The Open 2024: FAQs & Tee Times

The 152nd Open tees off at Royal Troon in Scotland with American Brian Harman defending the Claret Jug. We answer some frequently asked questions and reveal the tee times.

The 2024 Open will be played between July 18-21 at Royal Troon Golf Club in South Ayrshire. The last time Troon hosted The Open was in 2016 when Henrik Stenson beat Phil Mickelson in a thrilling battle for the ages.

In 2023, Harman won his first career Open Championship by six shots over Jason Day, Tom Kim, Jon Rahm, and Sepp Straka at a rain-soaked Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England. It was his first major win and first PGA Tour victory in six years.

The winner of The Open is named ‘The Champion Golfer of the Year’.

Main contenders

World number one Scottie Scheffler will likely be the one to beat. He won The Masters in April for a second time, tied eighth at the US PGA and tied 41st at the US Open. This season he has also won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players, the RBC Heritage, the Memorial and the Travelers.

World number two Rory McIlroy, the 2014 Open champion, is still looking to end his 10-year major drought. He came agonizingly close to winning a fifth major at last month’s US Open where he led by two shots with five to play, but three bogeys in his last four holes saw him finish runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau.

World number three Xander Schauffele has recorded top-20 finishes in each of his last 10 starts at the majors, including winning his first at the PGA two months ago. Collin Morikawa, Open champion in 2021, has top-five finishes at the Masters and US PGA this year. Robert MacIntyre, who won the Geneis Scottish Open last week, will be hoping to become the first Scot to win The Open since Paul Lawrie in 1999.

Viktor Hovland, reigning FedEx champion, is re-finding his form and was joint fourth in 2022 while Ludvig Aberg, already number four in the world rankings, only made his major debut this year, finishing second at the Masters. A missed cut at the US PGA was followed by a joint 12th at the US Open. Both are ones to watch.

Are LIV golfers at The Open?

Former Open champions Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and Louis Oosthuizen are among the 17 LIV golfers in the field. Bryson DeChambeau is too, who won his second US Open title after a second place at the PGA and joint sixth at the Masters. Though he has only one top-10 finish in six Open appearances.

Jon Rahm has overcome his foot injury and finished second to Harman last year, while five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, winner of the 2023 PGA, has four top-10s in nine Open starts.

Is Tiger Woods playing?

The 48-year-old is scheduled to play, though the 15-time major champion has only completed nine rounds of competitive golf in 2024. He played all four rounds of the Masters but finished last of the 60 players to make the cut. He missed the halfway cut at both the US PGA and US Open and has not played since. The three-time Open champion finished joint sixth in 2018. He last won this event in 2006.

Royal Troon

Royal Troon on the west coast of Scotland will host its 10th Open Championship. The Old Course here was first laid out in 1878 and staged its first Open in 1923. It’s a par 71 traditional ‘out and back’ links measuring 7,175 yards with outward holes usually playing downwind offering lots of birdie opportunities. But the back route is far more daunting and challenging.

The Postage Stamp

The 123-yard par-three eighth is Troon’s most famous hole. The tiny green is protected by five deep pot bunkers. It’s the shortest hole on The Open rota and it could play to just 99 yards during the championship depending on weather conditions. Tiger Woods hit a triple-bogey six to end his chances here in 1997. The hole comes two holes after the par-five sixth, named Turnberry, which at 623 yards will be the longest in Open history.

Tee Times

Round One: Thursday, 18 July

Hole One:

06:35 Todd Hamilton (US), Justin Leonard (US), Jack McDonald (Sco)

06:46 Tom McKibbin (NI), (a) Calum Scott (Sco), Alexander Noren (Swe)

06:57 Michael Hendry (NZ), Vincent Norrman (Swe), Jesper Svensson (Swe)

07:08 Daniel Hillier (NZ), Ryosuke Kinoshita (Jpn), Young-Han Song (Kor)

07:19 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)

07:30 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Adam Scott (Aus)

07:41 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Justin Rose (Eng), (a) Jasper Stubbs (Aus)

07:52 Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Matthew Southgate (Eng), Justin Thomas (US)

08:03 Laurie Canter (Eng), Nick Taylor (Can), Matt Wallace (Eng)

08:14 Matteo Manassero (Ita), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Sebastian Soderberg

(Swe)

08:25 Austin Eckroat (US), Zach Johnson (US), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den)

08:36 John Daly (US), (a) Santiago de la Fuente (Mex), Aaron Rai (Eng)

08:47 Stewart Cink (US), (a) Dominic Clemons (Eng), Chris Kirk (US)

09:03 Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Adam Schenk (US)

09:14 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (SA), Lucas Glover (US), Adam Hadwin (Can)

09:25 Tony Finau (US), Russell Henley (US), Matthieu Pavon (Fra)

09:36 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Jon Rahm (Spa)

09:47 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Bryson DeChambeau (US), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)

09:58 Brian Harman (US), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Sahith Theegala (US)

10:09 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Max Homa (US), Rory McIlroy (NI)

10:20 Keegan Bradley (US), (a) Gordon Sargent (US), Will Zalatoris (US)

10:31 Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Harris English (US), Maverick McNealy (US)

10:42 Sean Crocker (US), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), (a) Tommy Morrison (US)

10:53 John Catlin (US), Gun-Taek Koh (Kor), David Puig (Spa)

11:04 Daniel Bradbury (Eng), Thriston Lawrence (SA), Elvis Smylie (Aus)

11:15 Ignacio Elvira (Spa), Darren Fichardt (SA), Min-Kyu Kim (Kor)

11:26 Mason Andersen (US), Sam Hutsby (Eng), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn)

11:47 Ewen Ferguson (Sco), Marcel Siem (Ger)

11:58 Yuto Katsuragawa (Jpn), Romain Langasque (Fra), Chengtsung Pan (Tai)

12:09 Angel Hidalgo (Spa), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Richard Mansell (Eng)

12:20 Jorge Campillo (Spa), Corey Conners (Can), Ryan Fox (NZ)

12:31 Ernie Els (SA), (a) Altin van der Merwe (SA), Gary Woodland (US)

12:42 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), (a) Jacob Olesen (Den), Henrik Stenson (Swe)

12:53 Billy Horschel (US), Louis Oosthuizen (SA), Victor Perez (Fra)

13:04 Jordan Smith (Eng), Sepp Straka (Aut), Brendon Todd (US)

13:15 Denny McCarthy (US), Adrian Meronk (Pol), Taylor Moore (US)

13:26 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Jason Day (Aus), Rickie Fowler (US)

13:37 Alex Cejka (Ger), Eric Cole (US), Kurt Kitayama (US)

13:48 Dean Burmester (SA), Darren Clarke (NI), JT Poston (US)

14:04 Dustin Johnson (US), Joost Luiten (Ned), Phil Mickelson (US)

14:15 Padraig Harrington (Ire), Matthew Jordan (Eng), Davis Thompson (US)

14:26 Wyndham Clark (US), Brooks Koepka (US), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)

14:37 Patrick Cantlay (US), Xander Schauffele (US), Tiger Woods (US)

14:48 Sam Burns (US), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Collin Morikawa (US)

14:59 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Shane Lowry (Ire), Cameron Smith (Aus)

15:10 Scottie Scheffler (US), Jordan Spieth (US), Cameron Young (US)

15:21 Akshay Bhatia (US), Tom Hoge (US), Sami Valimaki (Fin)

15:32 Ben Griffin (US), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Mackenzie Hughes (Can)

15:43 Joseph Dean (Eng), Andy Ogletree (US), Yannik Paul (Ger)

15:54 Charlie Lindh (Swe), (a) Luis Masaveu (Spa), Ryan van Velzen (SA)

16:05 Kazuma Kobori (NZ), (a) Jaime Montojo (Spa), (a) Liam Nolan (Ire)

16:16 Denwit Boriboonsub (Tha), Daniel Brown (Eng), (a) Matthew Dodd-Berry (Eng)

16:27 Sam Horsfield (Eng), Aguri Iwasaki (Jpn), Jeung-Hun Wang (Kor)

What’s the weather forecast?

The weather is predicted to be mixed. Rain Thursday morning, then mostly dry on Friday before rain moves back in on the weekend. Temperatures will range between 15 to 19 degrees. Winds will be between 10 to 20 mph with higher gusts. Overall, there will be sunny spells, moderate winds and occasional showers.

What’s the prize money?

The winner will receive $3.1m (£2.4m) from a total prize fund of $17m. Brian Harman collected a then record $3m from a $16.5m (£12.7m) pot for winning at Royal Liverpool in 2023.

Bryson DeChambeau took home $4.3m after winning last month’s US Open, while Scottie Scheffler’s second Masters victory in April earned him $3.6m. Xander Schauffele collected $3.3m for winning the US PGA Championship in May.

1st: $3,100,000
2nd: $1,759,000
3rd: $1,128,000
4th: $876,000
5th: $705,000
6th: $611,000
7th: $525,000
8th: $442,500
9th: $388,000
10th: $350,600

70th: $38,900

What is the format and how many players are in the field?

It’s a four-round, 72-hole stroke-play event, with a cut after 36 holes. There are 156 players in the field. The top 70 make the cut.

If players are tied after 72 holes, how is the winner decided?

If two or more players are tied through 72 holes, they will compete over four playoff holes (holes 1, 2, 17 and 18) with the scores being added up. If there is still a tie between at least two players, sudden death will be used on the 18th hole with the lowest score winning.

What else does the winner receive?

The winner receives 100 world ranking points as well as 600 FedEx Cup points.

What about the trophy?

The victor gets to lift the coveted and world-famous Claret Jug, as well as being named ‘The Champion Golfer of the Year’. The Claret Jug was first awarded in 1873.

What’s the Silver Medal?

The Silver Medal is awarded to the leading amateur at The Open, as long as he completes all 72 holes.

Who has won The Open most times?

Harry Vardon holds the record with six. Four golfers have won the Open five times: James Braid, J.H. Taylor, Peter Thomson and Tom Watson. Walter Hagen and Bobby Locke have four wins. Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Severiano Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Gary Player and Bobby Jones are among those with three wins.

Where will the next Open Championships be held?

2025: Royal Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
2026: Royal Birkdale, England