The highlight of the 2022 golf season in Scotland is certain to be the playing of the 150th Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews. (Image: @TheOpen)
With the 150th Open Championship at the Old Course topping an exceptionally strong roster of tournaments, Scotland is anticipating a golf season for the ages.
(Last updated April 2022.)
I felt even more long distance golf envy than usual when a friend in Edinburgh recently confirmed that he had secured tickets to the 2022 Open Championship at the Old Course and to the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club.
Both are marquee events in a golf season already being heralded as potentially Scotland’s greatest ever. Let that sink in. The greatest Scottish golf season ever. That’s an almost unimaginable excess of good fortune even for a links-blessed land where golf has been a national obsession for almost five hundred years.
Never before has Scotland anticipated so many pearls in a single season. The 2022 tournament lineup includes: the Genesis Scottish Open, an event that grows in stature with every outing, hosted by the Renaissance Club for the fourth consecutive year (July 7-10); the arrival of ageless Bernhard Langer and other veteran stars (possibly including Phil Mickelson) for the Senior Open at James Braid’s glorious King’s Course at Gleneagles (July 21-24); and the AIG Women’s Open, hosted for the first time by storied Muirfield (Aug. 4-7). Two other high-profile tournaments, the Hero Open (a stop on the rebranded DP World Tour) at Fairmont St. Andrews, and the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links, are scheduled for the same week in late July (July 28-31).
That’s not forgetting the always popular Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (Sept. 29-Oct. 2), a DP World Tour pro-am played on a trio of the world’s most renowned links, the Old Course, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie.
But the capstone of Scotland’s dream season will unquestionably be the 150th playing of the Open Championship in the Auld Grey Toon (July 14-17). Set to host for the 29th time, the Old Course has seen the Claret Jug hoisted by everyone from J.H. Taylor and James Braid to Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
In mid-November, after Woods released a video in which his swing looked miraculously sharp, speculation grew that he might be gearing up for a return to a brilliant but gettable links he has twice pummeled into submission. Woods won by eight strokes at the Old Course in 2000 while establishing a new Open Championship scoring record of 19 under par. And in 2005 he bested the field by five strokes in capturing his 10th major championship.
Woods finally ended the suspense in April after making the cut and turning in a solid performance at the Masters. “I am looking forward to St. Andrews,” he said, confirming his appearance. “I’ve won two Opens there. It’s my favourite golf course in the world.”
Get ready for a Scottish golf season for the ages.
