Your Guide to The 150th Open

It's time for the final men's Major of the year and this year it's bound to end on a high. The oldest championship in golf is celebrating it's 150th edition and there is no more fitting place to celebrate than at the home of golf. The Old Course at St Andrews will be graced by 156 golfers and a record number of spectators.

The weather is set to be pretty fair, with strong winds and rain out and relatively calm and warm conditions on the cards. Could this be The Open where we see a 59 or better?!

Here's all you need to know about The 2022 Open at St Andrews.

The 150th Open Fast Facts

• Host: St Andrews – The Old Course. This will be the 30^th time that The Open championship has been played on the Old Course at St Andrews. The first took place in 1873 and was won by Scotland’s Tom Kidd. The most recent one was in 2015 when Zach Johnson won in a play-off against 2010 winner Louis Oousthuizen and Marc Leishman.
• Set-up: The Old course will be set to 7,313 yards and will play to a par of 36-36 = 72. The course is measuring only 16 yards longer than when The Open was last contested there in 2015. The longest hole is the Par 5 14^th at 614 yards.
• Field: 156 golfers, from 32 countries, will be cut after 36 holes to the low 70 players (and ties). View the full field here.
• Purse: The 2022 purse is $14 million. With the winner receiving $2.5 million. On the prize increase Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A said: “There have been significant changes in prize money over the last year. We have therefore increased the prize fund by 22% which means that the prize money has increased by more than 60% since 2016.”
• Champion: The winner is crowned Champion Golfer of the Year, they receive the Claret Jug which was first presented in 1873 to Tom Kidd and a gold medal.  An exemption into future Open championship until you are 60-years-old. A five year membership of the PGA and DP World Tours. Entry into the next five Masters, PGA Championships and U.S. Opens. Plus other entries including The Players Championship.
• Current champion: Collin Morikawa, who was playing in his first Open, produced a near-faultless final round during a sun drenched return of The Open at Royal St. George’s last year.

About The Open at St Andrews

St Andrews has hosted The Open Championship the most times with this being the 30th occasion. We've already mentioned that the first time it was held on the Old Course was in 1873. But what about the other 28 times?

We have all the information about who won and how much they won, plus other fun facts relating to The Open at St Andrews. Check out the Facts and History of The Open at St Andrews here.

Who will win The 150th Open?

We've picked three players that you should be looking out for this week and who may just be lifting that Claret Jug on Sunday afternoon.

Matt Fitzpatrick

With six top-10 finishes this year and a Major title won just four weeks ago, it would not be surprising if you had Matt Fitzpatrick down as a pick this week. The 27-year-old has Major form this year, also vying for the PGA Championship title too. It’ll certainly be a test for the Englishman as he’s spent so much time playing in America. However, he is looking forward to his first Open Championship at St Andrews:

“It's great. It's my first Open at St Andrews. I wouldn't say it's one of my favourite golf courses, but to experience it at an Open, it's amazing. It's definitely one that I watched growing up. I didn't really watch much golf growing up. It would be Ryder Cup, the Masters, and The Open, to be honest. It was always held in high esteem when it comes to St Andrews. I love the area, and I think this week, with it being The Open here and my first one, I'm definitely going to enjoy it.

Xander Schauffele

Schauffele has been within touching distance of a Major on a number of occasions in his career. He finished second behind Francesco Molinari at Carnoustie in 2018, finished second at The Masters and third at U.S. Open in 2019 and it's hard to forget his triple-bogey at 16 at the 2021 Masters which saw him miss out to Hideki Matsuyama.

The Olympic champion comes into this week after back-to-back wins, with his most recent being at last week's Genesis Scottish Open. Like Fitzpatrick, this will be his first time playing The Open at St Andrews, so we could be making a bold prediction but he's certainly in form. Talking to media after his win, the American said:

"I'm not sure if that's like a curse or something. I'm going to ignore all the media. There's a few guys who like to tell me about history and all, but I'm obviously in good form and going to try to carry that into next week."

Rory McIlroy

After a topsy turvy few months surrounding men's professional golf, one constant clear voice is Rory McIlroy's. The defence of his title at the RBC Canadian Open felt like a significant moment to help steady the PGA Tour ship.

Not only this but McIlroy is in good form and although he faltered at The Masters, his final round of the 2022 championship will go down in history as one of the best Major rounds you will ever watch from a golfer who finished second. Reminiscent of Lydia Ko's final round at the 2021 ANA Inspiration.

Could this be McIlroy's week? Here's the 2014 Champion Golfer of the Year's thoughts:

"I hope so. I've only played one Open here before. I got off to a great start and got caught out in wind not too dissimilar to what's out there today. I'm playing well. I'm in good form. My confidence in my game is as high as it's been in quite a while.

"I can't go in here thinking that this might be my time. I just have to go out and play a really good tournament. I've got to string four good rounds together, and hopefully, at the end of the week, that's good enough to win.

"I'm happy where everything's at, and I just can't get ahead of myself, and just have to make sure that I prepare well the next couple of days and get myself in the right frame of mind for Thursday."

The 150th Open Tee Times

Round one and two tees times will be available here when published.

Where can I watch The Open?

With over 290,000 fans attending the 150th Open, you may be better placed (like me) to watch all the drama unfold from the comfort of your sofa.

There are over 50 hours of live coverage - quite literally from the first tee shot to the last putt. That doesn't include all the pre-round and post-round TV coverage.

UK - Sky Sports Golf (Main Event and Mixed) LIVE golf times below:

Thursday 14 July - 6:30am to 8:30pm
Friday 15 July - 6:30am to 8:30pm
Saturday 16 July - 9:00am to 8:00pm
Sunday 17 July - 8:00am to 6:30pm

USA - NBC, USA Network and Peacock LIVE golf times below:

There is also plenty of live coverage of The 150th Open to watch via The Open website and via The Open app.