The Open 2026 · Royal Birkdale
The Open 2026 Round 1: Tee Times & TV
Thursday 16 July · Royal Birkdale, Southport
How to watch Round 1
- Date
- Thursday 16 July
- First tee
- 06:35
- UK live (Sky)
- Sky Sports Golf & Main Event, from 06:30
- UK free (BBC)
- BBC Two highlights (evening) + BBC Radio 5 Live
- US TV
- Peacock 01:30–04:00, then USA Network 04:00–15:30 (ET)
Tee times
The full 156-player Round 1 draw goes off in threes from 06:35 (UK), in two waves. Every group and tee time is below (all times UK/BST) — marquee groups are highlighted. The official draw also lives at theopen.com.
| Tee (BST) | Group |
|---|---|
| 06:35 | Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas |
| 06:46 | Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan |
| 06:57 | Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan |
| 07:08 | Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean |
| 07:19 | Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick |
| 07:30 | David Duval, Martin Couvra, Matthew Southgate |
| 07:41 | Sungjae Im, Daniel Brown, Fifa Laopakdee |
| 07:52 | Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith |
| 08:03 | Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg |
| 08:14 | Hennie du Plessis, Jose Luis Ballester, Dan Bradbury |
| 08:25 | Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini |
| 08:36 | Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren |
| 08:47 | Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth |
| 09:03 | Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune |
| 09:14 | Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Højgaard |
| 09:25 | Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee |
| 09:36 | Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland |
| 09:47 | Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day |
| 09:58 | ★ Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeauScheffler — defending champion |
| 10:09 | ★ Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon RahmSpieth won here in 2017; Fleetwood is Southport-born |
| 10:20 | Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor |
| 10:31 | Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig |
| 10:42 | Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard |
| 10:53 | Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonezawa, Caleb Surratt |
| 11:04 | MJ Daffue, Frederic Lacroix, Jack McDonald |
| 11:15 | Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro de Castro Piera |
| 11:41 | John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen |
| 11:52 | Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman |
| 12:03 | Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter |
| 12:14 | Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan |
| 12:25 | Sepp Straka, Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama |
| 12:36 | Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber |
| 12:47 | Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger |
| 12:58 | Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis |
| 13:09 | Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li |
| 13:20 | Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick |
| 13:31 | Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell |
| 13:42 | Johnny Keefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima |
| 13:53 | Louis Oosthuizen, Jesper Svensson, Jack Buchanan |
| 14:09 | Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert |
| 14:20 | Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, JT Poston |
| 14:31 | Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott |
| 14:42 | Collin Morikawa, JJ Spaun, Nicolai Højgaard |
| 14:53 | ★ Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks KoepkaLowry — 2019 Champion Golfer |
| 15:04 | Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Åberg |
| 15:15 | ★ Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt FitzpatrickMcIlroy in the marquee afternoon group |
| 15:26 | Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedmeyer |
| 15:37 | Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nico Echavarria |
| 15:48 | Peter Uihlein, Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta |
| 15:59 | Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Sam Bairstow |
| 16:10 | Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoernevik |
| 16:21 | Kazuki Higa, Jiho Yang, Nevill Ruiter |
Full field, all 52 groups. Times can shift slightly if the R&A revises the draw.
Round 1 — common questions
- What time does Round 1 of The Open 2026 start?
- Round 1 at Royal Birkdale gets under way at about 06:35 UK time on Thursday 16 July.
- What channel is Round 1 of The Open on in the UK?
- Sky Sports Golf & Main Event, from 06:30. There is no live TV coverage on the BBC — the BBC carries free highlights on BBC Two and iPlayer plus live radio on 5 Live.
- Can I watch Round 1 of The Open for free?
- You can follow it free on BBC Radio 5 Live and watch free highlights on BBC Two and iPlayer. Live TV in the UK is exclusive to Sky Sports.
