The 154th Open Championship returns to Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, from July 16–19, with defending champion Scottie Scheffler heading a 156-player field.

Scheffler is narrowly ahead of Rory McIlroy in the winner market. McIlroy arrives as the Masters champion, while PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai and U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark complete the season’s group of major winners.

Royal Birkdale will host The Open, often called the British Open, for the 11th time. The revised par-70 course measures 7,223 yards and is expected to play firm and fast following extensive changes since Jordan Spieth won there in 2017.

Scheffler and McIlroy lead the betting

Scheffler is the 8.5/1 favourite with Betway with McIlroy close behind at 9/1. Prices were available on July 14 and can change before the opening round.

Scheffler won the 2025 Open at Royal Portrush by four strokes, completing four rounds in the 60s to finish at 17-under 267. A successful defence would make him the first player since Padraig Harrington in 2008 to retain the Claret Jug.

His missed cut at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open ended a run of 78 consecutive PGA TOUR starts without one. Scheffler’s broader numbers remain strong. Scheffler leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total at 2.154 and greens in regulation at 72.22%. He also ranks first in scoring average and birdie average.

McIlroy has eight top-10 finishes from 16 Open appearances, including a tie for fourth at Royal Birkdale in 2017. Victory this week would make him the ninth player to win the Masters and The Open in the same season, and the first since Tiger Woods in 2005.

The world No. 2 finished seventh at the Scottish Open and has four top-10s from 10 starts this season. He has also won at least once on the PGA TOUR in nine consecutive seasons.

Latest Open Championship winner odds

The leading prices from Betway as of 14th July are:

• Scottie Scheffler: 8.5/1
• Rory McIlroy: 9/1
• Tommy Fleetwood: 15/1
• Matt Fitzpatrick: 15/1
• Jon Rahm: 23/1
• Xander Schauffele: 23/1
• Chris Gotterup: 26/1
• Justin Rose: 26/1
• Collin Morikawa: 26/1
• Viktor Hovland: 29/1
• Wyndham Clark: 29/1
• Ludvig Åberg: 29/1
• Tyrrell Hatton: 29/1
• Cameron Young: 34/1
• Shane Lowry: 51/1
• Aaron Rai: 51/1
• Jordan Spieth: 67/1
• Brooks Koepka: 67/1

(These prices are subject to change before the event kicks off)

Spieth’s 67/1 price will attract attention because he won the last Open at Royal Birkdale. The three-time major champion has eight top-25 finishes in 18 starts this season, although his latest PGA TOUR top-10 came at the 2025 Memorial Tournament.

Åberg is one of the shorter-priced players without a major title. A fans favourite due to his cool and calm composure creates the impressions it’s only a matter of time before a major comes his way. Critics would say he struggles to put 4 good rounds together.

Recent Open champions have won at a wide range of prices. Scheffler began at 5/1 in 2025, while Brian Harman was 125/1 before his 2023 victory. Morikawa won at 40/1 in 2021 and Spieth was 16/1 in 2017. 

That analysis found that each of the previous 15 champions had recorded a top-three finish within eight starts before winning. Twelve of those champions had already achieved an Open top-10. The trends summarize past champions, not this week’s result.

English contenders bring strong form

Surprisingly, no Englishman has won The Open since Sir Nick Faldo in 1992.

Fleetwood has the clearest local connection, which can sometimes make competing harder with expectations high and media appearances in demand. . The Southport native is making his 12th Open appearance and finished second in 2019. He was tied 27th at Birkdale in 2017.

The reigning FedExCup champion has made 11 top-25s in 15 starts this season. He ranks third on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around the Green and fifth in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, two useful measures for a course where uneven lies and rebuilt bunkers can place pressure on recovery play.

Fitzpatrick shares the third line of the market at 15 after winning three PGA TOUR events this season. He tied for third at the Scottish Open after sharing the 54-hole lead and owns the TOUR’s longest active made-cut streak at 28.

Rai offers a larger price at 51/1 despite winning the PGA Championship. The world No. 17 is making his fifth Open appearance and his first at Royal Birkdale. He is attempting to become the eighth player to win the PGA Championship and The Open in the same season.

Rose is priced at 26/1 and brings deeper Birkdale experience. He won the Silver Medal as a 17-year-old amateur after finishing fourth in 1998, then returned for the 2008 and 2017 championships. Now 45, he enters his 23rd Open after winning the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this season.

Clark and Kim arrive with winning form

Clark has two victories in his past six PGA TOUR starts and has finished no worse than tied 13th during that run. His wire-to-wire U.S. Open victory made him a two-time major champion, while his tie for fourth at the 2025 Open remains his best result in this championship.

Tom Kim won the Genesis Scottish Open by two shots after closing with a bogey-free 64. At 41/1, he is attempting to become the first player since McIlroy in 2014 to win a PGA TOUR event and then capture a major the following week.

The field contains all 50 leading players in the Official World Golf Ranking and the top 30 in the FedExCup standings. Fourteen former Open champions are entered, while 41 players have competitive experience from Birkdale’s 2017 championship.

Royal Birkdale has changed since 2017

Royal Birkdale remains a par 70, but almost every hole has been altered since Spieth’s victory. The PGA TOUR’s course preview says the renovation added about 70 yards and reshaped much of the bunkering.

The biggest routing changes are on the 14th and 15th. The 14th now plays as a par 5 after previously being a par 3, while the next hole has gone from a par 5 to a par 3. The fifth was completely redesigned, the seventh was shortened and rebuilt, and 14 bunkers were taken out. Most of the others were rebuilt more dramatically into the surrounding dunes.

The changes keep the par at 70 while altering the best lines of attack. Approach control, bunker play, putting and adaptation to the wind should matter more than driving accuracy alone.

Spieth hit only 42.9% of fairways during his 2017 victory but scrambled successfully on 72.7% of missed greens. Harrington hit 51.8% of fairways when he won in severe wind in 2008. Both compensated with their short games and putting.

Royal Birkdale’s Open champions

Royal Birkdale first hosted The Open in 1954, when Peter Thomson defeated Bobby Locke, Dai Rees and Syd Scott by one stroke. Thomson returned to win at the course in 1965, securing the fifth and final of his five Open titles.

The official history from The Open lists the previous Birkdale winners:

• 1954: Peter Thomson, 283
• 1961: Arnold Palmer, 284
• 1965: Peter Thomson, 285
• 1971: Lee Trevino, 278
• 1976: Johnny Miller, 279
• 1983: Tom Watson, 275
• 1991: Ian Baker-Finch, 272
• 1998: Mark O’Meara, 280, won in a playoff
• 2008: Padraig Harrington, 283
• 2017: Jordan Spieth, 268

Palmer’s 1961 victory came amid storms strong enough to delay play and damage marquees. Harrington faced gusts reaching 50 mph during the opening two days in 2008 before beating Greg Norman by four shots.

Spieth’s 2017 win followed a lengthy recovery from the practice ground on the 13th hole. He then played the next four holes in five under par and defeated Matt Kuchar by three. During the third round, Branden Grace shot 62, the first such score in men’s major history.

The 2026 championship begins Thursday on a 7,223-yard course. The winner will receive 750 FedExCup points, with the event taking place four weeks before the FedExCup Playoffs.

For further odds and to get involved in the action, visit Betway