rory McIlroy 66 −6T3 Robert Dinwiddie 67 −5 Cameron SmithT5 Barclay Brown (a) 68 −4 Talor Gooch Viktor Hovland Dustin Johnson Brad Kennedy Kurt Kitayama Scottie Scheffler Lee Westwood
Second round Friday, 15 July 2022
Cameron Smith took the lead on a score of 131, the lowest 36-hole score in Open Championship history at St. Andrews. Cameron Young fell to second place, two strokes behind, after a second-round 69. Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy were a further stroke behind in a tie for third place. 83 players made the cut of level par, including four amateurs. Defending champion Collin Morikawa missed the cut by a stroke.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Cameron Smith 67-64=131 −132 Cameron Young 64-69=133 −11T3 Viktor Hovland 68-66=134 −10 Rory McIlroy 66-68=1345 Dustin Johnson 68-67=135 −9T6 Tyrrell Hatton 70-66=136 −8 Scottie Scheffler 68-68=136T8 Patrick Cantlay 70-67=137 −7 Talor Gooch 68-69=137 Adam Scott 72-65=137 Sahith Theegala 69-68=137
Third round Saturday, 16 July 2022
Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy each shot rounds of 66 to tie for first after the third round at −16. Cameron Smith, who shot 73, and Cameron Young, who shot 71, dropped back to four strokes behind at −12. McIlroy was trying for his second Open title and first major victory in eight years while Hovland was looking for his first major.
PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Viktor Hovland 68-66-66=200 −16 Rory McIlroy 66-68-66=200T3 Cameron Smith 67-64-73=204 −12 Cameron Young 64-69-71=204T5 Kim Si-woo 69-69-67=205 −11 Scottie Scheffler 68-68-69=2057 Dustin Johnson 68-67-71=206 −10T8 Matt Fitzpatrick 72-66-69=207 −9 Tommy Fleetwood 72-69-66=207 Adam Scott 72-65-70=207
Final round Sunday, 17 July 2022
Summary