As the final Major of the season, the British Open will decide which player had the best Major season as well as who is the ‘Champion Golfer of The Year’ for 2022.
Thirteen players enter the British Open with a realistic chance to lay claim to that title. They are the 13 who have made the cut in all three of the season’s previous Majors.
And of those 13, three are in an especially strong position, having finished top 15 in The Masters, PGA Championship, and U.S. Open.
Those three are Will Zalatoris, Rory McIlroy, and U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick.
Interestingly, the likely PGA Tour Player of the Year, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, is not among those 13.
The Masters champion missed the cut at the PGA Championship in May before finishing T2 in the U.S. Open in June.
For Scheffler to claim the honor of ‘best Major season,’ he would have to win comfortably at St. Andrews while Zalatoris, McIlroy, Fitzpatrick, and probably one or two others stumbled badly.
Here are the 13 players who have made the cut at all three of the season’s previous Majors: Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, Max Homa, Marc Leishman, Hideki Matsuyama, McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Joaquin Niemann, Seamus Power, Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas, and Zalatoris,
Zalatoris tied for 6th at Augusta National, finished second at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, and tied for 2nd at the U.S. Open at Brookline.
McIlroy was second at the Masters, eighth at the PGA Championship, and tied for 5th at the U.S. Open.
Matthew Fitzpatrick tied for 14th at the Masters, for 5th at the PGA Championship, and of course, won the U.S. Open.
PGA Champion Justin Thomas’ chances are hurt by his showing at the U.S. Open.
After tieing for 8th at Augusta and beating Zalatoris in a playoff at Southern Hills, he managed nothing better than a tie for 37th at Brookline.
The table below shows the finish and also the average standard deviation of each of the 13 – as well as Masters champion Scheffler – relative to the field averages at the three Majors already conducted.
Remember that since golf is a game where less is more, negative standard deviations are superior to positive ones.
The table will give a sense of where all 14 stand in a composite Majors ranking as of the start of play at St. Andrews.
Player               Masters  PGA  U.S. Open  Avg. Std. Dev.
Will Zalatoris                      T6      2             T2          -1.71
Rory McIlroy             2      8             T5          -1.54
Matthew Fitzpatrick    T14      1             T5     -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
Scottie Scheffler         1      cut      T2      -0.21
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
Tyrrell Hatton           52     T13    T56        0.88
The list is rife with readily recognizable stars. Perhaps the most surprising inclusion is Power, a 35-year-old pro from Ireland.
Power’s standing is perhaps even more surprising since his three 2022 Major finishes have come in the first three Major appearances of his professional career.