Cameron Smith Captures The Open Championship at St. Andrews

The Old Course, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland — July 17, 2022

On a day that the title “Champion Golfer of the Year” was his for the taking, Rory McIlroy’s putter let him down. After starting the day with a four-stroke lead, McIlroy made a birdie on the par-five, fifth hole and still led by three strokes at the end of nine holes. But he missed several chances to extend his lead.

McIlroy’s partner, in the final pairing of the day, Viktor Hovland bogeyed the fourth and never was able to make up any ground. The Camerons, playing just ahead of McIlroy, made some noise when Cameron Young made birdies on holes three, four, five, and seven, after starting with a bogey on the first hole. Young dropped back into a tie for second with Cameron Smith after a bogey on the ninth.

Smith birdied the second and fifth holes but only picked up a stroke on McIlroy after the opening nine of the day.

Lightning Strikes

Cameron Smith made the turn and caught fire. Five straight birdies on the back nine and Smith sat atop the leaderboard. Cameron Young avoided bogies on the back side while making birdies on 10, 13, and 14 to go 19-under-par. An eagle on the 18th moved Young to 19 under. Smith birdied the final hole to post a score of 20-under.

McIlroy had the chance to respond to the challenges of Smith and Young. The putts just would not drop. Putting statistics are an interesting indication of how a round plays out. McIlroy needed 36 putts to get around St. Andrews during the final round. Cameron Smith took just 29, including an incredible number of just 12 putts over the final nine holes.

A new name was added to the Claret Jug. With Smith’s score of 64, he duplicated Friday’s round and matched the lowest round of the week at the Old Course. Adding to McIlroys’ disappointment, his score of two under for the day was bested by 43 of the 83 players that were still playing during Sunday’s round.

Results of the 150th Open Championship at The Old Course in St. Andrews