Royal Birkdale returns to the spotlight as host of the 154th Open Championship, welcoming golf’s oldest major back to England’s celebrated Golf Coast for an 11th time. Situated among the towering dunes of Southport on England’s northwest coast, Birkdale has become one of the R&A’s most trusted championship venues, hosting more Open Championships than any course outside of St Andrews in the modern era. Its iconic white Art Deco clubhouse, dramatic dune landscape and unmistakable corridors of play have helped establish a reputation as one of the purest and fairest examinations in championship golf.
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Although the club dates to 1889, the championship course took shape following Frederick G. Hawtree’s redesign in the early 1930s, completed with input from five-time Open champion J.H. Taylor. Unlike many traditional links that embrace blind shots and unpredictable bounces, Royal Birkdale was intentionally routed through the natural valleys between the dunes, allowing players to see both the challenge and the reward from the tee. That emphasis on strategic clarity has defined the course for nearly a century and remains one of its most distinctive characteristics.
Despite often being described as the fairest course on the Open rota, Royal Birkdale offers very little margin for error. The generous driving corridors encourage confident swings from the tee, but the towering dunes, revetted bunkers and firm fescue turf place a premium on positioning and precision rather than raw power. Once the wind begins to shift off the Irish Sea, every decision becomes more demanding as trajectory, distance control and patience often outweigh aggression. Over four rounds, Royal Birkdale consistently rewards the player who combines disciplined course management with elite ball-striking, imaginative shotmaking and the ability to adapt as conditions evolve, qualities that have long defined champions of The Open.
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This year’s field once again features virtually every notable player in the world. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler returns looking to successfully defend the claret jug, while Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and many of the game’s other biggest names headline a championship that includes competitors from the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LIV Golf and the amateur ranks.
Here are my favorite plays and fades in each price range for DraftKings contests for the 2026 Open Championship. $9,000+ range Play: Scottie Scheffler, $13,300
With the masses souring on Scheffler’s chances to raise the claret jug again this year, I’ll gladly take the opposite approach and come in well over the field on him. His iron play hasn’t reached the dominant level we saw a year ago, but that’s more a reflection of his own incredibly high standard than any real weakness. Over the past six months, he still ranks seventh in the world in approach play, while his putting has been the best of his career. Royal Birkdale also rewards elite, repeatable ball-striking more than many Open Championship venues, making it an ideal fit for his skill set. With plenty of high-upside options available in the $7K and upper-$6K range to pair with him, he’ll be one of my most rostered players this week.
Play: Justin Rose, $9,100 
Sean M. Haffey
Justin Rose continues to prove that the biggest stages still bring out his best golf. The Englishman has finished T-3 at the Masters, T-10 at the PGA Championship and T-11 at the U.S. Open this season, giving him nine top-16 finishes in majors over the past three years. He also enters Royal Birkdale with his iron game in excellent shape, ranking 13th in this field in strokes gained/approach, while his success on demanding par 4s should be a major asset on a layout that features 12 of them.
Birkdale is also a venue where Rose owns decades of experience. He burst onto the scene with a fourth-place finish here as a 17-year-old amateur in 1998, returned for the 2008 and 2017 Opens, and has amassed 11 career top-25 finishes in The Open Championship, including a T-16 last year. With his proven ability to elevate his game in majors, elite approach play, and unmatched familiarity with Royal Birkdale, Rose stands out as one of the strongest tournament options in his price range this week.
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Fade: Ludvig Aberg, $9,300
Aberg’s long-term upside is undeniable, but he enters Royal Birkdale with more questions than answers. Since the PGA Championship, he has failed to record a top-15 finish in five starts and arrives off a missed cut at the Genesis Scottish Open. While his ball-striking remains among the best in the world, his short game has repeatedly held him back, losing strokes in three of those five events.
He also has yet to win since the 2025 Genesis Invitational, and several chances to contend over the past year have slipped away because of untimely mistakes late in tournaments rather than an inability to create opportunities. Royal Birkdale may also neutralize one of Åberg’s biggest advantages. The course encourages players to club down and prioritize positioning over power, reducing the impact of his elite driving distance.
$8,000+ range Play: Collin Morikawa, $8,700 
Michael Reaves
Morikawa checks nearly every box I’m looking for at Royal Birkdale. He ranks second on tour this year in SG/approach and is fourth in driving accuracy, making him an ideal fit for a course that places a premium on precision off the tee and disciplined iron play rather than raw power. His ability to consistently find the correct side of the fairway is especially valuable at Birkdale, where poor angles into the smaller greens are heavily punished. He also rates among the best in the field in Distance From Edge of Fairway on courses with a high missed fairway penalty, further reinforcing how well his game fits this setup.
His form is trending in the right direction as well. A share of third at the Travelers Championship was another sign that his elite ball-striking is back after a quieter stretch, and history shows that when Morikawa’s irons heat up, he is usually in contention on Sunday. He’s also gained strokes putting in four consecutive starts, won earlier this season at Pebble Beach on another coastal layout that rewarded elite ball-striking into small greens, and ranks among the field’s strongest wind players if conditions become more difficult.
Fade: Bryson DeChambeau, $8,400
I know…I know. This fade is too easy. But there’s only seven players in the $8K range. And I love every other single one of them. And Bryson hasn’t made a major cut yet this year. And he’s changing equipment yet again. And last week, instead of prepping for the Open, he’s in the Canadian Rockies making YouTube videos. PASS.
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$7,000+ range Play: Russell Henley, $7,700 
Kate McShane
Russell Henley is one of the clearest course fits in the field. Royal Birkdale rewards accuracy, discipline and elite iron play far more than power, and few players execute that formula better. He leads this field in driving accuracy, ranks fifth in Good Drive Percentage and consistently keeps the ball in position to attack with his irons. Henley has also proven he can win on similar setups, capturing the Charles Schwab Challenge earlier this season, and already owns a T-3 at the Masters in 2026. His ability to control his ball flight in windy conditions has also been on display with victories at Bay Hill and PGA National.
Henley has also become one of the most reliable performers in major championships, recording five top-10 finishes in his past nine starts, including a T-5 and T-10 in the past two Open Championships. He rarely gives shots away, ranking third on tour in bogey avoidance this season while also owning one of the lowest double-bogey rates on difficult scoring courses over the past three years. On a course where avoiding mistakes is every bit as important as making birdies, Henley profiles as one of the strongest values on the board and a legitimate contender to earn his third straight Open Championship top-10 finish.
$6,000+ range Play: Akshay Bhatia, $6,600 
Jordan Bank
Akshay Bhatia profiles as a sneaky fit for Royal Birkdale. He finished inside the top 20 of my Rabbit Hole model thanks to his elite approach play, one of the strongest short games in the field, and a birdie-making ability that ranks eighth on tour this season. His biggest weakness has been a lack of distance off the tee, but that should be far less of a factor at Birkdale, where many players will club down anyway and firm fairways provide plenty of rollout.
Wind has consistently brought out Bhatia’s best golf. His victories at Bay Hill and the Valero Texas Open both came in demanding, windy conditions, and he’s also excelled on similar strategic layouts that reward precision and creativity, including a T-5 at the Travelers Championship and a T-17 at this year’s U.S. Open. While his Open Championship résumé is still developing, he has improved with each appearance, finishing a career-best T-30 at Royal Portrush last year. With his recent form trending upward and the course minimizing his biggest weakness, Bhatia offers intriguing tournament upside.
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private Royal Birkdale Golf Club Southport, Merseyside, England
- World’s 100 Greatest
- Best in the United Kingdom and Ireland
- Best in Country
Site of Jordan Spieth’s remarkable Open victory in 2017 where he went on a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie tear on holes 14-17 in the final round, Royal Birkdale has also been the venue for past Women’s British Opens, Ryder Cups, Walker and Curtis Cups. Three generations of the Hawtree design firm, oldest in the world, are responsible for Royal Birkdale. Patriarch Frederic G. did the present design, with its surprisingly flat fairways and docile greens between towering dunes, in 1931. Thirty years later, son Fred W. remodeled it, adding the now-classic par-3 12th. Forty years after that, grandson Martin revised the course for its 10th Open Championship, the tournament Spieth won, but now the curatorship of the course has been turned over to Tom Mackenzie of the firm Mackenzie & Ebert, who remodeled it for the 2026 Open. That included building new tee clusters, altering bunkers, completely remodeling the short par-5 fifth and adding a new, long par 3, the 15th, to replace the old par-3 14th that was taken out of play and converted to a short game practice area. View Course $5,000+ range Play: John Parry, $5,800 
Christian Petersen
John Parry has quietly put together an impressive rookie season on the PGA Tour, recording five top-20 finishes while missing just three cuts in 17 starts. His recent T-11 at the U.S. Open showed he can handle major championship setups, and his steady ball-striking gives him a high floor in DFS.
The Englishman also brings a strong résumé on links-style courses. He finished T-16 at last year’s Open Championship and added runner-up finishes at both the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Nexo Championship, proving he is comfortable in windy, firm conditions. With his experience, consistency, and proven success on this style of golf course, Parry stands out as an appealing value play at Royal Birkdale this week.
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Ron Klos (@PGASplits101 on X) is a PGA Tour data analyst for Betsperts Golf.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
