Top 10 Moments from the 2022 USGA Championship Season

Whether it was visits to previously unchartered regions, unveiling a brand-new championship or seeing the unbridled emotions emanating from those select few to hoist a coveted trophy, the 2022 USGA championship season delivered unforgettable moments and memories that will last a lifetime.

While there are literally thousands of highlights from the 18 completed competitions – international team events included – certain performances and achievements stand out. So before we turn the calendar to 2023, let’s take time out to remember 10 storylines from the past season:

Fitzpatrick’s Sweet Homecoming

Déjà vu?

If Matthew Fitzpatrick didn’t believe in karma before this year’s U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., he does now. While the routing was slightly different and the course a tad longer, all the good vibes Fitzpatrick absorbed from his 2013 U.S. Amateur run came flowing back nine years later.

Unlike 1913 when fresh-faced American amateur Francis Ouimet stunned the sports landscape by outdueling two English stalwarts, the roles reversed in 2022 with Fitzpatrick outdueling two American rising stars, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris, for his first major championship.

Two heroic approach shots, one a 5-iron from the right rough on the par-4 15th to set up a birdie, and the second a remarkable 9-iron fairway bunker shot at the closing hole that led to a two-putt par concluded a dramatic final round that had ultimately turned into a three-man show.

Fitzpatrick joined Jack Nicklaus and Juli Inkster as the only players to win a U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur championship at the same venue.

Despite a tougher-than-expected final round, Padraig Harrington finally garnered a USGA title at the U.S. Senior Open. (USGA/Steven Gibbons)

St. Paddy’s Day

The final round of the U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa., seemed a foregone conclusion. Irishman Padraig Harrington was in cruise control until Steve Stricker turned an ordinary round into extraordinary one on Sunday. Eight strokes behind to start the day, the 2019 champion nearly completed one of the most remarkable rallies of 2022, shooting a 65 that included birdies on four of his last five holes.

Only a 30-foot birdie by Harrington on No. 15 followed by three solid two-putt pars – the last a heart-stopping 3-footer on the 18th hole – preserved his one-stroke victory and prevented Stricker from stealing this championship away from the affable Irishman.

Harrington became the first player from the Republic of Ireland to win a USGA championship (U.S. Open champions Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell are from Northern Ireland) and portended what would transpire in Wisconsin a few months later.

Adaptive to Change

The U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 6 in July was a product of years of planning to provide a championship for golfers with physical and intellectual disabilities. This was an effort by the USGA to show the game’s inclusive nature and showcase these remarkable athletes to the world. The inspiration the athletes displayed that week was off the charts.

The record will show Simon Lee claimed the men’s division and Western Michigan University golf coach Kim Moore took the women’s title in the 54-hole competition, but the true winners were all of us who got to watch. All 96 competitors demonstrated indefatigable spirit and unsurpassed love for the game, leaving us thirsting for the championship’s second iteration next July.

North and South

In its 128-year history, the USGA had never taken one of its championships to a U.S. territory or the Last Frontier. Both occurred in 2022.

In April, the 7th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball was contested at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico – and for the first time, the USGA published the final recap in Spanish.

Three months later, Alaska made its debut, completing the circuit of 50 states hosting a USGA championship. Perhaps fittingly, a northerner captured the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title with Canadian Shelly Stouffer hoisting the trophy at Anchorage Golf Course.

She’s Back

A return to Pine Needles for a U.S. Women’s Open is always a good reason to celebrate. Another cause for excitement? The return of three-time champion Annika Sorenstam, who was exempt following her victory in the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

It would be Annika’s first start in the championship since her memorable finish to the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open when she holed out for eagle on the 72nd hole. She retired that year to start a family with her husband, Mike McGee.

While this Pine Needles homecoming didn’t end up with a trophy, Sorenstam drew plenty of fans to Southern Pines, N.C., and provided a memorable week for her legion of fans.

A record-setting performance at Pine Needles netted Minjee Lee the U.S. Women's Open title and second USGA championship. (USGA/Jason E. Miczek)

“I’m Coming”

When Minjee Lee, then an unknown 16-year-old teen from Perth in Western Australia, claimed the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, Calif., she told Golf Channel on-course reporter Steve Burkowski that bigger things were coming.

Those words could not have been more prophetic.

A decade later, Lee earned the game’s biggest prize in record-setting fashion. Her four-stroke victory in June not only broke the 72-hole scoring record at the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica, it made her the seventh player to win both the Girls’ Junior and Women’s Open, joining illustrious company such as Mickey Wright, JoAnne Carner and Inbee Park.

Passport Please!

While all of the USGA’s national championships share the same prefix – U.S. – they welcome the best players from all over the world. That was on full display in 2022, when for only the second time in history (1997), the three established Open championships (the U.S. Senior Women’s Open is only 5 years old) were captured by international players: U.S. Open (Fitzpatrick, England); U.S. Women’s Open (Lee, Australia) and U.S. Senior Open (Harrington, Ireland).

And it wasn’t just the Opens where a foreign presence was felt.

Wenyi Ding (U.S. Junior Amateur) became the first male player from the People’s Republic of China to win a USGA championship, while Japan’s Saki Baba joined countrywoman Michiko Hattori as a U.S. Women’s Amateur champion. Canada’s Stouffer won the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, while Matthew McClean defeated Hugh Foley in an all-Irish final in the U.S. Mid-Amateur.

A championship season for the ages! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/E2GMB0bnTJ
— USGA (@USGA) September 26, 2022

Pals Become Foes

Speaking of McClean and Foley, the duo was inseparable from the time they departed Dublin on Sept. 5. Upon arrival in Chicago, they shared a rental car and every experience – on and off the golf course – leading into their first U.S. Mid-Amateur start. They even stayed in the same house all week.

As fate would have it, they wound up on opposite sides of the bracket and won five matches apiece to meet in the 36-hole final at Erin Hills. Translated from Gaelic, Erin means Ireland, and the two Irishmen certainly became well acquainted with the venue that hosted the 2017 U.S. Open and will host the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open. McClean returned home with bragging rights after a hard-fought 3-and-1 victory in the final.

Amari is Key

This figured to be a tight Curtis Cup Match. With seven of the Great Britain and Ireland competitors having college experience in the U.S., and six of eight returning from the 2021 Match in Wales, the visitors thought they had a formidable lineup.

The problem was the Americans also returned much of the same team that had rallied to win at Conwy Golf Club eight months earlier. The USA also unleashed newcomer Amari Avery on the visitors. Ranked outside the top 200 in the WAGR two years earlier, the Southern Californian put together a superb spring campaign at the University of Southern California, and the hot play continued at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., as she went 4-0 over the first two days as the Americans build a huge lead on their way to a 15½-4½ romp.

Mother’s Day

Krissy Carman wasn’t sure she would return to competitive golf so soon after giving birth to son Conrad in March 2020. That was until she and husband Mitch discovered Conrad enjoyed being on the golf course. The first-time parents put him in a jogging stroller while they played a few holes. Carman quickly regained the competitive juices she had as a Division I golfer at Oregon State and later Portland State.

When the 27-year-old qualified for the 35th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Fiddlesticks Country Club in Fort Myers, Fla., Carman never in her wildest dreams thought she’d have an “I’m-Going-to-Disney-World” moment. But her 2-and-1 victory over Aliea Clark in the 18-hole final made her the first mom since Ellen Port in 2011 to win the Women’s Mid-Am and prompted a celebratory family trip to the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.