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)
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.
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.
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.
