British Open: 5 bold predictions for the weekend at The Open Championship

Australia's Cameron Smith lines up a putt on the 17th green during his second round on day 2 of The 150th British Open Golf Championship on The Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland on July 15, 2022. - Australia's Cameron Smith surged into the lead in the 150th British Open after a sensational eight-under-par second round of 64 on Friday left him on 13-under for the tournament at the halfway stage. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images) /

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Patrick Cantlay (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images) /

4. Patrick Cantlay won’t finish inside the Top 20

Admittedly, I faded Patrick Cantlay coming into The Open Championship, so the fact that he sits at T8 (7-under) after shooting a 67 on Friday is a bit of a surprise for me. The good news, however, is that it’s not going to last.

Much like Smith, a large part of this is a fade of putting stats that can always turn on a dime. Cantlay has gained 2.43 strokes putting over the first two rounds of action at St. Andrews, second to only Smith among players currently sitting inside the Top 10. Beyond that, he’s actually slightly losing strokes off of the tee and gaining a meager 0.63 strokes on approach.

When you then throw in the fact that Cantlay has traditionally cracked in high-leverage situations in major championships — his best finish at The Open is T27 — and recently collapsed at the Travelers Championship as well, I have no faith in what he’s shown me continuing for two more days. He’s going to start slipping down the leaderboard, specifically falling and finishing outside of the Top 20 whenever he concludes his tournament.

3. Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth will both finish inside the Top 10

There wasn’t all that much coverage of either Jon Rahm or Jordan Spieth on Friday after pedestrian rounds to start The Open. Yet, they actually played quite well with the former shooting 5-under for the day and the latter going for 3-under to both sit at T25 and 4-under for the tournament.

And now it’s time for both players to make their move.

It’s actually been polar opposite profiles for how Rahm and Spieth have performed to this point but both suggest that they can turn it up on the weekend. For Rahm, he’s gaining more than 2.7 strokes putting over 36 holes but just 0.17 on approach. Meanwhile, Spieth has putted just slightly better than field average but has played well otherwise.

We know that Spieth can get hot with the flat stick and that Rahm can be an assassin — especially on the weekend at a major — with his iron play. I expect this to level out over the final two rounds and, as such, both players to make their way up the leaderboard and end up with a Top 10 at The Open to add a yellow box to their Wikipedia page.

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