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USA Today
2 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Heading to Royal Birkdale for the 2026 British Open? Here's how to get tickets
It's probably too late to plan a trip across the pond to see the British Open this weekend at Royal Portrush. But applications are open for the ticket lottery for the 2026 Open Championship. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and the rest of golf's biggest stars are facing off this weekend in Northern Ireland in the last major of the 2025 season. The Open returns to England next year, holding its 154th edition at Royal Birkdale. Tickets are available now through the official channels ... if you're willing to pay a steeper price. If not, the ticket ballot is available for affordable rates, though you're still looking at least 60 pounds (that's about $80 at the current exchange rate) per ticket during the tournament. And that's if you qualify for a "youth" ticket — if you're between 16 and 24. Here's what you need to know about buying tickets to the British Open: When is British Open 2026? The 2026 Open Championship is scheduled for July 15-19. Where will the British Open be in 2026? Royal Birkdale will host the 2026 Open Championship. The course in Southport, about 18 miles north of Liverpool, has hosted the British Open 10 times previously, first in 1954 and most recently in 2017. Peter Thomson won twice there (1954 and 1965), and the list of Open champs at Royal Birkdale include Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Padraig Harrington and Jordan Spieth. Where can I buy tickets for British Open? British Open tickets are available on marketplace sites, including StubHub. However, the only official place to buy tickets for golf's final major is Fans can sell their unwanted tickets through the official Resale Platform throughout the tournament. How can I apply for British Open tickets in 2026? The ticket ballot for the 2026 British Open is open now until noon ET on July 25. To be eligible, fans must be at least 16 and part of One Club, the free digital membership platform of the R&A. Fans can select up to four tickets per day of the tournament through the ballot. Those who receive tickets through the ballot will be notified in August or September. Those who upgrade their membership to One Club Advantage have a better chance of landing tickets in the ballot. Fans can also book higher-end tickets and packages now at How much do British Open tickets cost? Here are the prices listed for general admission tickets at the 2026 British Open. All prices listed are the approximate equivalent cost in U.S. dollars as of July 15, 2025. Tickets for fans younger than 16 are free:
USA Today
10-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Reliving 16-year-old Rory McIlroy's course record 61 at Royal Portrush
At the 2018 Memorial Tournament, Rory McIlroy had gone out early on Saturday and posted a 64. With nothing better to do, he was relaxing in a comfy couch in the players' locker room when I told him I was fresh off a golf trip to play Northern Ireland's gems and asked him how he possibly shot 61 at Royal Portrush at age 16 in the stroke-play qualifying for the North of Ireland Championship. His eyes lit up, he smiled broadly and invited me to sit down beside him. Who doesn't like reliving one of his best rounds, right? 'I remember every shot from that round like it was yesterday,' he said. 'It was the first time I ever played 18 holes without a bogey.' McIlroy blitzed Royal Portrush's Dunluce Links, which dates to 1888, in a course-record 11-under 61. In many ways, it is that round on July 12, 2005, which confirmed all the hype about McIlroy was legit. As if we needed any further confirmation that Rory's one of us, he remembered a birdie that got away – right at the first – but he missed little thereafter. Driver and 6-iron led to a two-putt birdie at the second, and he tacked on birdies at Nos. 6 and 9, where he wedged into the par-5 ninth, to turn in 33. He eagled the par-5 10th and made a deuce at the par-3 11th to go to 6 under, and that's when he started thinking about breaking the course record of 64. He kept the pedal down, getting to 9 under par through 16 holes. He knew if he parred in, he'd break the course record. Special stuff and it would get even more special with another birdie at 17. Double digits under par! 'I thought, 'OK, just don't screw this up at the last. You can even bogey and still shoot the course record.'' McIlroy said. He launched a perfect drive at 18 and lofted an 8-iron to the heart of the green. All he said he was trying to do was two-putt from about 20 feet. He rolled it in for good measure to finish with five straight birdies and shatter the record by three. 'That was a special day,' he said in the understatement of the day. 'A member of the golf club phoned me and told me, and I thought it was a joke,' Michael Bannon, McIlroy's longtime instructor, told ahead of the 2019 Open. 'No one can shoot 61 around Royal Portrush.' 'I actually thought he didn't play the last two holes,' said Maureen Madill, a longtime club member and former tour professional turned broadcaster. 'I asked, 'Did he play the whole way around? 17 and 18?' I thought, That's extraordinary.' Indeed, it was. Best round ever, I asked? 'It's up there. Definitely up there,' McIlroy said before adding the most memorable moment of our conversation. 'It's the first time I've ever felt in the zone. Ever since, when I get 7-, 8-, 9-under in a round, I've never been afraid to push it further.' With the career Grand Slam complete following his dramatic victory at the Masters in April, McIlroy has struggled from a lack of focus. And there's some scar tissue from an opening-round 79 at the 2019 Open at Portrush, which dug McIlroy such a big hole that even a 65 the next day wasn't enough to make the 36-hole cut. Perhaps a chance to make some more history and win a major on home soil and prove that Portrush, which underwent a renovation ahead of the previous Open there, hasn't been Rory-proofed. 'Look, if I can't get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don't know what can motivate me,' McIlroy said.
