With the PGA campaign rolling through summer, the calendar turns to its fourth and final major. Could we see four different winners for the first time in three seasons?<\/p>\n
The 154th Open Championship gets underway from Royal Birkdale, where Arnold Palmer won by a single stroke in 1961 and Tom Watson swung his famous 2-iron in 1983. This year\u2019s group faces a remodeled course with three new holes.<\/p>\n
This tournament hasn\u2019t had a championship defense since Padraig Harrington in 2008. Scottie Scheffler gets a chance to do it on the heels of his 2025 title. Despite his inspired play, Scheffler is 0-for-3 on the current major circuit.<\/p>\n
And Rory McIlroy is always a factor, though the back-to-back Masters champ last took the Open in 2014. If he claims his second major of 2026, McIlroy would be the first golfer to win the Open and the Masters in the same season since Tiger Woods\u2019 2005 glory.<\/p>\n
Four rounds of Open coverage are spread around four separate platforms. Here\u2019s what to know for the days ahead.<\/p>\n
All times listed below are ET.<\/p>\n
How to watch the 2026 Open Championship
\nVenue: Royal Birkdale Golf Club \u2014 Southport, England
\nDates: July 16-19<\/p>\n
DayTimeTVStream<\/p>\n
Thursday (R1)<\/p>\n
1:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
NBCSN<\/p>\n
Peacock<\/p>\n
Thursday (R1)<\/p>\n
4 a.m.<\/p>\n
USA<\/p>\n
Peacock*<\/p>\n
Friday (R2)<\/p>\n
1:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
NBCSN<\/p>\n
Peacock<\/p>\n
Friday (R2)<\/p>\n
4 a.m.<\/p>\n
USA<\/p>\n
Peacock*<\/p>\n
Saturday (R3)<\/p>\n
5 a.m.<\/p>\n
USA<\/p>\n
Peacock*<\/p>\n
Saturday (R3)<\/p>\n
7 a.m.<\/p>\n
NBC<\/p>\n
Peacock<\/p>\n
Sunday (R4)<\/p>\n
4 a.m.<\/p>\n
USA<\/p>\n
Peacock*<\/p>\n
Sunday (R4)<\/p>\n
7 a.m.<\/p>\n
NBC<\/p>\n
Peacock<\/p>\n
*Peacock coverage in this window includes select groups.<\/p>\n
NBC is free over the air. A live stream for featured groups is also available each morning on the Open\u2019s app. Global broadcast partners can be found here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More details about the TV coverage<\/p>\n
The NBC Sports coverage is anchored by do-it-all presenter Mike Tirico. This is his 28th Open Championship. He\u2019s one of four play-by-play voices for the network here, along with Dan Hicks, Terry Gannon and Steve Sands.<\/p>\n
There are four analysts as well. Kevin Kisner, Brad Faxon, Paul McGinley and Curt Byrum are all in tow for breakdowns across the different channels. Jim \u201cBones\u201d Mackay, the caddie turned commentator, leads the group of on-field reporters and interviewers.<\/p>\n
Thursday and Friday start on NBCSN and Peacock at 1:30 a.m., then head over to USA Network from 4 a.m. through 3:30 p.m. For those who can\u2019t commit to such an early wake-up call, Peacock\u2019s \u201cOpen All Access\u201d navigates around the action from 8 a.m. onward. Jordan Cornette and Jay Croucher are the hosts of that program.<\/p>\n
Peacock also has two morning and two afternoon featured groups each day, and a \u201cplayer focus\u201d option for isolated shots. Thursday\u2019s featured groups tee off with Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton and Bryson DeChambeau at 4:58 a.m. The \u201cplayer focus\u201d feed locks in on McIlroy at 10:05 a.m.<\/p>\n
The third and fourth rounds begin on USA (5 a.m. on Saturday, 4 a.m. on Sunday) before hitting the main NBC channel at 7 a.m.<\/p>\n
We played all 18 holes of the Open Championship course<\/p>\n
Gregg Evans and Rachael Tinde<\/p>\n
Players to know in this year\u2019s Open Championship<\/p>\n
Sorted by\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s Open Championship big board:<\/p>\n
McIlroy won the 2014 Open at Royal Liverpool as part of his career Grand Slam punch card. He\u2019s been up-and-down at this tournament \u2014 eight top-10 finishes, but seven times falling beyond the top 40 (including three missed cuts). The pride of Northern Ireland ranks second in PGA Tour scoring average this season at 69.24.<\/p>\n
Scheffler sits atop the FedEx Cup points list. He leads the field in scoring average and strokes gained too. He lifted the Claret Jug last year with a dominant four-stroke victory at Royal Portrush. But the American standard-setter arrives after missing the cut at the Scottish Open, his first time doing so in almost four years.<\/p>\n
Matt Fitzpatrick\u00a0reps the host nation and comes in at No. 2 on the points table. Fitzpatrick has cracked the top five in three of his prior four outings: second in the Canadian Open, fourth in the Travelers Championship and tied for third in last week\u2019s Scottish Open. He finished T4 in the 2025 tourney.<\/p>\n
Tommy Fleetwood\u00a0hails from Southport. The Englishman now tries to conquer a hometown setting after leading Europe at the 2025 Ryder Cup. Fleetwood has the tour\u2019s best success rate in scrambling from the rough.<\/p>\n
Collin Morikawa\u00a0triumphed in 2021 at Royal St. George\u2019s. But it\u2019s been a tough run ever since, missing three of the last four cuts at the Open. The Californian is third on the tour in birdie average and second in shots gained approaching the green.<\/p>\n
Others in the mix include world No. 4 Cameron Young, No. 5 Russell Henley and No. 6 Chris Gotterup.<\/p>\n
Marquee group tee times, Rounds 1-2<\/p>\n
Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee
4:25 a.m. on Thursday
9:31 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland
4:36 a.m. on Thursday
9:42 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau
4:58 a.m. on Thursday
10:04 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
5:09 a.m. on Thursday
10:15 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott
9:31 a.m. on Thursday
4:25 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
Collin Morikawa, J.J. Spaun, Nicolai H\u00f8jgaard
9:42 a.m. on Thursday
4:36 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka
9:53 a.m. on Thursday
4:47 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig \u00c5berg
10:04 a.m. on Thursday
4:58 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick
10:15 a.m. on Thursday
5:09 a.m. on Friday<\/p>\n
All groups can be found here.<\/p>\n
Last 10 Open Championship winners<\/p>\n
2025: Scottie Scheffler
2024: Xander Schauffele
2023: Brian Harman
2022: Cameron Smith
2021: Collin Morikawa
2020: No tournament (COVID-19 pandemic)
2019: Shane Lowry
2018: Francesco Molinari
2017: Jordan Spieth
2016: Henrik Stenson
2015: Zach Johnson<\/p>\n
Open Championship picks<\/p>\n
Courtesy of\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s\u00a0sports betting editor\u00a0Vik Chokshi:<\/p>\n
If you know me, you know I love betting on long shots in golf (usually in the +2000 range or higher). Lucky for me, my guy David Bearman thinks we will see a long-shot winner this weekend. As for my outright bets, they are normally based on a couple of models I follow, and I put a lot of value into course history and form.<\/p>\n
Outright winner picks (shop around for best odds):<\/p>\n
Matt Fitzpatrick +1750
Chris Gotterup +2900
Viktor Hovland +3400
Justin Rose +4100
Harris English +10500
Akshay Bhatia +12000<\/p>\n
Updated Open Championship odds<\/p>\n
Streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process, and do not review stories before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the PGA campaign rolling through summer, the calendar turns to its fourth and final major. Could we…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[66,959,310,3933],"class_list":["post-16735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-golf","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-golf","tag-sports-betting","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117465396283795122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}