The Open Championship — Golf’s Original Major

The one they call, simply, The Open

Outside the United Kingdom it is often called the British Open, but its proper name tells you everything about its standing: The Open Championship. When it began there was nothing else to distinguish it from. The winner is announced not as champion of a tournament but as the Champion Golfer of the Year, a title that has been handed out since before the invention of the telephone.

The Open is played every July on a rotating roster of ten links courses in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, known as the “rota”. Links golf is the oldest form of the game: firm, fast, treeless coastal ground where the wind changes the course from hour to hour and the ball spends as much time running along the turf as flying through the air. It is the major where creativity beats power, and where the weather can matter as much as the field. In July 2026 the championship returns to Royal Birkdale for the 154th playing.

What makes links golf different

The Open is inseparable from the ground it is played on. Links courses sit on the sandy, wind-scoured land that links the sea to the farmland behind, terrain too poor for crops but perfect for golf. If you want the full tour of course styles, see our guide to the types of golf courses; here is what matters at The Open.

The wind sets the exam paper

A links with no wind is a different course from the same links in a three-club breeze. Tee times matter: half the field can draw a calm morning while the other half plays a gale, the famous “wrong side of the draw”. Champions flight the ball low, take more club and swing easier, and accept that even perfect shots will sometimes finish in imperfect places.

The ground is part of the game

Firm, fast-running turf means drives can roll 80 yards and approach shots are judged on the bounce, not the carry. The best links players use the contours, running the ball through gaps and feeding it off slopes, and will happily putt from 30 yards off the green rather than risk a chip. If you have never watched an Open before, notice how often the professionals leave the driver in the bag: on ground this fast an iron still chases out plenty far, and it stays short of the bunkers placed exactly at driving distance.

Pot bunkers are true hazards

Links bunkers are small, deep and often revetted with vertical sod walls. Unlike the shallow sand of a modern parkland course, they genuinely cost strokes: sometimes the only shot is sideways or even backwards. Our guide to golf bunkers covers the most feared examples, and several of them, like the Road Hole bunker, live on Open courses.

Par is just a number

Open scoring swings wildly with the weather: Henrik Stenson finished twenty under par at Troon in 2016, while at Carnoustie in 1999 six over won. Links golf asks players to shoot the best score available on the day, not to chase a number printed on the card.

The rota at a glance

All ten current Open venues side by side. Swipe horizontally on a phone to see every column.

Where the ten courses are

Every venue sits on the coast, which is no accident: true links land only exists where sea meets sand. Five are in Scotland, four in England and one in Northern Ireland. Tap a marker or a name to jump to that course.

Iconic Open moments

A century and a half of championships produces more folklore than any leaderboard can hold. Six moments every golf fan should know.

The Duel in the Sun — Watson v Nicklaus, 1977 (Turnberry)

Watson and Nicklaus, paired together all weekend, traded 65-66 against 65-66, finishing 11 and 10 shots clear of third place. Golf’s greatest head-to-head.

Seve’s Lytham — 1979 & 1988

In 1979 Ballesteros won from a temporary car park on the 16th; in 1988 he closed with a 65 he called the round of his life. No one played links golf with more imagination.

Tiger’s masterclass — 2000 (St Andrews)

Woods went 19 under without finding a single bunker all week, winning by eight and completing the career Grand Slam at 24, the youngest ever to do it.

Van de Velde’s 72nd hole — 1999 (Carnoustie)

Three ahead on the final tee, the Frenchman found rough, grandstand, burn and bunker on his way to a triple bogey, then lost the playoff. The Claret Jug is never won until the last putt drops.

Stenson v Mickelson — 2016 (Royal Troon)

A modern Duel in the Sun. Stenson’s closing 63 beat Mickelson’s 65 head-to-head, setting the championship record of 264, twenty under par. Third place was eleven shots back.

Lowry’s homecoming — 2019 (Royal Portrush)

In The Open’s first visit to the island of Ireland in 68 years, Ireland’s Shane Lowry won by six as the Portrush crowds sang him up the 18th in the rain.

Champion Golfers of the Year — the records

The winner of The Open is announced as the Champion Golfer of the Year, a title first bestowed in 1860. The record books read like the history of golf itself.

How to qualify for The Open

Part of The Open’s romance is in its name: it is genuinely open. Around 156 players tee it up each July, and while most arrive through exemptions, there is a route into the field for any professional, and any amateur with a low enough handicap, willing to earn it. These are the four main roads to the first tee.

1. Exemptions — the front door

The majority of the field qualifies automatically. The exempt categories include past Open champions (up to age 55), the leading finishers from the previous year’s Open, recent winners of the other three majors, the top players in the Official World Golf Ranking, and leading performers on the DP World Tour, PGA Tour and other major circuits. Winners of the game’s biggest amateur titles, The Amateur Championship and the U.S. Amateur among them, also earn a place, provided they remain amateurs.

2. The Open Qualifying Series — earn it around the world

The R&A designates a series of tournaments across the global calendar, in Australia, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, the United States and Europe, as Open Qualifying Series events. Finish high enough in one of them without already being exempt, and you have booked your trip. It is how in-form players from every tour fight their way in.

3. Regional Qualifying — where the dream starts

Every June, more than a dozen courses around the UK and Ireland host 18-hole Regional Qualifying. Entry is open to any professional and to any amateur with a handicap index of 0.4 or better. Club pros, mini-tour grinders and elite amateurs all tee it up together; the leading players advance to Final Qualifying.

4. Final Qualifying — the longest day in golf

In early July, four links courses each stage 36 holes in a single day, with a handful of Open places, around five per venue, going to the top finishers. It is nicknamed “the longest day in golf”: one round to get in position, one round to hold your nerve, and a career-changing prize for those who do. Every year it produces at least one unknown name who ends up playing alongside the world’s best on Thursday morning.

What club golfers can learn from The Open

You may never play Final Qualifying, but links thinking will save you shots on any course, in any country.

• Learn one low shot. Ball back, hands ahead, three-quarter swing. A knockdown 7-iron that flights under the wind (or under branches) is the single most useful shot the pros use in July that amateurs never practise.
• The putter is a rescue club. From tight lies off the green, a putt through fringe will finish closer than a mediocre chip far more often than pride admits. Watch how often Open players putt from 20 yards short of the green.
• Take your medicine in bunkers. If the lip is tall and the lie is poor, play out sideways, or even backwards. One guaranteed escape beats two attempts at a miracle. The pros do it at the Road Hole; you can do it at your club.
• Play the wind, don’t fight it. Into a breeze, take two clubs more and swing at 80%. A harder swing adds spin, and spin makes the ball climb and stall. “Swing with ease into the breeze” is links wisdom that works everywhere.
• Shoot the score the day allows. On a wild-weather day, your target score should change. Bogey can be a good score on the hardest holes. The U.S. Open teaches patience, but The Open teaches acceptance.