2026 Open Championship Pool — Royal Birkdale

Tournament: July 16–19, 2026 Format: 5-tier draft + tiebreaker + cut penalty

How to Play

Each entrant picks one golfer from each of the five tiers below (5 golfers total per team). Odds are from DraftKings/FanDuel as of July 12–13, 2026 — lock the board before Thursday's opening tee times, since lines move.

Tier 1 – Favorites (+700 to +2000)

Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm

Tier 2 – Contenders (+2200 to +3300)

Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Robert MacIntyre, Wyndham Clark, Chris Gotterup, Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, Ludvig Åberg, Justin Rose

Tier 3 – Dark Horses (+4000 to +5000)

Russell Henley, Shane Lowry, Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim, Sam Burns, Min Woo Lee, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas

Tier 4 – Value/Sleeper (+5500 to +8000)

Aaron Rai, Alex Fitzpatrick, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay, Joaquin Niemann, Brooks Koepka, J.J. Spaun, Jordan Spieth, Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama

Tier 5 – Longshots (+10000 and up)

Rickie Fowler, Maverick McNealy, Brian Harman, Adam Scott, Nicolai Højgaard, Harris English, Kurt Kitayama, Matt Wallace, Ryan Gerard, Keegan Bradley, or any other golfer in the field priced above +10000

(Duplicate picks allowed or not — commissioner's choice. Recommend: allow duplicates within Tiers 3–5 since the field is deep, but cap Tier 1/2 picks to avoid everyone just drafting Scheffler + McIlroy.)

Scoring

  • Each golfer's score = their 72-hole total to par (or raw strokes — pick one and state it).

  • Team score = sum of your 5 golfers' 72-hole totals.

  • Lowest combined team score wins.

Missed Cut Penalty

If a golfer misses the cut, they don't play the weekend, so they need a fixed penalty score standing in for rounds 3–4 instead of leaving it blank:

  • Missed cut penalty = worst 36-hole score in the full field + a flat penalty (e.g., +10 strokes) applied as their "would-be" weekend total.

  • Simplest version most pools use: missed cut = par + 8 for each of the two weekend rounds not played (so +16 total to par added on top of their 36-hole score), OR just assign a flat penalty number like 158 (79-79) regardless of who it is, so it's uniform and nobody's arguing about it.

  • Pick ONE method and put it in writing before Thursday — this is the #1 source of pool disputes.

Tiebreaker

If two or more teams are tied on total score, use:

  1. Closest to the actual lowest single-round score of the tournament (any player, any round) — each entrant predicts this number at sign-up.

  2. If still tied, closest without going over.

  3. If still tied, split the pot.

How to Enter

Text your five

Entrant Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4 Tier 5 Low Round Tiebreaker

Payouts

  • 1st place: 60%

  • 2nd place: 25%

  • 3rd place: 15%

Deadline

All entries must be submitted before the first tee time on Thursday, July 16. Once the tournament starts, tiers lock — no swapping golfers even if someone withdraws (WD = same as missed cut penalty).