Will Zalatoris, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Smith, Xander Schauffele and Tommy Fleetwood are among the players seeking their first major win at the 150th Open this week; Watch live coverage from St Andrews on Sky Sports The Open, with the first round getting under way from 6.30am on Thursday
Tuesday 12 July 2022 12:07, UK
Matt Fitzpatrick's stunning success at the US Open last month saw the Englishman claim a first major title, while world No 1 Scottie Scheffler did the same with his victory at The Masters. We take a look at the contenders eyeing up their own maiden major victory at the 150th Open this week...
Only 28 years old, but it feels like Schauffele has been forever talked up as golf's next first-time major winner.
While Cameron Smith claimed golf's unofficial fifth major with his win at TPC Sawgrass, Schauffele has also come as close as you possibly can to tasting major success by winning Olympic Gold in Tokyo last year.
The American has nine top-10 finishes in the 21 majors he has competed in, with six of those seeing him place in the top five - one of those a tied-second finish at The Open in 2019 at Carnoustie.
Schauffele failed to make the cut at The Masters but followed that up with improved showings at the PGA Championship and US Open - finishing tied-13th and tied-14th respectively, before surging back into form with an impressive winning streak over the past month.
A return to the winner's circle at the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship last week was followed by a win as part of a star-studded line-up at the JP McManus Pro-Am, with Schauffele continue his run by holding on for a one-shot victory at the Genesis Scottish Open.
Can he match Phil Mickelson's achievement in 2013 of following a Scottish Open win with Open success the following week? You certainly wouldn't be surprised if Schauffele ended the week as Champion Golfer of the Year.
Surely, it's only a matter of time for the hugely talented 25-year-old American who already has a hat-trick of second-placed finishes from golf's three other majors.
Zalatoris was edged out by Justin Thomas in a three-hole playoff for the PGA Championship earlier this year, following that up with a ding-dong final day battle with Fitzpatrick at the US Open that he again came out on the wrong side of. He also finished as runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in the 2021 Masters.
In fact, of Zalatoris' nine career major championship appearances, quite incredibly he has registered top-10 finishes in six of them, missing the cut only twice and withdrawing once - which just so happened to be at The Open last year.
The 2021 tournament, his first, wasn't too kind to him as during his opening round of 69 he not only missed a dreadful putt that went viral - the one part of Zalatoris' game that looks shaky - but he then injured his leg when muscling a shot out of the rough, an incident that ultimately led to his withdrawal.
He certainly will have his sights set on a longer stay this year at St Andrews and, given the fine form he is in, could ultimately end the week with his hands on the Claret Jug.
Similar to Zalatoris, the 24-year-old Norwegian has also enjoyed a remarkable rise over the last couple of years - though he doesn't have the same steady stream of top-10 showings at the majors.
Hovland first burst onto the scene as an amateur, winning the US Amateur in 2018 to earn himself invitations into The Masters and US Open in 2019, where he became the first player to win low-amateur honours at both in the same season since Matt Kuchar in 1998. His score of 280 at the latter was the lowest by an amateur, beating Jack Nicklaus' 282 set in 1960.
In 2020, he became the first Norwegian to win on the PGA Tour when he won the Puerto Rico Open, while he has since gone on to count the BMW International Open and, most recently, the Dubai Desert Classic among his six tournament wins.
His tied-12th finish at the 2019 US Open - still his best in a major - was then matched at last year's Open at Royal St George's, pointing to the potential of Hovland to challenge again this week.
That being said, he hasn't enjoyed the best of preparation as his clubs (and clothes) failed to arrive with him following his flight from Frankfurt, meaning he had to start the Scottish Open last week with a brand-new set. Not ideal.
The current highest-ranked player not to have won a major. The world No 6 leapt to the top of a lot of 'ones to watch' lists for the major championships this year courtesy of his impressive victory at The Players Championship in March.
Smith has only once failed to make the cut at The Open, in 2017 when playing the tournament for the first time, but he has also only finished in the top 20 on one occasion in 2019.
The 28-year-old Australian has tended to reserve his best performances at majors for The Masters, with four of his five top-10 finishes coming there, including a tied-third finish at Augusta National this year following sharply off the back of his victory at TPC Sawgrass.
Smith was in contention again at the PGA Championship before his challenge ultimately faded to a tied-13th finish, while he failed to make the cut at the US Open. He should be back in the shake-up again at St Andrews.
Following Fitzpatrick's sensational success at the US Open, might we dare to dream of back-to-back English winners with another first-time champ at The Open?
On top of Fleetwood's star showing in the 2018 Ryder Cup - in which he and Francesco Molinari became the first pairing to win all four of their matches for Europe - he has shown he is more than capable of contending for a major, finishing fourth and second at the US Open in 2017 and 2018, and then second again at The Open in 2019.
In truth, it has been a tough couple of years since for the 31-year-old, but there are glimpses that his best form is beginning to return, with his tied-fifth finished at the PGA Championship comfortably his best showing at a major since finishing runner-up to Shane Lowry at Royal Portrush three years back.
He also fared well at The Masters, finishing tied for 14th, though his failure to make the cut at the US Open will have been a disappointment given the upward trajectory on which his game was trending.
Fleetwood posted a best finish of the season by earning a share of fourth in Scotland on Sunday, but can he build on that and deliver a maiden major title?
Staying with the English interest, Tyrrell Hatton is another to have threatened to claim one of golf's greatest prizes, with five top-10 major finishes to his name - including two at The Open - and his game looked in good order at the Scottish Open leading into this week.
Across the Irish Sea there's Seamus Power hoping to follow in the footsteps of 2019 winner Lowry. The 35-year-old Irishman has put in some decent showings at the majors this year, none more so than his top-10 finish at the PGA Championship.
There's Chilean pair Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira who could cause a stir, with Pereira keen to put his meltdown on the 18th hole at the PGA behind him.
Tony Finau is forever talked up as a major winner in waiting, as is Patrick Cantlay, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, while fellow Americans Sam Burns and Cameron Young are another couple of young hopefuls who likely aren't far away from a first major win.
Sky Sports The Open will show over 80 hours of live coverage from the iconic Old Course at St Andrews, more than ever before, with live programming on all seven days of tournament week and a host of bonus extra features available to enjoy.
Live coverage from the opening two rounds will begin at 6.30am - before the opening tee shot - and run through until after play is finished, with wall-to-wall coverage live from 9am on Saturday and 8am for Sunday's final round.
There will be lots of extra action throughout all four days via the red button on Sky Sports The Open, along with Sky Q and Sky Glass, with Featured Groups and Featured Holes available to enjoy as the world's best players tackle the Home of Golf.
Watch The 150th Open throughout the week live on Sky Sports' dedicated channel. Live coverage begins on Thursday from 6.30am live on Sky Sports The Open.
