On Thursday, 156 golfers began their week with dreams of raising the Claret Jug on Sunday to celebrate a 2026 British Open win. By Friday afternoon, however, over half of the field will be sent home.
In order to make the weekend at the British Open, golfers need to finish with one of the 70 lowest scores (including ties) through 36 holes. There is no 10-stroke rule, meaning if a player is within 10 shots of the leader but outside of the top 70 scores, his tournament is still over.
Compared to the other three majors, the British Open is tied with the PGA Championship for bringing the largest field to Saturday and Sunday. Both the British Open and PGA Championship bring the top 70 scores (plus ties) to the weekend, while the U.S. Open allows 60 (plus ties), and only the top 50 scores (plus ties) make it to Saturday and Sunday at the Masters.
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The last time Royal Birkdale played host to the British Open, the cut line was five-over par. Despite the course getting even tougher than it was nine years ago, Data Golf projects a less favorable cut line for Friday at either one-over (34.5%), two-over (38.6%) or three-over par (13.4%).
If ends up being two-over par, big names like Jordan Spieth (three over), Sam Burns (three over), Cameron Smith (three over) and 2023 British Open winner Brian Harman (four over) would be on the outside looking in. But there are 18 holes for them to get things back on track.
For context, here is a list of the cutlines for the last 10 British Opens:
| YEAR | SITE | CUT |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Royal Portrush | +1 |
| 2024 | Royal Troon | +6 |
| 2023 | Royal Liverpool | +3 |
| 2022 | St. Andrews | E |
| 2021 | Royal St. George’s | +1 |
| 2019 | Royal Portrush | +1 |
| 2018 | Carnoustie | +3 |
| 2017 | Royal Birkdale | +5 |
| 2016 | Royal Troon | +4 |
| 2015 | St. Andrews | E |
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Full list of tee times for Friday’s second round
- 1:35 a.m.: John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen
- 1:46 a.m.: Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman
- 1:57 a.m.: Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter
- 2:08 a.m.: Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (a)
- 2:19 a.m.: Sepp Straka, Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama
- 2:30 a.m.: Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber
- 2:41 a.m.: Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger
- 2:52 a.m.: Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis
- 3:03 a.m.: Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li
- 3:14 a.m.: Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick
- 3:25 a.m.: Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (a)
- 3:36 a.m.: Johnny Keefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima
- 3:47 a.m.: Louis Oosthuizen, Jesper Svensson, Jack Buchanan (a)
- 4:03 a.m.: Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert
- 4:14 a.m.: Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, JT Poston
- 4:25 a.m.: Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott
- 4:36 a.m.: Collin Morikawa, J.J. Spaun, Nicolai Højgaard
- 4:47 a.m.: Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka
- 4:58 a.m.: Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Åberg
- 5:09 a.m.: Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick
- 5:20 a.m.: Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedemeyer (a)
- 5:31 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nicolas Echavarria
- 5:42 a.m.: Peter Uihlein, Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta
- 5:53 a.m.: Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Samuel Bairstow
- 6:04 a.m.: Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoern
- 6:41 a.m.: Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas
- 6:52 a.m.: Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan
- 7:03 a.m.: Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan
- 7:14 a.m.: Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean
- 7:25 a.m.: Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick
- 7:36 a.m.: David Duval, Martin Couvra, Matthew Southgate
- 7:47 a.m.: Sungjae Im, Dan Brown, Fifa Laopakdee (a)
- 7:58 a.m.: Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith
- 8:09 a.m.: Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg (a)
- 8:20 a.m.: Hennie du Plessis, Jose Luis Ballester Barrio, Dan Bradbury
- 8:31 a.m.: Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini (a)
- 8:42 a.m.: Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren
- 8:53 a.m.: Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth
- 9:09 a.m.: Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune
- 9:20 a.m.: Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Højgaard
- 9:31 a.m.: Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee
- 9:42 a.m.: Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland
- 9:53 a.m.: Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day
- 10:04 a.m.: Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau
- 10:15 a.m.: Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
- 10:26 a.m.: Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor
- 10:37 a.m.: Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig
- 10:48 a.m.: Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard (a)
- 10:59 a.m.: Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonezawa, Caleb Surratt
- 11:10 a.m.: MJ Daffue, Frederic Lacroix, Jack McDonald
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11:21 a.m.:
Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro de Castro Piera (a)
