What promises to be the biggest golf story in 2022?
HUGGAN: Call me pessimistic (many have), but the biggest golfing story of 2022 might also double as the most depressing.
Given dry weather in the run-up to the Open Championship at St. Andrews and a calm week in the Auld Grey Toon during the event itself, there is a real and present danger that we will see multiple rounds in the high 50s.
While that in itself is not a total disaster – we’ve seen such scores on the PGA Tour for years now – for it to happen on the ultimate monument to all that is good about golf would indicate that the Old Course is no longer enough of a test for the “bludgeoneers” at the elite level of the game. It would almost certainly mean the end of Open Championships at the Home of Golf.
That the authorities are worried about such a possibility is obvious. We’ve already seen how a St. Andrews Open is played on not one, but five “courses.” “Championship” tees are located on the Old, the New, the Jubilee, the Himalayas Putting Course and, most distressingly, on the driving range to the right of the 16th hole.
This year, those obscenities will be further “enhanced” by the presence of more long grass than the Old Course has surely ever seen. Take the aforementioned 16th hole (pictured below). The rough left of the fairway now encroaches to within a few yards of the notorious cluster of bunkers known as “the Principals Nose.” To those of an even mildly traditional bent, such a sight is oensive in the extreme.
It might never happen, of course. The weather in Scotland is reliable only for its unreliability. But it could happen. And if it does, we will all be left to mourn the passing of the Old Course.
MORRI: This might be the most competitive category in golf this coming year and it’s a race in two for mine between the evolving ‘disruptor leagues’ and Tiger’s return to the course.
Woods is almost always the biggest story in golf (see the TV ratings for the PNC Championship for confirmation) but a comeback in 2022 would/will be engrossing.
Since turning pro in 1997, Woods has somehow managed to hold the attention of not just the golfing world but the broader sports community as well.
That legend has only grown with each twist and turn of his career and a return after last February’s car accident will be fascinating for fans and detractors alike. JAMES: Internationally, Tiger Woods’ return to competition will be anticipated for months and celebrated for a week … in July, at The Open Championship.
On the home front, we will toast a new home-grown major champion with Marc Leishman realising a childhood dream and burying the memory of the play-o loss in 2015, by winning The Open at St. Andrews.