The 154th Open Championship comes to Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, from July 16 to 19, 2026. It’s the 11th time golf’s oldest major has visited Birkdale, more than any venue except St Andrews, and the famous links arrives reworked: redesigned holes, new greens, and a straightened finishing hole now measuring 508 yards. Playing to a par of 70 at roughly 7,220 yards, Birkdale will reward precise driving and punish anything loose. Here’s how the course plays, what’s changed since Jordan Spieth won here in 2017, and our top five projections to lift the Claret Jug.
Birkdale is often called the fairest test in the Open rotation. Unlike links courses where fairways heave and bounce shots sideways, Birkdale’s fairways run through flat valleys between towering dunes. Good shots tend to get what they deserve, which is why its list of champions reads like a hall of fame: Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Mark O’Meara, Padraig Harrington, and Spieth.
The dunes do more than frame television shots. They funnel the wind in swirling, unpredictable ways, and with the course sitting hard against the Irish Sea, the weather can turn a gentle 7,220 yards into the longest walk in golf. History lives here too: a plaque on the 16th commemorates Arnold Palmer’s escape from the buckthorn in 1961, Harrington’s 5-wood into the 17th sealed the 2008 Open, and Branden Grace’s 62 in 2017 remains the lowest round in men’s major history.
Birkdale starts with one of its hardest holes. The 447-yard 1st bends with out of bounds all down the right and a bunker on a mound to the left, and the prevailing left-to-right wind pushes tee shots toward the trouble. Expect many players to lay back short of the left bunker and accept a longer approach. Holes 2 and 3 continue the theme: position off the tee beats power, because approaches from Birkdale’s thick rough feed into run-off areas.
The 4th, a 219-yard par 3 from an elevated tee, is about 25 yards longer than in 2017, with a 40-yard-deep green that makes club selection a guess in wind. The completely redesigned 5th is the shot-maker’s hole: a 321-yard par 4 where the green is now visible and drivable, but long is dead. The smart play is a 200-yard layup and a wedge. The 514-yard 6th was the hardest hole in 2017 and should be again, demanding a laid-up drive into the corner of the dogleg and a long second into the wind. The 151-yard 7th is the shortest hole on the course and one of the scariest, with a new raised green, the deepest bunkers on the property, and the iconic donut bunker still guarding the left.
The 8th plays downwind and favors the left side for the best angle, though a new bunker on the right punishes bold lines. The 9th offers a genuine risk-reward decision on the dogleg. Holes 10 through 13 demand placement: the 10th runs out of fairway for greedy drivers, the 11th green hides a ridge that separates makeable putts from three-putt territory, the 12th is a delicate 186-yard par 3 with severe new run-offs, and the 502-yard 13th plays as a slight dogleg to a green ringed by dunes.
The redesigned 602-yard 14th brings bunkers on both sides and a small, wildly undulating green. The brand-new 15th is the longest par 3 on the course at 241 yards, typically downwind to a green that slopes away from the player; stopping the ball there in a breeze may be the week’s hardest single shot. The short 16th tempts late chargers but punishes anything left. The 566-yard 17th, framed by two huge dunes, is the last real birdie chance, and its two-tier green will decide someone’s Sunday. Then comes the reworked 18th: the tee has moved well left, turning the old dogleg into a 508-yard straightaway lined with fairway bunkers. Expect layups off the tee and long, nervy approaches to close out the Championship.
Top 5 Projections to Win the 2026 Open
Odds below are from DraftKings as reported at the start of Open week and will move before Thursday. Treat them as a snapshot, not investment advice.
Best of the rest: Matt Fitzpatrick (+2150) brings English links craft and a resurgent putter, and Ludvig Aberg (+3200) has the tee-to-green profile of a player who wins one of these soon.
The R&A confirms the 2026 purse during tournament week. For reference, here is how the 2025 Open’s $17 million was shared out at Royal Portrush — a good guide to what each finishing position at Birkdale is likely to be worth.
The strategy the pros will use at Birkdale works at your course too: pick the club that finds the fairway rather than the longest one, favor the side of the green that leaves an uphill putt, and know your real carry distances before you challenge a bunker. A free GPS app like Golf Pad makes that easier, with satellite maps and flyovers of courses worldwide, distances to any point on the hole, and plays-like distances that account for wind and elevation, the same math a links caddie does in his head. You can even preview a course from your couch, Open-style, before you ever tee it up.
A Golf Pad flyover of a links-style hole with distances displayed.
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