The standout men’s major championship performer in 2022 will be? The standout women’s major championship performer in 2022 will be?

MORRI: There may be no more difficult task than attempting to predict performance in the game’s four most important tournaments but that’s part of what makes it so fun.

And while there is no shortage of candidates in this category, Norway’s Viktor Hovland has to be on the short list.

With just one missed cut in 2021 (The Players Championship in March) and three wins for the year it was a breakout season for the 24-year-old.

Hovland has proved he has the game to win at the highest level and his performances in limited major appearances to date suggest he is not fazed by the big events.

In eight attempts he is yet to miss a cut at any of the Grand Slam events though he was on track to miss the weekend when he withdrew from last year’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines with an eye injury.

Physically, Hovland has some well chronicled issues with his short game but he offsets that with one of the best attitudes on Tour.

Almost nothing seems to faze the former U.S. Amateur champion and his default position is a genuine smile.

It is perhaps this, more than his considerable physical skill, which will be his greatest asset under the intense pressure of the Grand Slam events.

HAYES: The toughest question to answer in men’s golf since Tiger waned (post-2013) and Rory cooled (post-2014) has been “whose best is THE best?” – AKA, “who SHOULD win the majors?”.

At various stages, the answer might have been Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas or Brooks Koepka, at least two of whom have time on their side to prosecute their case once more.

And while I might live to regret not saying Collin Morikawa, there are two other men with claims who now have both the taste and means.

Xander Schauffele has quietly built a tasty majors resumé with no fewer than nine top-10 finishes since 2017, including a second and third placings at both the Masters and U.S. Open.

It’s hard to imagine him not contending further, especially when he was so impressive in finally nabbing a grand title at the Olympics. But …

Jon Rahm is my man.

He has finished no worse than eighth in each of the past five majors, including his breakthrough at Torrey Pines.

You could make the case that he could already have had three or four of these in his kick, but my suspicion is that the U.S. Open victory will prove the dam-breaking moment.

Rahm has the best – and arguably most consistent – all-round game of any of the names I’ve mentioned as contenders.

My feeling is that he also has the X-factor in spades – by way of example, if anybody can find me a more clutch moment than his 2020 BMW Championship playoff-winning bomb minutes after Johnson’s epic curler, I’m all eyes.

Rahm will equal or pass Jose Maria Olazabal on the majors charts this year, then set sail on the LOOOOONG journey to catch his hero,

Seve Ballesteros, as the game’s greatest

Spaniard.

EMANUEL: This stands to be a very interesting aspect of the year ahead.

There hasn’t been a truly dominant player in the men’s game for years now, however, two are emerging as genuine contenders for the role as the consistently top player. And both collected major titles in 2021.

Jon Rahm had been tipped as a future World No.1 since his days in the collegiate system, and the Spaniard regularly held that spot throughout last year, which should have been even better if not for some COVID difficulties.

Rahm claimed his first major at the

U.S. Open and was in the top-10 of the other three, but I believe it will be Collin Morikawa who will end the 2022 major season as the standout.

Morikawa won The Open last year in a clinical ball-striking display, having already claimed the PGA Championship the previous year. And showed an improved understanding of Augusta National when finishing T18 last year.

The American is without question the best iron player in golf, and it was his improved putting and consistency that did the trick in 2021.

That style of golfer is always a threat at the majors, and Morikawa is proving himself a mentally strong competitor.

Ending his year in 2021 with a win of the European Tour, now DP World Tour, money race was another step in his progression to perhaps having a period as a dominant player and it is hard to imagine Morikawa not contending regularly at this year’s venues of Augusta, Southern Hills, The Country Club and The Old Course at St. Andrews all fit his game well too.

HAYES: It’s really hard to find the superlatives to describe Jin Young Ko’s play late in the LPGA Tour season just past. Let’s just go with “wow” to save a bit of space.

Similarly, the season posted by Nelly Korda was outstanding, including saluting in her first major championship and ascending to the top of the world rankings.

But as good as both were, neither dominated majors as you’d expect from two women who’ve cleared out at the summit.

I’m big in the belief that for good players, the first major is comfortably the hardest.

Case in point was Minjee Lee’s stunning run en route to finishing third at the 2020 Women’s British Open – it must have seemed like a goalkeeper was in the Troon cups when, try as she might, she just couldn’t run down upstart Sophia Popov.

But things finally changed for Lee at Evian last year when she shed the tag of best player – male or female – not to have won a major with her withering closing 64 to set up a play-o’ victory.

Immediately she could so easily have gone back-to-back with a closing bogey at Carnoustie as she pushed to reach what eventually became the winning score.

The West Australian (pictured) has been an ATM on Tour for years now, winning six times on the LPGA and, remarkably, missing just six cuts in the past four seasons.

It’s a rare weekend when her name isn’t on the front page of the leaderboard and with the majors monkey o’ her back, it seems the logical extension of the Perth star’s career, particularly in what should be the prime of her career at age 25. JAMES: I don’t think there will be a clear-cut dominator of the women’s majors in 2022, but Jin Young Ko will certainly go close.

Her play in the latter stages of 2021 was sublime, seemingly setting scoring records at will and collecting trophies along the way. Sadly for Ko, most of these highlights came after the majors, and the Olympics, were done for the year.

If the World No.2 can continue her run of form into 2022 she can expect major success at least once, and will be a likely contender in the other four majors.

Where she hoists the trophy is anyone’s guess but it would be fitting if it was the Women’s Open at Muirfield, where so many great male players have found success.

MORRI: Forget Brooks and Bryson, this was the most intriguing battle of golf skills in 2021 with two vastly different styles of player throwing punch and counter punch all season.

But interesting as it is to ponder whether one or other might dominate this year, the more pertinent question is whether it will again be a race in two.

One reason 2021 was so compelling is because the LPGA has been such a democratic competition for so long.

No single player or small group of players has been able to separate themselves until Ko and Korda.

We may well see a return to that this coming year but if we don’t, my money is on Jin Young Ko. EMANUEL: I am a big fan of the play of both these two outstanding women, and Jin Young Ko’s end to 2021 was to be marvelled at.

But for mine, Nelly Korda will be the story of women’s golf in 2022.

The American had the lowest scoring average of 2021 on the LPGA Tour but failed to record the minimum 70 rounds to win the title that went to Lydia Ko. Korda needed just 68.774 shots per round (across 62 rounds), which is amazing golf.

Currently sitting on seven LPGA wins, Nelly will finish the year with at least 10 and with five chances will add to her lone major title won last year.

Jin Young will continue to be Korda’s biggest rival at the top of the Rolex World Rankings, but Korda will hold onto the top-ranking spot for at least 40 weeks of the year and emerge as the most dominant player we have seen in women’s golf since Annika Sorenstam’s heyday

A tantalising prospect.