Americans have won each of the last three Open Championships, with Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Brian Harman prevailing. Not since 2003-06 have U.S.-born golfers won this major four straight times, a drought that many will try to end at The Open 2026. In addition to the aforementioned, the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Young and Wyndham Clark are contenders to claim the 2026 Open Championship. Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Aaron Rai are among the Brits looking to triumph at the British Open 2026 when play begins on Thursday, July 16.
Scheffler is the +700 favorite (risk $100 to win $700) in Open Championship 2026 odds to repeat. McIlroy (+850), Fleetwood (+1500), Fitzpatrick (+1500), Jon Rahm (+2000) and Xander Schauffele (+2700) are the Open Championship contenders with odds lower than +3000. Jordan Spieth, who won The Open the last time Royal Birkdale hosted in 2017, is a +8000 longshot. Before locking in any 2026 Open Championship picks, be sure to see the 2026 Open Championship predictions and projected leaderboard from the proven computer model at SportsLine.
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SportsLine's proprietary golf betting model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, simulates every PGA Tour event 10,000 times. This same model has also nailed a whopping 17 majors entering the weekend, including the 2026 Masters -- its fifth Masters in a row -- as well as last year's PGA Championship and Open Championship.
Now that the 2026 British Open field is locked in, the model simulated the tournament 10,000 times, and the results were surprising. Head to SportsLine now to see the projected leaderboard.
2026 Open Championship predictions for Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark
One pick from the model for The Open 2026: Wyndham Clark (+3300), the latest major champion after winning the U.S. Open for the second time, stumbles big time and barely cracks the top 20. While Clark has seemingly figured out the courses utilized for the U.S. Open, the same can't be said for all other majors. He has 13 combined starts at the other three majors and just one top 20 finish. He has nearly as many missed cuts (six) as made cuts (seven) across those 13.
Royal Birkdale is one of the 10 shortest courses in use during the 2026 PGA Tour schedule, so driving distance isn't much of a factor. However, the course has over 100 bunkers, so precision is paramount. Clark is just 83rd in driving accuracy percentage and only 65th in greens in regulation percentage. One shouldn't expect another run up the leaderboard for Clark at this major as he's one to fade with Open Championship bets.
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The model has also examined McIlroy's (+850) chances of becoming a two-time Open champion, after winning the event 12 years ago in 2014. He remains the last Brit to win the British Open and aims to become the 12th golfer with seven major championships. McIlroy has been all over the leaderboard at recent editions of this major, with three top 10s and three finishes 46th or worse over his last six Open starts. He does have promising course history at Royal Birkdale, placing fourth when the course hosted the 2017 Open Championship. If he can utilize momentum from that showing and make his way to the top of the leaderboard, then McIlroy's seventh major title would tie him with Harry Vardon for the most by any British golfer.
The model has also locked in its projection for Scheffler (+700) who, with a victory at Royal Birkdale, would become the first back-to-back Open champion since Tiger Woods in 2005-06. Scheffler has never had a bad performance at this major, notching top 25s in all five of his Open starts. While his top 5 and top 10 finishes are on pace with what he did the last two years, the victories have not kept up. He won his first tournament of 2026 but has come up short in his ensuing 13 events.
The difference this year could be Scheffler's opening round struggles as he led the tour in Round 1 scoring each of the last three seasons. However, he ranks 34th this year and is often digging himself into a hole that he hasn't been able to quite climb out of. Even with that, his metrics are unparalleled on the PGA Tour as Scheffler leads it in strokes gained: total, scoring average and birdie average. See the full Open Championship projections from the model here.
How to make 2026 Open Championship picks
The model is also targeting several longshots, including one who is going off around 35-1. You can only see the model's picks here.
Who will win the 2026 British Open, which longshots will stun the golfing world, and where will Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy finish? Check out the 2026 Open Championship odds below and then visit SportsLine to see the projected leaderboard, all from the model that's nailed 17 golf majors, including three in 2025, and five straight Masters.
2026 Open Championship odds, favorites
Get full 2026 Open Championship picks, best bets and predictions here. Odds via FanDuel (subject to change)
Scottie Scheffler +700 Rory McIlroy +850 Tommy Fleetwood +1500 Matt Fitzpatrick +1500 Jon Rahm +2000 Xander Schauffele +2700 Collin Morikawa +3000 Viktor Hovland +3000 Robert MacIntyre +3000 Wyndham Clark +3300 Chris Gotterup +3300 Cameron Young +3300 Tyrrell Hatton +3300 Ludvig Åberg +3300 Justin Rose +3300 Russell Henley +4000 Shane Lowry +4500 Si Woo Kim +4500 Tom Kim +4500 Sam Burns +4500 Min Woo Lee +5000 Patrick Reed +5000 Justin Thomas +5500 Aaron Rai +6000 Alex Fitzpatrick +6000 Bryson DeChambeau +6000 Patrick Cantlay +6000 Joaquin Niemann +6500 Brooks Koepka +7000 JJ Spaun +7000 Jordan Spieth +8000 Ben Griffin +8000 Hideki Matsuyama +8000 Rickie Fowler +10000 Maverick McNealy +10000 Brian Harman +10000 Adam Scott +10000 Nicolai Højgaard +10000 Harris English +10000 Kurt Kitayama +10000 Matt Wallace +10000 Ryan Gerard +10000 Keegan Bradley +10000 Akshay Bhatia +10000 Kristoffer Reitan +10000 Alex Noren +10000 Corey Conners +12500 Tom McKibbin +12500 Eugenio Chacarra +12500 Victor Perez +12500 Alex Smalley +15000 Bud Cauley +15000 Cameron Smith +15000 Ryan Fox +15000 Keith Mitchell +15000 J.T. Poston +15000 David Puig +17500 Sepp Straka +17500 Jacob Bridgeman +17500 Jake Knapp +17500 Marco Penge +17500 Jordan Smith +17500 Max Homa +17500 Michael Kim +17500 Casey Jarvis +17500 Nick Taylor +17500 Jason Day +17500 Gary Woodland +17500 Eric Cole +17500 Johnny Keefer +17500 Michael Thorbjornsen +17500 John Parry +22500 Haotong Li +22500 Sahith Theegala +22500 Sam Stevens +22500 Max Greyserman +22500 Angel Ayora +22500 Harry Hall +22500 Matt Mccarty +22500 Sungjae Im +25000 Sami Valimaki +25000 Pierceson Coody +25000 Rasmus Højgaard +25000 Andrew Novak +25000 Lucas Herbert +25000 Laurie Canter +25000 Thomas Detry +25000 Nico Echavarria +25000 Ryo Hisatsune +25000 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +25000 Aldrich Potgieter +25000 Jayden Schaper +35000 Daniel Hillier +35000 Billy Horschel +35000 Jackson Suber +35000 Daniel Berger +35000 Michael Brennan +35000 Bernd Wiesberger +35000 Matthew Jordan +35000 Stewart Cink +35000 Hennie du Plessis +50000 Jesper Svensson +50000 Scott Vincent +50000 Keita Nakajima +50000 Daniel Brown +50000 Andy Sullivan +50000 Francesco Molinari +50000 Shaun Norris +75000 Padraig Harrington +75000 Adrien Saddier +75000 Francesco Laporta +75000 Joe Dean +75000 Peter Uihlein +100000 Alejandro De Castro Piera +100000 Kota Kaneko +100000 Nevill Ruiter +100000 Matthew Southgate +100000 Baard Bjoernevik Skogen +100000 Travis Smyth +100000 Dan Bradbury +100000 Naoyuki Kataoka +100000 MJ Daffue +100000 Marcus Plunkett +100000 Cameron John +100000 Tiger Christensen +100000 Ryutaro Nagano +100000 Jeong Woo Ham +100000 Lev Grinberg +100000 Martin Couvra +100000 Jack Buchanan +100000 Joakim Lagergren +100000 Frederic Lacroix +100000 Stuart Grehan +100000 Matthew Baldwin +100000 Kazuki Higa +100000 Sam Bairstow +100000 Darren Clarke +100000 Fifa Laopakdee +100000 David Duval +100000 Mason Howell +100000 Ren Yonezawa +100000 Jiho Yang +100000 James Nicholas +100000 Michael Hollick +100000 David Howard +100000 Mateo Pulcini +100000 Kazuma Kobori +100000 Henrik Stenson +100000 Tim Wiedemeyer +100000 Jack McDonald +100000 Antoine Rozner +100000 Caleb Surratt +100000 Alistair Docherty +100000 Jose Luis Ballester +100000 Austen Truslow +100000 Tom Sloman +100000
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