The Open Championship: Golf One and Done Picks Strategy (2026)

The Open Championship provides a late opportunity to make a move in One and Done pools, as the last major of 2026.

by Jason Lisk - Jul 13, 2026

The Open Championship returns to Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England for the first time in nearly a decade. It’s one of the most storied venues in golf and a course widely regarded as the fairest test on the Open rotation.

This is the fourth and final major of the season, and for One and Done pool players, it carries one of the highest purses remaining on the calendar. With only the FedEx Cup Playoffs to follow in August worth more, most entries should treat this as a top-tier deployment week.

Here’s what you need to know for your Golf One and Done picks this week.

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The Open Championship One and Done Picks: Purse Info

The Open Championship purse has not been officially announced, but last year’s total purse was $17,000,000, with $3,100,000 going to the winner. That likely means it will be behind the FedEx Playoff events, but it’s also the last big-purse event with a cut, where there can be more meaningful separation between a win and a poor performance.

You are going to want to employ a top option, subject only to also playing the ownership game depending on your place in the standings.

If you want to see where this tournament’s purse ranks in your specific PGA One and Done pool, you can set up your pool entry in our Golf One and Done Picks product.

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The Open Championship Overview for One and Done Pools

This analysis is a complement to the data in our product, which provides customized weekly pick grades that account for factors like:

• The total number of picks you need to make this season.
• The specific tournaments included in your pool.
• The golfers you’ve already used so far.

Here are a few notable highlights for the 2026 Open Championship field:

• 156 golfers in the field, with a cut at top 70 and ties. The final major of the season features the broadest international field of any event on the calendar, including PGA Tour regulars, DP World Tour members, LIV Golf players, and qualifiers from around the world.
• Royal Birkdale: tough but fair. Unlike many links courses that reward local knowledge and tolerate lucky bounces, Birkdale is widely described as the most straightforward test among Open Championship venues. The fairways run through deep valleys between towering dunes, are largely flat, and offer few blind shots or quirky terrain. The dunes themselves serve as the primary defense, but stay in the fairway and the course rewards elite ball-striking and precise iron play. It is simultaneously one of golf’s most demanding and most equitable venues.
• Scheffler and McIlroy are co-favorites. Scottie Scheffler arrives in some unfamiliar territory, even though he is the defending champion. His missed cut at the Scottish Open last week ended a remarkable streak of 78 consecutive made cuts. Rory McIlroy is a joint favorite, just posted a top 10 at the Scottish Open, and has an outstanding Open record (second-best average SG in the field among players with 10+ rounds).
• Several high-profile players missed the cut at the Scottish Open. Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Cantlay, and Shane Lowry all missed last week’s cut at The Renaissance Club. Several of those players are among the best performers over the last six editions of The Open, including three winners, so One and Done players will have to balance last week’s downturn with longer history at the event.
• Tom Kim won the Scottish Open and arrives in the best current form. Kim’s win at Renaissance continues his strong Open Championship history — he finished 2nd at The Open in 2022 as a teenager. Combined with strong recent form (2.4 SG last few events), he enters as one of the more compelling options outside the Top 10 on the odds board.
• Matt Fitzpatrick is third in odds and arrives with strong momentum. Fitzpatrick finished tied for 3rd at the Scottish Open and has the best combination of recent form and Open Championship history among the top-tier players. His average SG at The Open over 24 rounds is +1.72, and he has consistently performed well at the major. His excellent season means he has been used a fair amount in One and Done pools but he should be popular with those that still have him available.
• Jordan Spieth won at Royal Birkdale in 2017. Spieth has specific course experience here and an excellent Open record overall (+2.14 average SG over 24 rounds since 2019). When he won that title nearly a decade ago, it looked like he would be one of the most dominant golfers of his era, but he has won only two tournaments since, and none in the last four years. Other top finishers in 2017, still playing this year, include Hao-Tong Li (3rd), Rory McIlroy (tied for 4th) and Brooks Koepka, Alex Noren, and Matthew Southgate (tied for 6th).
• Sam Burns’ status is uncertain. Burns did not play last week at the Scottish Open, and reports from June indicated his wife’s due date is mid-July. He is currently listed in the field but his participation should be monitored before finalizing picks. [UPDATE: Burns is at Royal Birkdale and is playing this week, after his wife gave birth.]
• LIV players are available across a large portion of the field. Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Cameron Smith, and others maintain their eligibility through DP World Tour membership. As we have seen throughout the season, LIV players tend to generate higher OAD popularity than their odds suggest at major events, driven by their high availability across entries, though the recent form in majors for many of them may have an impact there in the final major of the year.

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The Open Championship One and Done Picks: Video

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The Open Championship One and Done Picks: Advice

Below, we’ll break down the top Open Championship One and Done picks by looking at tournament odds, future value rankings, pick popularity, and the strategy behind when to use each golfer.

Top 15 in Win Odds

Here are the Top 15 and ties in the betting odds as of Monday morning at 10 am ET:

• Scottie Scheffler +750
• Rory McIlroy +750
• Matt Fitzpatrick +1600
• Tommy Fleetwood +1800
• Jon Rahm +2200
• Xander Schauffele +2500
• Wyndham Clark +2700
• Chris Gotterup +2700
• Collin Morikawa +3000
• Justin Rose +3000
• Cameron Young +3000
• Ludvig Aberg +3300
• Robert MacIntyre +3300
• Tyrell Hatton +3500
• Viktor Hovland +3500

For the first time in what seems like forever, Scheffler is not the clear favorite in an event he is playing. The +750 number on Scheffler is also one of the longer odds numbers on him we have seen.

Two Englishmen, Fitzpatrick and Fleetwood, round out the top four, as the only other golfers at lower than +2000 to win. U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark, John Deere winner Chris Gotterup, and Travelers Championship winner Viktor Hovland all crack the Top 15 with wins in the last month.

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Projected Most Popular Open Championship One and Done Picks

Here are our projected most popular picks for One and Done pools, as of Tuesday afternoon:

• Rory McIlroy (13.1%)
• Jon Rahm (8.0%)
• Tommy Fleetwood (7.9%)
• Matt Fitzpatrick (7.5%)
• Tyrell Hatton (6.9%)
• Wyndham Clark (6.7%)
• Chris Gotterup (5.9%)
• Robert MacIntyre (5.8%)
• Viktor Hovland (5.6%)

McIlroy is more available than either Tommy Fleetwood or Matt Fitzpatrick in most pools, thus why we are projecting him for higher ownership this week. Meanwhile, two LIV golfers in Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton round out our top 5 in popularity.

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Top Recommended One and Done Picks for The Open Championship

Depending on who you have available, you should see some of the below among your top-graded options.

• Rory McIlroy
• Matt Fitzpatrick
• Tommy Fleetwood
• Jon Rahm
• Collin Morikawa
• Chris Gotterup
• Viktor Hovland
• Wyndham Clark
• Robert MacIntyre
• Tyrell Hatton

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How Our Golf OAD Expert Is Playing It

Here is my distribution for this week, as it is in large part, which golfer do I have available on entries near contention. Rory McIlroy is more commonly available for me, and Viktor Hovland is also a key consideration in segment pools that end with The Open, if it also included the Travelers Championship, which he won.

• Rory McIlroy (3)
• Viktor Hovland (2)
• Robert MacIntyre (2)
• Matt Fitzpatrick
• Tommy Fleetwood
• Wyndham Clark
• Chris Gotterup
• Xander Schauffele
• Sam Burns
• Tom Kim

The Schauffele, Burns, and Kim picks are on entries the furthest back, that need to be more unique.