Majors
Open Championship 2022: Daniel Berger withdraws due to back injury
Jamie Squire
Injury caused Daniel Berger to pull out of last week’s John Deere Classic. Now it has cost him a start in the final men’s major championship of 2022.
On Friday, the R&A announced that Berger had withdrawn from the 150th Open, citing a bad back. Replacing Berger in the field at the Old Course at St. Andrews is PGA Tour rookie Sahith Theegala.
Berger, 29, had finished tied for fifth at the Memorial in early June, then missed the cut at the U.S. Open, his last PGA Tour start. The four-time tour winner, No. 25 in the World Ranking, has played in 12 events during the 2021-22 season, with three top-10 finishes, but his record this year in majors has been spotty. He also missed the cut at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in May and finished T-50 at the Masters in April.
The R&A released the next three players appearing on the alternate list for the Open at St. Andrews. They are the three highest-ranked players in the World Ranking that aren’t already in the field:
Alex Noren, OWGR 67
Rikuya Hoshino, OWGR 71
Cameron Davis, OWGR 75