Approaching The British Open, Who’s Having The Best Majors Run?
By Bill Felber
Heading into the British Open, the first three legs of the 2022 Major championship season belong more to a couple of guys who haven’t won than to the three who have.
Based purely on the numbers, the battle for best Major season appears to be coming down to Will Zalatoris vs. Rory Mcilroy, although U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick still has a chance to pass both of them.
How about Masters champ (and world No. 1) Scottie Scheffler or PGA champion Justin Thomas? Scheffler essentially buried his chances by missing the cut at the PGA while Thomas severely damaged his own by collapsing this past weekend to a T-37 finish.
Only 13 players have managed to make the cut in all three Majors thus far in 2022.
Doing so makes those 13 the most plausible contenders for the unofficial honor of “best Majors player of the year,” depending obviously on how they do at the British Open
Here’s a look at how those 13 have done so far. The table lists their actual finish in all three Majors to date as well as the average standard deviation of their performance in those first three Major events compared with the four-round field averages.
Remember that since golf is a game where less is more, negative standard deviations are superior to positive ones.
The Best Major Performers of 2022 Prior To The British Open
Player Masters PGA U.S. Open Std. Dev.
Will Zalatoris T6 2 T2 -1.71
Rory McIlroy 2 8 T5 -1.54
Matt Fitzpatrick T14 T5 1 -1.32
Justin Thomas T8 1 T37 -0.89
Seamus Power T27 T9 T12 -0.65
Collin Morikawa 5 T55 T5 -0.62
Hideki Matsuyama T14 T60 4 -0.25
Marc Leishman T30 T34 T14 -0.16
Jon Rahm T27 T48 T12 -0.13
Joaquin Niemann T35 T23 T47 0.16
Patrick Reed T35 T34 T49 0.36
Max Homa T48 T13 T47 0.47
Tyrell Hatton 52 T13 T56 0.88
For Fitzpatrick to overtake Zalatoris and McIlroy, he would probably need another high finish at the British Open – not necessarily a win – coupled with finishes outside the top 15 or 20 from both of the players ahead of him.
Given the unpredictable nature of golf, such an outcome is hardly outside the realm of possibility. It does, however, seem unlikely for both leaders to fall flat in Scotland, particularly given Zalatoris’ recent record in Majors.
He did miss the cut at the 2021 U.S. Open, and had to withdraw from last year’s British Open. Aside from that, however, he has a string of six consecutive top 10 finishes in Majors dating back to the 2020 U.S. Open, three of those being runner-ups.
It is not all that unusual for a player to compile the Tour’s best Majors record over a full season despite failing to win any of the four events.
In fact, it’s happened three times just since 2012. That year Adam Scott emerged with the best overall record based on finishes of T8 at Augusta, T10 in the U.S. Open, second at the British Open, and T11 at the PGA.
U.S. Open: Want To Homogenize Scores? The Country Club Can. dark. Next
In 2014 Rickie Fowler famously rang up four straight near-misses in Majors, finishing T5 at the Masters, T2 in both Opens, and T3 at the PGA.
Then in 2017, Matt Kuchar followed a T4 at the Masters with a T16 in the U.S. Open, a stirring solo second to Jordan Spieth at the British Open, and a T10 at the PGA.