The 154th Open Championship takes place at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England from July 16 to 19, 2026, with all rounds in British Summer Time (UTC+1), making it the only men’s golf major played outside the United States.
Royal Birkdale is widely regarded as the fairest of the Open Championship rota courses, which is not the same as calling it easy. At par 70 and 7,200 yards, the layout runs through towering sand dunes along the Lancashire coast, with holes set in valleys between the dune ridges rather than on top of them. This design gives players a degree of shelter from the wind that other Open venues do not offer, and it means that the best shots are more consistently rewarded. Historically, the champions here have been among the game’s greats: Palmer, Trevino, Watson, Seve, Padraig Harrington.
The course demands a specific kind of links golf. Driving accuracy into firm, fast fairways, low trajectory iron shots that hold in the wind, and a short game built for the tight lies and run-off areas around greens that sit exposed between the dunes. Rough at Birkdale is a mix of thick marram grass and willow scrub that makes recovery difficult and sometimes impossible. The par threes are a particular strength of the course, each one requiring a different shape and a different club depending on the wind direction.
For American viewers, the BST timezone is the most favorable of all four majors. Royal Birkdale is five hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time, so a 14:00 BST tee time is 09:00 EDT. Final-round morning and afternoon coverage falls perfectly into the American Saturday and Sunday schedule. European viewers have home-timezone convenience, with full coverage through the afternoon and evening. Asian fans benefit too, with BST being only eight hours behind Tokyo, meaning a 14:00 BST start is 22:00 JST, a far more reasonable hour than any of the American majors.
The Open at Birkdale is links golf at its most honest. No tricks, no gimmicks, just the wind, the dunes, and the best players in the world measured against the oldest championship in the game.