The end of the year tends to be a time for reflection and looking back, and this one is no exception. So – what have been the golf highlights of 2022?
While 2021 saw its first Japanese major winner in Hideki Matsuyama, who bagged the Masters, and its oldest champ in American Phil Mickelson, who is in his early fifties, 2022 was the first year all four major trophies were lifted by players in their twenties. And it proved to be a year of spectacular play.
2022 Masters Tournament
American Scottie Scheffler was just 25 when he won the Masters, back in April at the Augusta National Golf Club in the US. The year’s first major tournament, the Masters is the first step of every golfer’s dream of landing a Grand Slam, or winning all golf’s major championships in the same calendar year.
Among the top five players in the tournament were Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Cameron Smith and Colin Morikawa. Meanwhile, Scheffler took the title with 21 birdies, 41 pars, nine bogeys and a double, winning by three strokes with a score of -10.
2022 PGA Championship
This is another of the four majors, and winning it definitely boosts professional golfers’ career security, since champions automatically get to play in the other three majors, and become eligible for the PGA Championship for life.
In 2022, this tournament took place in May at the Southern Hills Golf Club, Tulsa. Its champion was 29-year-old Justin Thomas, with the American victorious after scoring 13 birdies, 40 pars plus 11 bogeys. Thomas finished with a score of -5 and finally secured his win via the playoff.
The 2022 US Open
Young English pro Matt Fitzpatrick stormed to victory at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts in mid-June. This year’s event had a $17.5m prize pot, the biggest of the major championships. The US Open is set up to make scoring difficult, with a premium placed on accurate driving. Sheffield-born Fitzpatrick won with 19 birdies, 40 pars and 13 bogeys. Professionals Scottie Scheffler, Will Zalatoris and Hideki Matsuyama joined him in the top four.
The 2022 Open
The 150th edition of The Open Championship, the highlight of the golfing calendar, took place at St Andrews, the ‘Home of Golf’, with an array of the game’s stars vying to lift the fabled Claret Jug. It returned to the stunning Scottish setting in mid-July following a seven-year absence.
Australian Cam Smith, then aged 28, triumphed at this tournament, hitting an eagle, 22 birdies, 46 pars, two bogeys and a double, and eventually won by one stroke with a score of -20. The fearless player shocked the golf world with a jaw-dropping comeback on the Old Course’s inward nine, and a performance including five straight birdies. Also among the top five were American Cameron Young, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Englishman Tommy Fleetwood plus Norwegian pro Viktor Hovland.
Unprecedented demand to attend the milestone event saw more than 1.3 million applications in the ticket ballot – and the greatest number of general admission tickets issued, with 290,000 spectators present to witness four days of mesmerising play. If we have to pick one stand-out moment of 2022, it would have to be this one!
Finally, let’s not forget women’s golfing achievements in 2022. The five recognised majors on the women’s golf circuit were won as follows:
- Jennifer Kupcho – Chevron Championship
- Minjee Lee – US Women’s Open
- In Gee Chun – KPMG Women’s PGA
- Brooke Henderson – Amundi Evian Championship
- Ashleigh Buhai – AIG Women’s British Open
We’re sure these superb tournaments, won in such style, will have fired up many juniors. Take a look at our golf camps for 2023 and continue the excitement and inspiration.
