2026 British Open: Hometown Tommy Fleetwood could end English drought for Claret Jug, plus tee times & weather

The final major championship of the golf season arrives Thursday with the 154th staging of the British Open – or the Open Championship as they call it across the pond. Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, a coastal town between Liverpool and Preston in the northwest portion of the country, takes its turn in the rotation. This marks the 11th time that Royal Birkdale hosts, which is the sixth-most all-time.

What I want to focus on today is if England finally ends its drought of winning the Claret Jug, with the last Englishman to win the British Open being Nick Faldo in 1992. Tony Jacklin in 1969 was the last from the country to win the tournament when it was played in England. And Royal Birkdale hosted that year.

What a truly fabulous story it would be Sunday if Tommy Fleetwood brings it home – because he was raised in Southport only a few miles from Royal Birkdale and said he used to sneak on as a kid to play a few holes. The 35-year-old is +1800 to win his first major and still has just the one career PGA Tour victory but a big one: Last year's Tour Championship to claim the FedExCup. Fleetwood does have nine international victories to his credit.

Fleetwood hasn't been that great in majors this year with a T-33 at the Masters, missed cut at the PGA Championship and T-11 at the U.S. Open. This will mark Fleetwood's 12th British Open. with a best result of runner-up to Shane Lowry – albeit by six shots – at Royal Portrush in 2019. Last year, he was T-15, also at Royal Portrush, and was T-27 when Royal Birkdale last hosted in 2017. If not for a first-round 76, he might have contended, as Fleetwood then shot 69-66-70. But he has finished outside the top 10 in 10 straight majors. I do like him for one this time at +160. 

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If not world No. 9 Fleetwood ending the English drought, how about No. 3 Matt Fitzpatrick (+1850) doing so? He is tied for the PGA Tour lead with three wins this season and would have a pretty good case for PGA Tour Player of the Year with a victory here. Fitzpatrick's only top 10 in previous British Opens was T-4 last year. He was T-44 nine years ago at Royal Birkdale.

Fitzpatrick, who has finished outside the top 10 at all three majors in 2026, ranks second on the PGA Tour this year in strokes gained, while Fleetwood is third. Believe it or not, two different golfers from England have never won a major in a given year. Aaron Rai was the unlikely winner of May's PGA Championship and is +10000 this week. Rai's best British Open result was T-19 five years ago at Royal St. George's.

And let's not forgot world No. 10 Justin Rose, who is +4200 to win his first Open Championship. He would have the most starts in the event (23) by a first-time winner in it. The 45-year-old would be the second-oldest winner of the Claret Jug (Old Tom Morris was 46 in 1867) and is one of two golfers this year to finish at least T12 in all three majors along with the USA's Xander Schauffele.

Rose was the low amateur as a 17-year-old at the 1998 British Open at Royal Birkdale, finishing T-4. He then finished T-70 in 2008 and T-54 in two other Open starts at the course.

Below is the weather forecast for the week in Southport – weather is usually a bigger factor in this tournament than any other major, but it looks quite nice this weekend – as well as tee times, with Fleetwood off at 5:09 a.m. ET in a marquee grouping with Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm. Note that with the warm weather and winds, the course could play incredibly dry and fast.

Sunday could be one of the great sporting days in England history if a native son wins the Open and the Three Lions beat either France or Spain in the World Cup final should the Brits get past Argentina in Wednesday's semifinal. 

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Weather forecast

Thursday -- Sunshine and clouds mixed. Very warm. High 80F. Winds NE at 10-15 mph.

Friday -- Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 76F. Winds N at 10-15 mph.

Saturday -- Partly cloudy skies. High 72F. Winds N at 10-15 mph.

Sunday -- Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 71F. Winds WNW at 10-15 mph.

Thursday Round 1 tee times (Eastern)

1:35 a.m. -- Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas

1:46 a.m. -- Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan

1:57 a.m. -- Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan

2:08 a.m. -- Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean

2:19 a.m. -- Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick

2:30 a.m. -- David Duval, Martin Couvra, Matthew Southgate

2:41 a.m. -- Sungjae Im, Daniel Brown, Fifa Laopakdee (a)

2:52 a.m. -- Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith

3:03 a.m. -- Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg (a)

3:14 a.m. -- Hennie Du Plessis, Jose Luis Ballester, Dan Bradbury

3:25 a.m. -- Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini (a)

3:36 a.m. -- Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren

3:47 a.m. -- Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth

4:03 a.m. -- Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune

4:14 a.m. -- Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Højgaard

4:25 a.m. -- Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee

4:36 a.m. -- Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland

4:47 a.m. -- Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day

4:58 a.m. -- Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau

5:09 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm

5:20 a.m. -- Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor

5:31 a.m. -- Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig

5:42 a.m. -- Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard (a)

5:53 a.m. -- Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonexawa, Caleb Surratt

6:04 a.m. -- M.J. Daffue, Frederic Lacroix, Jack McDonald

6:15 a.m. -- Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro De Castro Piera (a)

6:41 a.m. -- John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen

6:52 a.m. -- Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman

7:03 a.m. -- Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter

7:14 a.m. -- Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (a)

7:25 a.m. -- Sepp Straka Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama

7:36 a.m. -- Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber

7:47 a.m. -- Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger

7:58 a.m. -- Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis

8:09 a.m. -- Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li

8:20 a.m. -- Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick

8:31 a.m. -- Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (a)

8:42 a.m. -- Johnny Keefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima

8:53 a.m. -- Louis Oosthuizen, Jesper Svensson, Jack Buchanan (a)

9:09 a.m. -- Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert

9:20 a.m. -- Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, J.T. Poston

9:31 a.m. -- Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott

9:42 a.m. -- Collin Morikawa, J.J. Spaun, Nicolai Højgaard

9:53 a.m. -- Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka

10:04 a.m. -- Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludivg Åberg

10:15 a.m. -- Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick

10:26 a.m. -- Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedemeyer (a)

10:37 a.m. -- Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nico Echavarria

10:48 a.m. -- Peter Uihlein, Alistair Docherty, Francesco LaPorta

10:59 a.m. -- Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Sam Bairstow

11:10 a.m. -- Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Skogen

11:21 a.m. -- Kazuki Higa, Jiho Yang, Nevill Ruiter (a)