The Open Championship: Dates, history and betting odds

The last of 2025's four golf majors, The Open Championship, will be played at Royal Portrush and we have all you need to know ahead of the event.

The tournament will take place for the 153rd time, and Xander Schauffele will be the defending champion following his 2024 success at Royal Troon.

The Open Championship dates

The Open starts on Thursday 17th July in 2024. The tournament is always held in the third week of the seventh month of the year.

The Open Championship venue

The Open is hosted on different courses on a rotation basis and the 2025 edition will be held at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. It will be the third occasion that Royal Portrush has played host to the event. 

Prestwick was the venue for the first Open in 1860 and has played host 24 times, the last occasion being back in 1925.

The Home of Golf, St Andrews, hosted its 29th tournament in 2022, while Muirfield (16), Royal St George's (15), Royal Liverpool (13), Royal Lytham & St Annes (11), Royal Troon (10) and Royal Birkdale (10) have all hosted the tournament at least 10 times. 

Other venues include Carnoustie, Musselburgh, Turnberry, Royal Cinque Ports, Princes and Royal Portrush, which will host in 2025.

The Open Championship how to watch

The Open Championship televised live on Sky Sports Golf and Main Event and can be followed on the bet365 Live Golf Tracker.

The Open Championship previous winners

The first Open Championship took place in 1860 and 2024 was the 152nd battle for the Claret Jug.

The record for Open Championship wins is held by Harry Vardon, who won the last of his six Claret Jugs in 1914. 

Australian Peter Thomson took the trophy home for the fifth time in 1965, and the only other player to have triumphed on that many occasions since the Second World War is Tom Watson, who last won at Royal Birkdale in 1983.

He came close to equalling Vardon's record when he lost a play-off to fellow American Stewart Cink in 2009. 

South African Bobby Locke won four times and five of the greatest names in the sport's history have all won three times - Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.

Nicklaus, who holds the record of 18 Major triumphs, has been runner-up at the tournament seven times.

The Open Championship courses

The Open Championship is always played on a links course, which are natural seaside tracks that use the characteristics of the land, rather than being specifically built.

Typical characteristics include deep gorse rough, few trees and the need to manage the weather as stiff breezes can cause problems and mean the ball has to be hit lower to avoid problems.

The Open Championship format

A total of 156 players compete for the prize and the field includes a number of qualifiers and amateur hopefuls.

After the first two rounds, the top 70 and tied players qualify to play in the final two rounds, the rest miss the cut. Simply, the player with the lowest total score over the course of four rounds is then declared the winner.

The Open Championship play-off format

Rather than sudden death, which tends to be used in regulation tournaments on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, The Open uses a four-hole aggregate play-off to decide the winner should two or more players be level at the top of the leaderboard upon the completion of the regulation 72 holes.

The last play-off at The Open was in 2015, when American Zach Johnson won the Claret Jug for the first time after beating Australia's Marc Leishman and South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen in extra holes. 

Stewart Cink (2009), Padraig Harrington (2007), Todd Hamilton (2004), Ernie Els (2002), Paul Lawrie (1999), Mark O'Meara (1998), John Daly (1995) and Mark Calcavecchia (1989) all won play-offs after the decision to adopt the four-hole system was made in 1985. 

Tom Watson was the last player to win an 18-hole play-off when he defeated Jack Newton to win his first Open at Carnoustie in 1975.

The Open Championship record 72-hole shot total

The record 72-hole total of 264 was registered by Sweden's Henrik Stenson at Royal Troon in 2016.

The Open Championship record 18-hole shot total

The record 18-hole total was 62 by South Africa's Branden Grace at Royal Birkdale in 2017. It is the lowest round ever shot in any of the four Major tournaments - the Masters, the US Open, the US PGA Championship and The Open.

The Open Championship oldest and youngest winner

The oldest winner of The Open was Old Tom Morris, who was 46 years and 102 days old when he won in 1867.

The youngest winner of The Open was Young Tom Morris, who was 17 years and 156 years old when he won in 1868.

The Open Championship biggest winning margin

The biggest margin of victory at The Open was Old Tom Morris' 1862 win when he triumphed by 13 shots.

It remained the largest winning distance in any Major until 2000, when Tiger Woods won the US Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach in California.

Who was the last player to successfully defend the Claret Jug?

The last defending champion to win The Open was Ireland's Padraig Harrington, who won at Carnoustie in 2007 and then repeated the trick at Royal Birkdale the following year.

Tiger Woods, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, Peter Thomson (who won three times on the bounce between 1954 and 1956) and Bobby Locke have all won in successive years since the Second World War.

The Open Championship 2024 winner

American Xander Schauffele won his second major title at Royal Troon in 2024 with a nine-under-par score of 275, beating Thriston Lawrence and Justin Rose by three shots.

The Open Championship 2025 odds

Scottie Scheffler is the 6/1 favourite to lift the Claret Jug, ahead of 8/1 Rory McIlroy and 10/1 Xander Schauffele.