Another main championship in skilled golf, the final of 2022, is simply round the nook: subsequent week’s British Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews. With Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson anticipated in the subject, together with different marquee names, the quest to win the claret jug ought to be fairly a spectacle.
First, nevertheless, comes this week’s Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland. The match, with a stellar subject of its personal — 14 of the prime 15 golfers in the world — can also be doubtless to present some enduring reminiscences.
Here are 5 gamers to watch.
Matt Fitzpatrick
It will likely be fascinating to see what occurs from right here on with Fitzpatrick, who captured final month’s United States Open for his first PGA Tour victory.
Will Fitzpatrick, 27, observe the path of Danny Willett, one other main champion from England — the 2016 Masters — who hasn’t received in the United States since? Willett has registered three victories on the European Tour.
Or will he carry out extra like one in all the sport’s greats, Nick Faldo, additionally from England, who has six majors on his résumé?
Fitzpatrick has the expertise to be an element for a few years. His strategy from the bunker on No. 18 at the Open, which ended up 18 ft from the gap, was as clutch because it will get. He is ranked No. 10 in the world.
Collin Morikawa
At the midway mark at the Open, Morikawa, nonetheless solely 25, appeared headed to a attainable third main crown in three years. He received the 2020 P.G.A. Championship and the 2021 British Open.
Then got here the seven-over 77 in Saturday’s third spherical, which included two double bogeys and 4 bogeys.
After a collapse like that on such a grand stage, some gamers may not have been in a position to summon their finest effort a day later.
That wasn’t the case with Morikawa. He rebounded with a four-under 66, his second of the week, to end in a tie for fifth. Morikawa, ranked No. 4, tied for 71st in final 12 months’s Scottish Open.
Sam Burns
With all of the consideration Scottie Scheffler has acquired this season, it’s simple to overlook what Burns has achieved: three victories and eight prime 10s in 19 begins. One of the wins came visiting Scheffler in May at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas.
Burns, 25, who tied for 18th at the Renaissance Club in 2021, makes his share of birdies, 4.40 per spherical, seventh amongst tour gamers. And whereas his accuracy off the tee isn’t very spectacular — he ranks 134th in that class — it doesn’t seem to set him again as he’s 14th in greens in regulation. He is ranked ninth.
Xander Schauffele
Schauffele, 28, was lengthy overdue when he broke by way of two weeks in the past at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut. It had been greater than three years since he captured a person PGA Tour occasion, the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. Perhaps he’ll now get on a roll.
Schauffele, ranked No. 11, doesn’t seem to have any main weaknesses. He averages round 305 yards off the tee, tied for twelfth in greens in regulation and second in sand save share. If there’s any side of his sport that he might enhance, it will be changing extra putts from 15 ft or longer.
Jon Rahm
Rahm, a former No. 1, hasn’t been in competition that always in current months. With his huge expertise, that would change at any second.
Although he received the Mexico Open two months in the past, he failed to be a consider the Masters, tying for twenty seventh, and in the P.G.A., tying for forty eighth. At the U.S. Open, the place he was the defending champion, Rahm was nonetheless in the hunt heading into Sunday, however fired a four-over 74 to end in a tie for twelfth.
Ranked No. 3, Rahm, 27, competed in his first Scottish Open in 2021. He got here in seventh, solely two photographs again.
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