The Open Championship always stirs up excitement among golf fans. Part of that is the 150+ year history of the British Open, part of it is just the general fervor around the year's final major championship, but so much of it has to do with The Open sites that are in the rota for the R&A, the governing body that puts on the championship. The 2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale is another example of that, a unique and beautiful course that provides the opportunity to score, but just as much trouble. It's terrific links golf. And there will be more of that at future sites for The Open Championship as well.
That does beg the question of where the British Open will be heading next in the coming years. We only have a couple of future sites announced to this point, but we can use our golf instincts and knowledge to look a bit beyond that and estimate even more future locations as well.
2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale has been stellar
The 2026 Open Championship, of course, is at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England. While it had been nearly a decade since the R&A elected to return to the course for the tournament (2017 was the last time it was played at Birkdale), the venue has been one of the most popular sites for the British Open over the years, at least in terms of times played.
With the 2026 event, that makes 11 times that Royal Birkdale has hosted The Open. That ties it wit Royal Lytham and St Annes for the fifth-most times hosting among modern venues and sixth overall. And for those wondering, St Andrews (naturally) has hosted The Open Championship the most times in history, doing so 30 times as of right now. But that's a number that's only going to grow.
British Open future sites: Confirmed Open Championship locations for 2027 and 2028
Year | Site | Location |
|---|---|---|
2027 Open Championship | Old Course at St Andrews | St. Andrews, Scotland |
2028 Open Championship | Royal Lytham & St Annes | Lytham St Annes, England |
The Old Course at St Andrews will host The Open Championship for a record 31st time in 2027. With a particular emphasis in recent years, St Andrews has become the proverbial anchor site for the R&A's rota in this tournament. They've returned, essentially, every five or so years to play at the Old Course, and there seems to be no signs of that stopping anytime soon when that's the case.
For those wondering, the last champion at St Andrews was Cameron Smith in 2022, who outlasted Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young and Viktor Hovland — then promptly departed for LIV Golf after his maiden major championship victory.
The year after that, however, we'll have the exciting chance to return to Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club for the 2028 Open Championship. If it feels like it's been quite a while since we've returned there for the British Open, that's absolutely correct — Royal Lytham & St Annes last hosted The Open back in 2012, meaning it'll have been 16 years between hostings. Ernie Els was the last champion at this venue, but it has historically produced some fun winners along with that, including David Duval and Seve Ballesteros (twice).
Unfortunately, though, The Open Championship sites are only announced through 2028 at this point. Fortunately, we have the ability to look at history and use some intuition to predict where the British Open will head thereafter.
Predicting future Open Championship sites for 2029, 2030 and more
Year | Predicted Site | Location |
|---|---|---|
2029 Open Championship | Muirfield | Gullane, Scotland |
2030 Open Championship | Royal St George's Golf Club | Sandwich, England |
2031 Open Championship | Royal Portrush Golf Club | Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland |
2032 Open Championship | Old Course at St Andrews | St Andrews, Scotland |
2033 Open Championship | Royal Liverpool Golf Club | Hoylake, England |
Again, these are not confirmed locations, but we can use some educated guesses about where the British Open will be played in 2029 through 2033. That starts with a return to Muirfield. With the R&A seemingly looking to return to some venues like Royal Lytham & St Annes that they haven't been back to in some time, it feels like either Muirfield, Carnoustie or Turnberry could be next up on the docket. I ultimately landed on Muirfield, however, as it's been since 2013 since The Open has been at such an iconic venue.
Thereafter, I expect we'll get mostly familiar sites for The Open Championship. Returning to Royal St George's in 2030 fits the timeline, and they've seen quite keen on making Royal Portrush a regular stop in recent years. That will then bring us to the five-year rotation at St Andrews for 2032, before we head back to vaunted Hoylake and Royal Liverpool for the 2033 British Open.
More Open Championship news and analysis
Add us as a preferred source on Google