Southport, England — The R&A has outlined the exemption categories and confirmed dozens of players for the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club. Championship play runs Thursday, July 16 through Sunday, July 19, 2026, marking the 11th time the iconic links have hosted the event (last in 2017, won by Jordan Spieth).
With final qualifying over, there are 133 players booked for Birkdale. This week’s BMW International and next week’s Genesis Scottish Open will award additional spots to the low finishers not already qualified, with one more via a new Last-Chance Qualifier (18 holes at Birkdale on Monday, July 13).
1. Past Open Champions (Under 60 who won before 2024)
Brian Harman
Cameron Smith
Collin Morikawa
Shane Lowry
Francisco Molinari
Jordan Spieth
Henrik Stenson
Rory McIlroy
Darren Clarke
Louis Oosthuizen
Stewart Cink
Padraig Harrington
David Duval
13 players
(Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson, Justin Leonard, Paul Lawrie, Ben Curtis, and Ernie Els qualified here but have not entered or withdrawn.)
2. Past Open Champions (Under 55 who won from 2024 and on)
Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
2 players
3. The Open Champions for 2015-2025 (10 year exempt)
All exempt from above categories
4. Top 10 and ties from 153rd Open at Royal Portrush in 2025 (not already qualified).
Harris English
Chris Gotterup
Haotong Li
Matt Fitzpatrick
Wyndham Clark
Robert MacIntyre
Corey Conners
Russell Henley
Bryson DeChambeau
9 players
5. Top 50 on the OWGR for Week 21, May 24, 2026 (not already qualified).
Cameron Young
Justin Rose
Tommy Fleetwood
J.J. Spaun
Jon Rahm
Ludvig Åberg
Aaron Rai
Justin Thomas
Ben Griffin
Sepp Straka
Si Woo Kim
Hideki Matsuyama
Alex Noren
Patrick Reed
Jacob Bridgeman
Kristoffer Reitan
Akshay Bhatia
Tyrrell Hatton
Nicolai Hojgaard
Kurt Kitayama
Min Woo Lee
Viktor Hovland
Patrick Cantlay
Maverick McNealy
Keegan Bradley
Sam Burns
Ryan Gerard
Rickie Fowler
Jake Knapp
Alex Smalley
Jason Day
Daniel Berger
Gary Woodland
Michael Kim
Matt McCarty
Adam Scott
36 players
6. Top 25 players in the Final Race to Dubai Rankings for 2025 (not already qualified).
Laurie Canter
Adrien Saddier
John Parry
Keita Nakajima
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
Jordan Smith
Daniel Brown
Daniel Hillier
Martin Couvra
Angel Ayora
Elvis Smylie
Joakin Lagergren
Rasmus Hojgaard
13 players
7. The BMW PGA Championship winners for 2023-2025 (not already qualified).
Billy Horschel
Ryan Fox
2 players
8. Top 5 (and ties) of the top 20 Race to Dubai Rankings on completion of the 2026 BMW International Open (not already qualified).
TBD
9. The Masters Tournament Champions for 2022-2026.
All exempt from above categories
10. The PGA Champions for 2022-2026.
Brooks Koepka
11. The US Open Champions for 2022-2026.
All exempt from above categories
12. Top 30 players from the Final 2025 FedExCup Points List (not already qualified).
Harry Hall
Sungjae Im
Andrew Novak
Nick Taylor
4 players
13. THE PLAYERS Champions for 2024-2026.
All exempt from above categories
14. Top 5 (and ties) of the top 20 FedEx Cup on completion of the 2026 Travelers (not already qualified).
Alex Fitzpatrick
15. Top player on LIV Golf individual season standings (June 7)
Joaquin Niemann
16. Top 5 players on the 2026 Federation Ranking List as of OWGR Week 21, May 24, 2026.
Kazuki Higa
Casey Jarvis
Kota Kaneko
Travis Smyth
Scott Vincent
5 players
17. The Senior Open Champion for 2025
Padraig Harrington
18. The US Amateur Champion for 2025
a-Mason Howell
19. The Mark H McCormack Medal (Men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR®)) winner for 2025.
Already exempt
20. The Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion 2025.
a-Fifa Laopakdee
21. The Latin America Amateur Champion 2026.
a-Mateo Pulcini
22. The Africa Amateur Champion 2026.
a-Jack Buchanan
23. The Amateur Champion for 2026.
a-Stuart Grehan
24. The European Amateur Champion for 2026.
a-Tim Wiedemeyer
25. The Open Amateur Series winner 2026.
a-Lev Grinberg
Open Qualifying Series (not already qualified)
Alistair Docherty (Argentina)
Jeongwoo Ham (Singapore)
Lucas Herbert (New Zealand)
Michael Hollick (Australia)
Cameron John (Singapore)
Naoyuki Kataoka (Japan)
Frederic Lacroix (South Africa)
Francesco Laporta (South Africa)
Tom McKibbin (Hong Kong)
Jiho Yang (South Korea)
Shaun Norris (Mizuno Open)
Ryutaro Nagano (Mizuno Open)
Ren Yonezawa (Mizuno Open)
J.T. Poston (Memorial)
Bud Cauley (RBC Canadian Open)
Jackson Suber (RBC Canadian Open)
Jesper Svensson (RBC Canadian Open)
Eugenio Chacarra (Italian Open)
TBD (Scottish Open)
18 players
Final Qualifying
James Nicholas
Caleb Surratt
Austen Truslow
Tom Sloman
a-Alejandro de Castro Piera
Jack McDonald
Matthew Baldwin
a-David Howard
Macus Plunkett
a-Nevill Ruiter
Baard Skogen
MJ Daffue
Matthew Southgate
Peter Uihlein
Antoine Rozner
Sam Bairstow
Kazuma Kobori
Tiger Christensen
Josele Ballester
Matthew Jordan
20 players
133 players total
