2022 British Open Odds, Picks, Predictions for Rory McIlroy, Cameron Smith, More

Smack dab in the middle of what is proving to be a massively shifting professional golf landscape will be the ecstasy and irony of perhaps the grandest celebration in the game’s storied history, as the world’s oldest tournament turns 150 at its most venerable venue: the Old Course at St. Andrews.

Maybe this is just what golf needs at the perfect moment, with all of the world’s best players converging at the same tournament for ostensibly the final time this year and potentially for the final time in much more than that.

That’s a debate for another time, though, as I’ll commence this preview of The Open with a little history lesson.

The year was 1986 when the Masters Tournament reached its 50-year anniversary and for anyone with even a brief knowledge of these things, that should be ‘nuff said. Yes, Jack Nicklaus prevailed in a Sunday comeback for the ages that day, capturing his sixth green jacket at the age of 46, which was a pretty nice way for the Big 5-0 to be celebrated at Augusta National.

Fourteen years later, the USGA contested the 100th edition of the U.S. Open at a little place called Pebble Beach. Even if you couldn’t get the Nicklaus/1986 correlation off the tip of your tongue in time, this one should be even easier, as Tiger Woods triumphed by a record 15 strokes that week,…