Jordan Spieth

The Open Championship 2026: Royal Birkdale Prepares for Its Biggest Week

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Record demand, a stellar field, and links golf at its most unforgiving — July cannot come soon enough

The 154th Open Championship arrives at Royal Birkdale on 16 July 2026, and the appetite for it borders on the remarkable. More than one million ticket applications were submitted for a week that is expected to draw over 300,000 spectators — which would set an all-time attendance record for golf’s oldest major. The Claret Jug returns to the Lancashire coast, and the world, in considerable numbers, intends to be there. (Golf Digest)

Royal Birkdale Golf Course Southport

A Course That Has Earned Its Place in the Rota

Royal Birkdale has hosted The Open eleven times. Only St Andrews has done so more. The course sits within a natural landscape of sand dunes and willow scrub, with fairways running through hollows that create amphitheatre-like conditions — some of the best spectator sightlines in championship golf. Its roll call of champions is a short history of the modern game: Arnold Palmer in 1961, Tom Watson in 1983, Padraig Harrington in 2008, Jordan Spieth in 2017. Birkdale does not flatter the fortunate. It finds out the worthy. (Golf Digest)

Scheffler Carries the Jug In

Scottie Scheffler won the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush in 2025 and arrives at Birkdale as defending champion and world number one. He is the kind of player links golf rewards: methodical, patient, built for the long game. The question is not whether he is the favourite — he is — but who, among a field of 156, has both the game and the temperament to take it from him.

Open Championship Claret Jug Trophy

The European Case Has Never Been Stronger

The 2026 major season has already produced a compelling storyline for European golf. Aaron Rai’s victory at the PGA Championship — the first by an English-born player since 1919 — announced a depth of European talent that the big events are no longer able to ignore. Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Robert MacIntyre complete a contingent that thrives in exactly the conditions Birkdale will provide. Fleetwood, who grew up in Southport, will be playing The Open in his own back garden — a fact the crowd will remind him of, loudly, at every opportunity. (Tee Times)

Spieth Returns to the Scene

Jordan Spieth won The Open at Birkdale in 2017 with a final round that remains one of the great modern major performances. He returns this July still chasing the PGA Championship — the one title that would complete golf’s career Grand Slam. The venue has history for him. Whether that history helps or haunts remains to be seen.

Jordan Spieth Winner 2017 Open Championship

Something New for 2026

The R&A have introduced a Last Chance Qualifier on the Monday of Open week — twelve players competing over Birkdale’s links for the 156th and final spot in the championship. Drama before the main event begins. It is, as additions to major weeks go, a good one. (Today’s Golfer)

The Open has a way of reminding golfers why links golf is the purest version of the game. If it has you thinking about that kind of test in warmer climes, the Algarve golf courses offer firm fairways, coastal winds, and conditions that prepare you for whatever Birkdale might throw at a field in July. Browse our Portugal golf holidays and see what the Iberian peninsula has waiting.

Jordan Spieth at the PGA Championship: One Major Away from Immortality

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Golf’s Most Exclusive Club

Six golfers in history have won all four major championships. Gene Sarazen. Ben Hogan. Gary Player. Jack Nicklaus. Tiger Woods. Rory McIlroy. Jordan Spieth has won three of them — and this week at Aronimink Golf Club, he gets his chance to join that list.

Jordan Spieth Chasing Grand Slam

“If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would obviously be this one,” Spieth said ahead of the 108th PGA Championship. The man knows what is at stake. So does everyone else. (PGA Tour)

A Game Trending in the Right Direction

Spieth arrives at Aronimink feeling good about where his game is. He led the field in strokes gained off the tee at last week’s Truist Championship — and at a Donald Ross course where precision from the tee is everything, that is exactly the statistic you want heading into a major week. The greens are undulating, the 180 bunkers demand respect, and the par-threes separate the contenders from the field. Spieth, at his best, is built for all of it.

108th PGA Championship Trophy

“My game has been getting better and better. It’s plenty good to have a chance to win,” he said at his Aronimink press conference. He has had stretches this season where he has led the tour in multiple statistical categories. The pieces are there. Aronimink is the week to put them together. (PGA Championship)

The Course Sets Up Well

Aronimink rewards the things Spieth does best. Past winners at this venue have been defined by elite putting — touch, trajectory, and reading greens under pressure. That is Spieth’s signature. A player who can drive it straight and hole putts when it matters has always had a chance here. Right now, Spieth is doing both. (Golf Digest)

Aronimink 108th PGA Championship

Gary Player — the only man to have won a major at Aronimink, claiming the 1962 PGA Championship on these very fairways — believes Spieth has everything he needs. “Jordan has the talent to return to world number one,” Player said. “He simply needs to reconnect with his fundamentals.” High praise from a nine-time major champion who knows this course better than anyone alive. (Golf Magic)

The Moment, the Narrative, the List

Rory McIlroy completed his own career Grand Slam at Augusta just last month — and Spieth has spoken openly about the inspiration it provided. “The easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way. Just go out and get ready for the first hole, get a good game plan in and attack it the way it needs to be attacked,” he said. That kind of clarity — knowing exactly what you want and exactly how not to chase it — is the mark of a player who has been in big moments before. (Sky Sports)

He has won the Masters. He has won the US Open. He has won The Open Championship. The PGA Championship is the only one left. The narrative is written. The stage is set. Aronimink opens Thursday.

If the golf is pulling you towards a screen this week, we understand entirely. And when you are ready to swap the sofa for a fairway, Tee Times will have your Algarve golf holiday waiting — courses, transfers, and deals included.