Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Sports Illustrated

Bob Harig

2024 British Open Full Field and Primer: The Year's Final Major Heads to Scotland

Open Scotland Henrik Stenson Troon (Organization) British Open Brian Harman Prestwick (Organization) Royal Troon (Facility) Bryson DeChambeau David Owen

Brian Harman holds the Claret Jug after winning the 2023 British Open. | Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

TROON, Scotland — The last major championship of the year is already upon us. They come fast now, ever since the PGA Championship was moved to May in 2019, a once-a-month cadence starting with the Masters in April making for a relatively short window.

No matter the year or the circumstances, there is considerable anticipation for the game’s oldest championship that this year will be played at Royal Troon for the 10th time.

Can Scottie Scheffler add a second major title and add to an already history-making season?

Can PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele continue a run of excellent play that has seen him make 51 consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour?

Can Bryson DeChambeau contend again after doing so each of the first three majors, winning the U.S. Open?

And what about Rory McIlroy and his quest for a fifth major championship and trying to rebound from his heartbreaking second-place finish at the U.S. Open?

Those are just a few of the major storylines heading into the Open, where Brian Harman will attempt his title after winning a year ago at Royal Liverpool. Here’s a look at what is ahead in Scotland.

The Championship

A field of in excess of 156 players, depending on withdrawals, is expected to begin play on Thursday with tee times beginning early in the morning and stretching into late in the afternoon, all off the first tee. The Scottish summers will see daylight until nearly 10 p.m. local time.

Where is Troon?

The town of approximately 15,000 people is located on Scotland’s Ayrshire coast on the west side of the country, some 30 miles from Glasgow.

Royal Troon

The course is hosting the Open for the 10th time, dating to its first in 1923 when it became a relatively “new” venue in the rotation. The 7,385-yard par-71 course has an out-and-back configuration similar to the Old Course in St. Andrews and the prevailing wind allows for a rather benign start followed by a fight to the finish. The iconic “postage stamp” 8th hole is one you’ll hear about often this week. Royal Troon is where the Open staged its first-ever four-hole aggregate playoff when Mark Calcavecchia defeated Greg Norman and Wayne Grady in 1989.

TV schedule (U.S. Eastern time)

Thursday-Friday: 1:30–4 a.m. Peacock (streaming); 4 a.m.–3 p.m. USA Network; 3 p.m.–4 p.m. (Peacock).

Saturday: 5–7 a.m. USA Network; 7 a.m.–3 p.m. NBC/Peacock

Sunday: 4–7 a.m. USA Network; 7 a.m.–2 p.m. NBC/Peacock

Prestwick’s influence

Prestwick Golf Club is a short distance from Royal Troon and the original home to the championship. It hosted the first Open in 1960 and the last in 1925 with a total of 24 Opens, the most of any venue aside from St. Andrews. Of those Opens, 15 were played on a 12-hole layout that was not revamped until the late 1880s. Today just four of the original holes remain, but it is a quirky layout still filled with history. Tom Morris Jr. won for the third straight time in 1870, starting the tournament with a 3 on what was then a 578-yard opening hole played as a par-6.

The first “modern” course

Several other Open venues had yet to find their way into the rotation when Troon first hosted the championship in 1923. (It did not gain its Royal distinction until 1978.) It replaced Prestwick because it was deemed insufficient to handle the ever-growing number of spectators. Troon is not the most famous or picturesque of the venues, but it has plenty of qualifiers as well as an oddity: Americans won seven in a row at Royal Troon before Sweden’s Henrik Stenson won in 2016.

The captain's frolic

Author David Owen explained how an annual event between Troon and Prestwick works. It’s called the Captain’s Frolic and it’s a “foursomes” event in which partners hit alternate shots as is one of the formats in the Ryder Cup. The event takes place between the two clubs with players starting on the first hole at either course, playing nine holes, crossing the road to play the 18 at the other course and then returning for the final nine. When each team makes it to the 18th green on the opposite course, it breaks for lunch before playing the rest of the way. As Owen wrote on his blog: “Usually, a team scores better if it starts at Prestwick, because a typical Prestwick lunch includes so much alcohol that golfers who make the turn there sometimes have trouble finding their way home.”

The Postage Stamp

As its name implies, the par-3 8th hole—known as the postage stamp—has a relatively small green. And it’s a relatively small hole, the scorecard calling it just 123 yards, with the possibility that it plays as short as 100 yards during one of the rounds of the Open. It has an elevated tee shot over a gully to a 30-yard-long green that is just 10 yards wide. It is ringed by five bunkers and flanked on the left by a rough-covered hill that sees balls veering into the sand. Gene Sarazen, at age 71, aced the hole in 1973 playing in his final Open.

The Duel

The last Open at Royal Troon was in 2016 when Phil Mickelson shot a final-round 65 playing in the last group—and lost. That’s because Henrik Stenson shot 63 win by three strokes. Stenson made 10 birdies in the final round, winning at age 40 to put his name alongside Johnny Miller as the only players to shoot 63 in the final round and win a major.