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Where will The Open Championship be held in future years?
The Royal & Ancient (R&A), the organization that administers competitive golf overseas, has fine-tuned a relatively tight list of host venues for the oldest of golf's four major championships. Scotland's Prestwick Golf Club hosted the first 11 Opens and 24 in total before falling out of the rotation after 1925, hosting the tournament two dozen times in total.
Other links like Musselburgh (six times from 1874 to 1889), Royal Cinque Ports (1909 and 1920) and Prince's Golf Club (1932) have been involved, but the rest of the traditional Open Championship rota of 10 courses have all hosted the event at least once since 2009. Even so, due to circumstances including infrastructure, club policies and global politics, long-tenured venues like Turnberry, Muirfield and Carnoustie's place in the Open rota currently seem tenuous; these three Scottish clubs' last Opens were in 2009, 2013 and 2018, respectively.
After hosting only one Open Championship on the island of Ireland from inception through 2018, the R&A returned to 1951 host Royal Portrush Golf Club on Northern Ireland's northern coast in 2019. It was such a popular stop, buoyed by Irishman Shane Lowry's victory, that it reprised its spot in the rota in 2025, when Scottie Scheffler took home the Claret Jug.
Royal Portrush's success as a re-emergent Open Championship host golf course has prompted speculation that the R&A might eventually induct another Irish course into the rota: Portmarnock Golf Club near Dublin. The organization brought The Amateur Championship there in 2019 and The Women's Amateur Championship there in 2024. Both outings were deemed a success and there is widespread speculation that the R&A will eventually make Portmarnock the first golf course outside of the United Kingdom to host The Open.
As of this writing (July, 2026), only three future Open Championship sites have been locked in.
Future Open Championship host golf courses: 2026 through 2028
2026: The 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club
Location: Southport, Lancashire, England
Dates: July 16-19, 2026
Course architects: Frederick G. Hawtree & J.H. Taylor; Frederick W. Hawtree; Martin Hawtree; Mackenzie & Ebert
Past Opens hosted (10): 1954, 1961, 1965, 1971, 1976, 1983, 1991, 1998, 2008, 2017
Note: Ever since it broke into the rota in 1954, Birkdale has been a favorite Open Championship host golf course among the players, who appreciate its relatively straightforward challenges relative to some other, quirkier venues. The fairways feature relatively mild movement and holes are routed between dunes, rather than over and sometimes through them, as is the case elsewhere. The most recent round of course changes occurred in anticipation of the 2026 Open; architect Tom Mackenzie of Mackenzie & Ebert revamped the bunkering, substantially altered the par-5 14th and built an entirely new par-3 15th hole, which can play longer than 250 yards from the back tee. Birkdale's list of champions, especially pre-1990, is incredibly strong: Peter Thomson (twice, in 1954 and 1965), Arnold Palmer (1961), Lee Trevino (1971), Johnny Miller (1976) and Tom Watson (1983). Jordan Spieth captured the most recent Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, in 2017.
2027: The 155th Open Championship at The Old Course at St. Andrews Links
Location: St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland
Where will the PGA Championship be held in future years?
Dates: July 15-18, 2027
Course architects: Unknown/Local golfers (pre-1800); Allan Robertson; Old Tom Morris; Daw Anderson; Harry Colt; Mackenzie & Ebert
Past Opens hosted (30): 1873, 1876, 1879, 1882, 1885, 1888, 1891, 1895, 1900, 1905, 1910, 1921, 1927, 1933, 1939, 1946, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1964, 1970, 1978, 1984, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2022
Note: Golf's closest analog to the Vatican has hosted more Open Championships than any other course, and the R&A seems intent on bringing the tournament to The Old Course every five stagings. Quirkily rumpled fairways, hidden pot bunkers and enormous double-greens are all reminders of how golf was played for centuries before becoming modernized and a massive industry unto itself. Still, the Old Course has not been immune from its own occasional updates in the form of refinished and repositioned bunkers and a seemingly unending slate of new championship tees, meant to try and combat the as-yet-unchecked forward march of driving distance. Now, the course has Open Championship tees that technically sit on three other neighboring courses, including a back tee for the iconic Road Hole, number 17, that sits across the wall that for centuries marked the western boundary of the links. Presumably the 160th Open Champion, when it returns to The Old Course, will be conducted under a new set of equipment regulations.
2028: The 156th Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club
Location: Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire, England
Dates: August 3-6, 2028
Course architects: Harry Colt; Tom Simpson; Herbert Fowler; European Golf Design; Mackenzie & Ebert
Past Opens hosted (11): 1926, 1952, 1958, 1963, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1988, 1996, 2001, 2012
Note: Occupying one of the smallest pieces of land of any Open rota course, Lytham is a tactical test that historically has rewarded prudence more than power. Bunkers - 174 of them - litter the playing field, and most of them are of the pitch-out pot variety. Bobby Jones won the first Open contested here in 1926, and latter-day winners have included Peter Thomson (1958), Tony Jacklin (1969), Gary Player (1974) and Seve Ballesteros twice (1979, 1988). David Duval claimed his lone major at Lytham in 2001, and Ernie Els benefited from Adam Scott's four-bogey run in 2012. Note the late date for the 2028 Open; it has been shifted a couple of weeks later due to the timing of the 2028 Olympic Games and its golf competition.
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