Some Opens wear you down. This one didn’t. Royal Birkdale, hosting for the eleventh time, ran from July 16 to 19, 2026, and played gentler than usual: the scores came in low all week, there was a penalty everybody had an opinion on, a local favorite nearly cracked on live TV, and the whole thing came down to the last putt of the tournament. Here’s how it unfolded.
A Record-Tying 62 From Sam Burns
Burns wrapped up his Friday round with a bunker hole-out on 18 to card a 62, tying the lowest round ever shot in a men’s major. Numbers like that don’t just sit quietly on a scoreboard; they travel. Guys still out on the course hear about it from their caddies, from rules officials, from the buzz in the air, and all of a sudden, the number they thought they needed looks a lot more out of reach. Burns didn’t just play well that day. He played the kind of round people are still going to be talking about at Birkdale a decade from now.
Lucas Herbert Seizes The Spotlight
Nobody had Herbert circled as a contender going in, which is exactly why what he did next turned heads. He grabbed the outright lead and then matched Burns’ 62, meaning two identical record-tying rounds landed at the same Open within about a day of each other. On its own, that’s a strange bit of trivia. But it also tells you something about how the course was set up: firm, fast, forgiving to anyone with the nerve to go after it.
DeChambeau’s Costly Two-Shot Penalty
Everything changed for DeChambeau the moment officials came over and handed him a two-shot penalty. His week never quite recovered its rhythm after that. NBC’s Brad Faxon couldn’t help but wonder aloud on air what the leaderboard might have looked like without it. There was also a hairy moment off the ninth tee, where his ball came close enough to a grandstand flag that a few fans flinched. None of it ended his tournament by itself, but it gave an already loaded week one more thing to talk about.
Tommy Fleetwood Thrills The Home Crowd
Home Opens have a way of getting inside a player’s head, and Fleetwood knows that better than most. Not this time, though. He opened his final round with a 73-foot birdie putt, and the roar that followed seemed to hang over the course longer than roars usually do. Later, he answered a Scottie Scheffler birdie to pull within two, and by the time it was over, he was visibly emotional, admitting the week had gone further than he’d let himself believe it could. It was the kind of Sunday that pulls in casual fans who hadn’t been paying him much attention before.
Firm Fairways And A Basketball Stunt
Not every memorable bit came off the leaderboard. NBC’s Notah Begay — “Bones” to just about everyone — dribbled a basketball down a fairway during Sunday’s broadcast to show how baked-out and bouncy Birkdale had gotten after a run of British sunshine. It’s a small, goofy moment, but it made the point better than any graphic package could have. Clips were already spreading online before the final group had even made the turn.
Cameron Young’s Late Charge And Heartbreak
Young’s Sunday probably won’t get the credit it deserves once the recaps are written. Starting four back, he tore off a closing 64 and briefly had the lead by himself at nine under, salvaging a late bogey scare with a sharp bunker shot on 18. Then came the hard part — nearly two hours in the clubhouse, watching the board, wondering if it would hold. It didn’t, in the end. But the pressure he put on the rest of the field forced everyone chasing him to play their best golf just to survive it.
Ryan Fox Completes A Fairytale Finish
Fox is 39, an age broadcasters love to mention and rarely as a compliment. He didn’t seem to care. Rounds of 62 and 68 carried him to ten under, and a birdie on the 72nd hole sealed a one-shot win over Young. He said afterward he was playing to win it outright on 18, not just survive into a playoff, and you could see that intent in how hard he attacked the closing holes. The win made him only the third golfer from New Zealand to lift the Claret Jug, a detail that gave the finish even more weight for anyone watching at home.
Parting Shot
Record-low rounds, a penalty that reshaped a contender’s week, a hometown hero who had the grandstands on their feet, and a champion who saved his best golf for last — the 154th Open had no shortage of storylines. Most of the scores and stats will fade the way they always do. But Ryan Fox walking up that final fairway, birdie already halfway home, is the image most likely to stick.