The 2026 Open Championship, officially the 154th Open Championship, was a golf tournament played from 16–19 July 2026 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club. It was the 11th Open held at the club.
Ryan Fox became the third New Zealander to win a golf major, winning by one stroke over Cameron Young.
Course changes
Since the 2017 Open Championship, the course has undergone a renovation. The principal change has come on the back nine; the former par-3 14th was removed, the par-5 15th relocated and became the 14th hole, and a new 15th hole—a par-3—inserted.
Field The Open Championship field is made up of 156 players, who gained entry through various exemption criteria and qualifying tournaments. The criteria include past Open champions, recent major winners, top ranked players in the world rankings and from the leading world tours, and winners and high finishers from various designated tournaments, including the Open Qualifying Series; the winners of designated amateur events, including The Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur, also gained exemption provided they remain an amateur. Anyone not qualifying via exemption, and with a handicap of 0.4 or lower, can gain entry through regional and final qualifying events.
Criteria and exemptions Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.
1. The Open Champions aged 60 or under on 19 July 2026 (for all champions before 2024)
Stewart Cink Darren Clarke David Duval Brian Harman (3,4,12) Pádraig Harrington (17) Shane Lowry (3,5,12) Rory McIlroy (4,5,6,9,12,13) Francesco Molinari (3) Collin Morikawa (3,5,12) Cameron Smith (3) Jordan Spieth (3,5) Henrik Stenson (3)
Ben Curtis, John Daly, Ernie Els, Todd Hamilton, Zach Johnson (3), Paul Lawrie, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, and Tiger Woods did not enter. Louis Oosthuizen did not play.
2. The Open Champions aged 55 or under on 19 July 2026 (for all champions from 2024)
Xander Schauffele (3,4,5,10) Scottie Scheffler (3,4,5,9,10,12,13)
3. The Open Champions for 2015–2025
4. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2025 Open Championship
Wyndham Clark (5,11) Corey Conners (12) Bryson DeChambeau (5,11) Harris English (5,12) Matt Fitzpatrick (5,6,11) Chris Gotterup (5,12) Russell Henley (5,12) Li Haotong (6) Robert MacIntyre (5,6,12)
5. Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2026
Ludvig Åberg (12) Daniel Berger Akshay Bhatia (12) Keegan Bradley (12) Jacob Bridgeman (12) Sam Burns (12) Patrick Cantlay (12) Jason Day Tommy Fleetwood (6,12) Rickie Fowler Ryan Gerard Ben Griffin (12) Tyrrell Hatton (6) Nicolai Højgaard (6) Viktor Hovland (12) Michael Kim Kim Si-woo Kurt Kitayama Jake Knapp Min Woo Lee Hideki Matsuyama (12) Matt McCarty Maverick McNealy (12) Alex Norén (6,7) Marco Penge (6) Jon Rahm (9) Aaron Rai (6,10) Patrick Reed Kristoffer Reitan (6) Justin Rose (6,12) Adam Scott Alex Smalley J. J. Spaun (11,12) Sepp Straka (12) Justin Thomas (10,12) Gary Woodland Cameron Young (12,13)
6. Top 25 in the final 2025 Race to Dubai rankings
Ángel Ayora Dan Brown Laurie Canter Martin Couvra Daniel Hillier Rasmus Højgaard Joakim Lagergren Keita Nakajima Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen John Parry Adrien Saddier Jordan Smith
Elvis Smylie will not play.
7. Recent winners of the BMW PGA Championship (2023–2025)
Ryan Fox Billy Horschel
8. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2026 Race to Dubai Rankings through the BMW International Open
Dan Bradbury Hennie du Plessis Jayden Schaper Andy Sullivan Bernd Wiesberger
9. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2022–2026)
10. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2022–2026) Brooks Koepka
11. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2022–2026)
12. Top 30 players from the 2025 FedEx Cup points list
Harry Hall Im Sung-jae Andrew Novak Nick Taylor
13. Recent winners of The Players Championship (2024–2026)
14. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2026 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship Alex Fitzpatrick
15. Top player, not already exempt, in the top 5 of the 2026 LIV Golf League individual standings through LIV Golf Andalucía Joaquín Niemann
16. Top five players from the OWGR's International Federation Ranking List as of Week 21, 2026
Kazuki Higa Casey Jarvis Kota Kaneko Travis Smyth Scott Vincent
17. Winner of the 2025 Senior Open Championship
18. Winner of the 2025 U.S. Amateur Mason Howell (a)
19. Recipient of the 2025 Mark H. McCormack Medal Jackson Koivun
20. Winner of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship Fifa Laopakdee (a)
21. Winner of the 2026 Latin America Amateur Championship Mateo Pulcini (a)
22. Winner of the 2026 Africa Amateur Championship Jack Buchanan (a)
23. Winner of the 2026 Amateur Championship Stuart Grehan (a)
24. Winner of the 2026 European Amateur Tim Wiedemeyer (a)
25. Winner of the 2026 Open Amateur Series Lev Grinberg (a)
Open Qualifying Series The Open Qualifying Series (OQS) for the 2026 Open Championship consisted of 15 events. Places were available to the leading players (not otherwise exempt) who made the cut. In the event of ties, positions went to players ranked highest according to that week's OWGR.
Location Tournament Date Spots Qualifiers Spain Open de España 12 Oct 2025 1 Marco Penge (5,6) Japan Japan Open Golf Championship 19 Oct 2025 1 Naoyuki Kataoka Hong Kong Link Hong Kong Open 1 Nov 2025 1 Tom McKibbin Australia Crown Australian Open 7 Dec 2025 3 Michael Hollick, Kim Si-woo (5), Adam Scott (5) New Zealand New Zealand Open 1 Mar 2026 1 Lucas Herbert South Africa Investec South African Open Championship 1 Mar 2026 3 Casey Jarvis (16), Frédéric Lacroix, Francesco Laporta Argentina Visa Argentina Open 1 Mar 2026 1 Alistair Docherty United States Arnold Palmer Invitational 8 Mar 2026 1 Daniel Berger (5) Singapore Singapore Open 26 Apr 2026 2 Ham Jeong-woo, Cameron John Korea Kolon Korea Open 24 May 2026 1 Yang Ji-ho Japan Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open 31 May 2026 3 Ryutaro Nagano, Shaun Norris, Ren Yonezawa United States Memorial Tournament 7 Jun 2026 1 J. T. Poston Canada RBC Canadian Open 14 Jun 2026 3 Bud Cauley, Jackson Suber, Jesper Svensson Italy DS Automobiles Open d'Italia 28 Jun 2026 1 Eugenio Chacarra Scotland Genesis Scottish Open 12 Jul 2026 3 Johnny Keefer, Victor Perez, Michael Thorbjornsen
Final qualifying Regional qualifying events were held on 22 June at 16 locations. Final qualifying events were played on 30 June at four locations.
Location Spots Qualifiers Burnham & Berrow 5 Alejandro de Castro (a), James Nicholas, Tom Sloman (R), Caleb Surratt, Austen Truslow Dundonald Links 5 Jack McDonald, Matthew Baldwin, David Howard (a,R), Nevill Ruiter (a), Marcus Plunkett Royal Cinque Ports 5 M. J. Daffue, Antoine Rozner, Bård Skogen, Matthew Southgate, Peter Uihlein West Lancashire 5 Sam Bairstow, Josele Ballester, Tiger Christensen (R), Matthew Jordan, Kazuma Kobori
Last-Chance Qualifier One spot was given to the winner of an 18-hole qualifier held on 13 July, three days before the start of the Championship. The field for the Last-Chance Qualifier consisted of twelve players who narrowly failed to qualify through other means. Joe Dean
Additional players added to the field In order to fill additional places or replace exempt players who had withdrawn prior to the start of the Championship, and maintain the full field of 156, additional players were taken in ranking order from the Official World Golf Ranking as of 6 July.
Sam Stevens (46) Nico Echavarría (53) Pierceson Coody (58) Ryo Hisatsune (60) Michael Brennan (61) David Puig (64) Tom Kim (66) Eric Cole (67) Keith Mitchell (68) Matt Wallace (69) Sami Välimäki (71) Max Homa (73) Thomas Detry (74) Max Greyserman (75) Sahith Theegala (76) Aldrich Potgieter (77)
Round summaries First round Thursday, 16 July 2026
Jackson Suber, playing in his first Open Championship, shot a 5-under-par 65 to take a one stroke lead over Dan Brown and Im Sung-jae. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler was three strokes off the lead with a 68. Alex Smalley was leading until a double bogey on the 18th hole dropped him into a tied for third with a 67.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Jackson Suber 65 −5T2 Dan Brown 66 −4 Im Sung-jaeT4 Pierceson Coody 67 −3 M. J. Daffue Bryson DeChambeau Thomas Detry Ryan Gerard Robert MacIntyre Francesco Molinari Alex Smalley Cameron Young
Second round Friday, 17 July 2026
Lucas Herbert, playing in his sixth Open Championship, shot an eight under round of 62 to take the lead by two shots. He was the sixth player to shoot 62 in a major championship. Herbert also shot a front nine in 28 strokes, tying an Open record set by Denis Durnian on the front nine 28 at the 1983 Open Championship on the same course. A missed 5-foot putt on 18th hole derailed his chance to set the record outright with a 61.
Sam Burns, a few groups after Herbert finished, also shot an eight under round of 62, including holing out from a bunker on 18th.
The other storyline came late in the second day when Bryson DeChambeau, who having finished up at the 18th at −7 for the tournament and shooting a four under round of 66, was approached by rules officials who informed DeChambeau of a possible penalty. After a video replay, DeChambeau and rules officials returned to the 5th hole, where the penalty occurred, and where DeChambeau had made a bogey five. DeChambeau was assessed a two stroke penalty for improving his lie on the 5th hole, which turned his four under round of 66 into a two under round of 68, joining a tie for 5th with Burns and Kim Si-woo.
Seventy-eight players made the cut which came at 141 (+1). Notables to miss the cut included 2022 champion Cameron Smith, 2026 PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai, 2026 U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark, and Justin Rose, who finished as low amateur at the 1998 Open Championship, also held at Royal Birkdale. None of the ten amateurs in the field made the cut, which meant that the silver medal would not be awarded for the second year in a row.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Lucas Herbert 70-62=132 −8T2 Ryan Gerard 67-67=134 −6 Jackson Suber 65-69=134 Cameron Young 67-67=134T5 Sam Burns 73-62=135 −5 Bryson DeChambeau 67-68=135 Kim Si-woo 68-67=135T8 Bud Cauley 68-68=136 −4 Thomas Detry 67-69=136 Alex Fitzpatrick 69-67=136 Tommy Fleetwood 69-67=136 Robert MacIntyre 67-69=136 Francesco Molinari 67-69=136 Jon Rahm 69-67=136 Scottie Scheffler 68-68=136 Matt Wallace 69-67=136
Third round Saturday, 18 July 2026
Sam Burns, looking for his first major victory, after also coming close to the title at the previous major of the year, shot a five under 65 to take two shot lead at −10. Burns's 62-65 (127 strokes, thirteen under par) second and third rounds set the lowest consecutive 36 hole record in the Open Championship and in all major championship history.
Ryan Fox, who went out early during the third round, shot an eight under round of 62, joining Burns and Lucas Herbert, who shot 62 during the second round. Fox's 62 also set the record for most low rounds in any major with three. Fox's round also put him in a tie for second with Kim Si-woo at −8.
Lucas Herbert, the second round leader, came back to field with a one over 71. Herbert joined a tie for fourth with Ryan Gerard at −7.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Sam Burns 73-62-65=200 −10T2 Ryan Fox 72-68-62=202 −8 Kim Si-woo 68-67-67=202T4 Ryan Gerard 67-67-69=203 −7 Lucas Herbert 70-62-71=203 T6 Ludvig Åberg 71-66-67=204 −6 Bryson DeChambeau 67-68-69=204 Jackson Suber 65-69-70=204T9 Tommy Fleetwood 69-67-69=205 −5 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen 72-66-67=205
Final round Sunday, 19 July 2026
Summary