There’s still nearly two months until the oldest championship in golf is contested for the 154th time. But anticipation is building for the 2026 Open Championship, to be held at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England.
That’s particularly the case after this weekend as 11 professionals earned exemptions into the championship based on being inside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. That, in addition, to Jiho Yang joining the field after winning the Korea Open, brings the total number of exemption competitors to earn their spots in the 156-player Birkdale field up to 109.
This is the 11th time the R&A is bringing the Open to Royal Birkdale. Since the course staged the Open for the first time in 1954, only St. Andrews has hosted the championship more times. And it also has an impressive list of past champions:
1954: Peter Thomson
1961: Arnold Palmer
1965: Peter Thomson
1971: Lee Trevino
1976: Johnny Miller
1983: Tom Watson
1991: Ian Baker-Finch
1998: Mark O’Meara
2008: Padraig Harrington
2017: Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth was The Open winner in 2017, the last time Royal Birkdale hosted the championship.
Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images
R&A CEO Mark Darbon says they expect attendance to exceed 300,000 for the week, which would break the record for the most in history. More than 1 million applications for tickets were received.
Below is the list of players who have qualified to date, and the criteria for which they earned their spots. There remains a handful of ways for players to still earn exemptions, including play in various Open Qualifying Series events (Japan Open, Memorial, Canadian Open, Scottish Open), winners of the British Amateur and European Amateur, LIV Golf’s top-ranked player and more.
Like with the U.S. Open, there is Final Qualifying events where 16 players earn spots. And new this year is a Last Chance Qualifier where 12 players will compete at Birkdale on Monday of Open Championship week for one last spot in the championship. Darbon says the field for the event will include the runner-up from our amateur championship, people that have just missed out through final qualifying, people who haven’t quite made it on the OWGR list but may be reserves already for the championship. “I think we’re going to create some drama and excitement at the start of the week,” Darbon said.
The field
1: Open Champions aged 60 or under on July 19 2026. (for all Champions up to and including 2023).
Brian Harman
Cameron Smith
Collin Morikawa
Shane Lowry
Francisco Molinari
Jordan Spieth
Henrik Stenson
Zach Johnson
Rory McIlroy
Phil Mickelson
Ernie Els
Darren Clarke
Louis Oosthuizen
Stewart Cink
Padraig Harrington
Tiger Woods
Todd Hamilton
Ben Curtis
David Duval
Paul Lawrie
Justin Leonard
John Daly
2: Open Champions aged 55 or under on 19 July 2026. (for all Champions from 2024).
Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
3: Open Champions for 2015-2025.
Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schuaffele
Brian Harman
Cameron Smith
Collin Morikawa
Shane Lowry
Francesco Molinari
Jordan Spieth
Henrik Stenson
Zach Johnson
4: First 10 players and ties in 2025 Open at Royal Portrush
Scottie Scheffler
Harris English
Chris Gotterup
Haotong Li
Matt Fitzpatrick
Wyndham Clark
Xander Schauffele
Robert MacIntyre
Rory McIlroy
Corey Conners
Brian Harman
Russell Henley
Bryson DeChambeau
5: First 50 players on the OWGR for Week 21, 2026 (May 24)
Scottie Scheffler
Rory McIlroy
Cameron Young
Matt Fitzpatrick
Justin Rose
Collin Morikawa
Tommy Fleetwood
Xander Schauffele
J.J. Spaun
Chris Gotterup
Jon Rahm
Russell Henley
Ludvig Aberg
Aaron Rai
Robert MacIntyre
Justin Thomas
Ben Griffin
Sepp Straka
Si Woo Kim
Hideki Matsuyama
Alex Noren
Harris English
Patrick Reed
Jacob Bridgeman
Kristoffer Reitan
Akshay Bhatia
Tyrrell Hatton
Nicolai Hojgaard
Kurt Kitayama
Min Woo Lee
Viktor Hovland
Bryson DeChambeau
Patrick Cantlay
Maverick McNealy
Keegan Bradley
Sam Burns
Ryan Gerard
Rickie Fowler
Jake Knapp
Shane Lowry
Alex Smalley
Jason Day
Daniel Berger
Wyndham Clark
Marco Penge
Jordan Spieth
Gary Woodland
Michael Kim
Matt McCarty
Adam Scott
6: First 25 players in the Final Race to Dubai Rankings for 2025
Rory McIlroy
Marco Penge
Matt Fitzpatrick
Tyrrell Hatton
Tommy Fleetwood
Robert MacIntyre
Laurie Canter
Kristoffer Reitan
Adrien Saddier
Alex Noren
John Parry
Aaron Rai
Haotong Li
Keita Nakajima
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
Jordan Smith
Daniel Brown
Daniel Hillier
Martin Couvra
Angel Ayora
Nicolai Hojgaard
Justin Rose
Elvis Smylie
Joakin Lagergren
Rasmus Hojgaard
7: BMW PGA Championship winners for 2023-2025
Alex Noren
Billy Horschel
Ryan Fox
8: First 5 DP World Tour members and ties, not otherwise exempt, in the top 20 of the Race to Dubai Rankings on completion of the 2026 BMW International Open
9: Masters Champions for 2022-2026
Rory McIlroy
Scottie Scheffler
Jon Rahm
10: PGA Champions for 2022-2026
Aaron Rai
Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
Brooks Koepka
Justin Thomas
11: U.S. Open Champions for 2022-2026
TBD (2026)
J.J. Spaun
Bryson DeChambeau
Wyndham Clark
Matt Fitzpatrick
12: First 30 players from the Final 2025 FedEx Cup Points List
Ludvig Aberg
Akshay Bhatia
Keegan Bradley
Jacob Bridgeman
Sam Burns
Patrick Cantlay
Corey Conners
Harris English
Tommy Fleetwood
Chris Gotterup
Ben Griffin
Harry Hall
Brian Harman
Russell Henley
Viktor Hovland
Sungjae Im
Shane Lowry
Robert MacIntyre
Hideki Matsuyama
Rory McIlroy
Maverick McNealy
Collin Morikawa
Andrew Novak
Justin Rose
Scottie Scheffler
J.J. Spaun
Sepp Straka
Nick Taylor
Justin Thomas
Cameron Young
13: Players Champions for 2024-2026
Cameron Young
Rory McIlroy
Scottie Scheffler
14: First five PGA Tour members and ties, not otherwise exempt, in the top 20 of the 2026 FedEx Cup Points List on completion of the Travelers Championship
15: First player and ties, not otherwise exempt, in the 2026 LIV Golf Individual Season Standings on completion of LIV Golf Andalucia
16: First five players on the 2026 Federation Ranking List as of OWGR Week 21, 2026 (May 24). Places 1-4 on this List may be determined before The Open closing date, as each season-ending Included Order of Merit is published
Kazuki Higa
Casey Jarvis
Kota Kaneko
Travis Smyth
Scott Vincent
17: British Senior Open Champion for 2025
18: U.S. Amateur Champion for 2025
19: Mark H McCormack Medal (Men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking) winner for 2025
20: Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion 2025
21: Latin America Amateur Champion 2026
22: Africa Amateur Champion 2026
23: British Amateur Champion for 2026
24: European Amateur Champion for 2026
25: Open Amateur Series winner 2026
Open Qualifying Series
Daniel Berger (USA, Arnold Palmer Invitational)
Alistair Docherty (Argentina)
Jeongwoo Ham (Singapore)
Lucas Herbert (New Zealand)
Michael Hollick (Australia)
Casey Jarvis (South Africa)
Cameron John (Singapore)
Naoyuki Kataoka (Japan)
Frederic Lacroix (South Africa)
Francesco Laporta (South Africa)
Tom McKibbin (Hong Kong)
Marco Penge (Spain)
Adam Scott (Australia)
Jiho Yang (South Korea)
TBD (Mizuno Open)
TBD (Mizuno Open)
TBD (Mizuno Open)
TBD (Memorial)
TBD (RBC Canadian Open)
TBD (RBC Canadian Open)
TBD (RBC Canadian Open)
TBD (Italian Open)
TBD (Scottish Open)