Australian Cameron Smith produced a superb final round 64 to clinch victory at the 150th Open Championship at a balmy St. Andrews on Sunday.
Smith edged out Cameron Young by a single shot and finished two ahead of the co-leader after the third round Rory McIlroy with a stunning final round, which saw him make five birdies in a row from the 10th hole onwards.
Allied to two birdies on the opening nine holes, and a nerveless birdie at the last, it meant not only did Smith win the event by one shot, but also improved on Tiger Woods’ record under par score for The Open, which had stood at -19.
Smith finished at -20, improving on the record by one and ensuring that it was his name that was engraved on the famous Claret Jug trophy just before the presentation ceremony.
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Major Season 2022 – 3 Maiden Major Winners
It brings to an end an intriguing four-month Major season, which has seen three first-time Major winners crowned.
In April it was Scottie Scheffler, the new World Number 1, who clinched the first Major of the year with a win at The Masters at Augusta.
A month later, saw the only previous winner of a Major claim a title this year as Justin Thomas added a second USPGA Championship title to the one he had won previously in 2017.
Then in July, it was the turn of Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick to earn his first Major victory with a win at the US Open at Brookline, the same venue where he won the US Amateur Championship.
Now Cameron Smith can add his name to the list of Major winners, although he had claimed another big win at The Players Championship back in March, which is regarded as the ‘fifth’ Major by professionals.
Smith’s victory saw him move up to second in the latest World Golf Rankings, behind Scheffler, with Rory McIlroy dropping down from second to third.
Major Season 2022 Now Over – But Plenty More To Be Decided
It may seem that with all four Majors of the year now played, that the golf season will be winding down towards its season end, but in fact there is still a huge amount to be played for over the coming months.
On the US PGA Tour, there is the build-up and scramble to qualify for the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs, which boasts three tournaments to decide the overall winner.
The first of these is the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis and the top 125 players in the FedEx Cup rankings will qualify for this event.
From there, the top 75 finishers from that first event will move on to the BMW Championship and from there, just the top 30 players will qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake golf club, with $18 million in prize money on the line.
Before we begin the playoffs though, there are three final tournaments players can compete in on the tour to claim a place in that top 125.
The first of these comes up this week with the 3M Championship in Blaine, Minnesota at the Twin Cities golf club.
Bet365 Sport has Tony Finau as their 14/1 favourite to win this event ahead of Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Hadwin (both 18/1). Open Champion Cameron Davis is a 25/1 shot to land back-to-back victories in the event.
Following on from the 3M Open is the Rocket Mortgage Classic, which takes place at Detroit Golf Club in Michigan, where Cam Davis is the defending champion and the final chance to qualify for the FedEx Playoffs comes at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina starting the 4th August.
Who Is Battling For A Place In The Top 125?
A quick look at the current qualifying spots for the FedEx Cup reveals that there are some very big names close to or around that 125 cut mark to qualify for the tournament.
Currently sitting just inside the top 125 at the moment include big names such as Charles Howell III, Dylan Frittelli, Nick Watney, and Webb Simpson.
Sitting outside of the top 125 but close to qualifying are the likes of Rickie Fowler, Stewart Cink, Francesco Molinari, Zach Johnson, Garrick Higgo, Rory Sabatini, Matt Wallace, Danny Willett, Bill Haas and runner up at The Open, Cameron Champ.
A Reprieve Of Sorts?
However, with a number of former US PGA Tour players now playing on the LIV Golf Tour, and banned from playing in US PGA sanctioned events such as the FedEx Cup, any players occupying a qualifying spot in the FedEx Cup standings won’t be able to play in the event.
This will then allow players that finish just outside that top 125 to claim a spot in their absence.
Players this will affect, and their current FedEx Cup ranking are as follows:
- Talor Gooch (18)
- Matt Jones (61)
- Matthew Wolff (69)
- Abraham Ancer (79)
- Brooks Koepka (99)
- Pat Perez (113)
Other players not in the top 125 that won’t be able to compete due to their membership of LIV Golf include Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Kevin Na, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia.
DP World Tour Rolls On
It’s worth noting that the DP World Tour still has a little longer to complete its season with it’s season ending DP World Tour Championship taking place between November 17th and 20th in Dubai.
Ahead of that, there are a number of big events to look forward to for players on this tour including next week’s Cazoo Classic at the Hillside Golf Club in Southport, as well as the Cazoo Open at the start of August at Celtic Manor in Wales.
Other big events to look forward to include the Omega European Masters, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the Cazoo Open de France and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Just the top 50 players on the DP World Tour Rankings list will qualify for this event, and as with the US PGA season ending championships, LIV Tour players will not participate, leaving a few more spaces open for players just outside that top 50.
LIV Golf Tour Continues
The new LIV Golf Tour also continues with its next invitational event taking place at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster from the 29th to 31st July.
Following that there are two more stops in the US in Boston and Chicago, before the tour heads east to compete in Bangkok and Jedda in October.
The final tournament of the inaugural LIV Golf Tour takes place in late October at the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral in Miami.
It remains to be seen how many more players will make the switch to the LIV Golf Tour with a number of names, including Open Champion Cameron Smith, being linked with making a switch at some point in the future.
So as you can see, with so much golf to enjoy, and the season changing from a seasonal to a calendar year from 2022, there’s still lots of fantastic golf betting to enjoy at bet365 Sport.
