2026 Open Championship Featured Groups: Scheffler, McIlroy, and Fleetwood at Royal Birkdale

The 2026 Open Championship featured groups are set, and the R and A has stacked Thursday and Friday with star power at Royal Birkdale. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler headlines an early-wave group with Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrrell Hatton, while Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, and Matt Fitzpatrick anchor the marquee afternoon draw. The 154th Open begins Thursday, July 16, and runs through Sunday, July 19.

Southport local Matthew Baldwin gets the honor of the opening tee shot at 1:35 a.m. ET (6:35 a.m. UK time) Thursday, playing alongside Thomas Detry and James Nicholas. From there the marquee names spread across both waves, so there is a headline group to follow at almost every hour of the first two rounds.

2026 Open Championship featured groups and tee times

Here are the marquee Round 1 pairings at Royal Birkdale, with tee times in both Eastern and UK time. The field of 156 plays a top 70 and ties cut, and the two waves swap for Friday, so Thursday’s early groups move to the afternoon in Round 2.

Group	Round 1 tee time (ET)	UK time
Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton	4:58 a.m.	9:58 a.m.
Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm	5:09 a.m.	10:09 a.m.
Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott	9:31 a.m.	2:31 p.m.
Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka	9:53 a.m.	2:53 p.m.
Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Aberg	10:04 a.m.	3:04 p.m.
Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick	10:15 a.m.	3:15 p.m.

Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, and Tyrrell Hatton headline the early wave

The group everyone circled goes off first. Scheffler defends his claret jug at +600 on DraftKings, still the favorite even after a stunning missed cut at the Genesis Scottish Open snapped a run of made cuts that had stretched for years. Pair the best player in the world with DeChambeau’s power and Hatton’s short fuse and you get theater for three-plus hours at 4:58 a.m. ET.

There is a betting subplot too. Scheffler fits Birkdale’s demand for flighted iron control as well as anyone, but his wedge play from 100 to 150 yards has slipped, which is why every major preview passed on the short defending-champion price. DeChambeau, at +4500, arrives having missed the cut in all three 2026 majors, and his high-ball game has never solved links golf. Watching those two side by side on a firm, fast course tells you a lot early.

McIlroy, Schauffele, and Fitzpatrick form the marquee afternoon group

The 10:15 a.m. ET draw is a room full of major champions. McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam at the Masters and nearly stole the Scottish Open, closing with a 64 for a T7. Schauffele won this championship in 2024. Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open winner, is arguably in the best form of anyone outside Scheffler, with a T4 at Portrush last year and elite scrambling from short grass, the exact skill this course rewards.

For bettors, this group carries two of the most-backed names of the week. McIlroy sits at +780 as a value play under Scheffler, and Fitzpatrick at +2150 was the single most supported outright across the previews we tracked. If you want a live matchup, Fitzpatrick over the field in this trio is a clean concept given his current ball-striking edge.

Fleetwood, Rahm, and Spieth bring a home hero and a past Birkdale champion

Tommy Fleetwood grew up in Southport and used to sneak onto this course as a kid, so the 5:09 a.m. ET group is his homecoming. He brings five straight top-15 finishes and the loudest gallery of the week. Alongside him are Jon Rahm at +1550, one of the steadiest major performers in the game, and Jordan Spieth, who won the last Open played at Royal Birkdale back in 2017. That gives this pairing a genuine course-history thread that none of the others can match.

More storyline groups to watch

The R and A did not stop at the top three. A few other groups carry real weight:

• Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, and Brooks Koepka at 9:53 a.m. ET put the 2019 Open champion, the reigning PGA champion, and a five-time major winner in one group.
• Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, and Ludvig Aberg at 10:04 a.m. ET feature the new U.S. Open champion in Clark, plus Aberg at +3200 as a rising outright favorite.
• Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, and Adam Scott at 9:31 a.m. ET pair the 2025 Scottish Open winner with a grizzled veteran making yet another major start.

Betting and DFS angle on the featured groups

The pairings do not change the math much on their own, but they do tell you where the eyeballs and the ownership will land. McIlroy and Fitzpatrick sharing the afternoon marquee group means both draw heavy DFS ownership, so a small pivot off one of them can create leverage in tournaments. On the outright board, MacIntyre at +4100 and Gotterup at +2900 remain the leans that the featured-group spotlight tends to underprice.

Weather is close to even across the two waves this week, warm and calm to open before more breeze and shower risk arrive on the weekend, so there is less tee-time edge than a typical Open. Skill fit matters more than wave gaming here, which favors accurate iron players over bombers regardless of when they tee off.

Before they tee off, build your model. The Rabbit Hole hands you the strokes gained PGA data, and code BSG26 takes 25% off any plan.

Frequently asked questions

Do the 2026 Open Championship featured groups change for Round 2?

The players stay together, but the tee waves swap. Groups that go off in the early wave Thursday move to the afternoon on Friday, and the late Thursday groups play early Friday. After the cut, weekend pairings are reset based on the leaderboard, so the featured groups only hold through the first two rounds.

Is Sam Burns still in the 2026 Open Championship field?

Burns remains in the field and is grouped Thursday with Chris Gotterup and Adam Scott. He skipped the Scottish Open for the expected birth of his child, so a late withdrawal is still possible, but as of the released tee sheet he is set to play.

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