SOUTHPORT, England (AP) \u2014 Facts and figures for the British Open golf championship:<\/p>\n
Event: 154th Open Championship.<\/p>\n
Site: Royal Birkdale GC. Length: 7,223. Par: 70.<\/p>\n
Playoff (if necessary): 3 holes, aggregate score.<\/p>\n
Prize money: TBA ($17 million in 2025).<\/p>\n
Winner\u2019s share: TBA ($3.1 million in 2025).<\/p>\n
Defending champion: Scottie Scheffler.<\/p>\n
Last year: Scheffler stretched his lead to seven shots during the final round in another major runaway. He closed with a 3-under 68 at Royal Portrush for a four-shot victory, his second major of the year and the third leg of the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
Last time at Royal Birkdale: Jordan Spieth overcame a wild ride on the back nine with a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie stretch to pull away for a three-shot victory over Matt Kuchar. Spieth had the third leg of the Grand Slam at age 23.<\/p>\n
British Open champions at Royal Birkdale: Jordan Spieth (2017), Padraig Harrington (2008), Mark O\u2019Meara (1998), Ian Baker-Finch (1991), Tom Watson (1983), Johnny Miller (1976), Lee Trevino (1971), Arnold Palmer (1961), Peter Thomson (1954 and 1965).<\/p>\n
Major champions in 2026: Rory McIlroy (Masters), Aaron Rai (PGA Championship), Wyndham Clark (U.S. Open).<\/p>\n
American run: Americans have won the claret jug the last three years, their longest streak at the British Open in 20 years.<\/p>\n
Course changes: The reachable par-4 fifth hole was altered to eliminate the blind shot. The old par-5 15th hole now plays as the 14th hole, and a new par-3 15th hole was created to play at 241 yards.<\/p>\n
Key statistic: Rory McIlroy is the only player to win a major this year while being ranked in the top 10 in the world.<\/p>\n
Worth noting: The British Open has gone the longest without a back-to-back winner (2007-08) of the four majors.<\/p>\n
Worth quoting: \u201cIt\u2019s pure golf. Yeah, there\u2019s luck involved. But if you keep hitting good shots, luck will be in your favor.\u201d \u2014 Harris English.<\/p>\n
Television (all times EDT): Thursday-Friday, 1:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. (Peacock), 4 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (USA Network); Saturday, 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. (USA Network), 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. (USA Network), 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. (NBC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHPORT, England (AP) \u2014 Facts and figures for the British Open golf championship: Event: 154th Open Championship. Site:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[415,1750,14052,44,1512,14053,8713,355,3488,9204,3891,1531,2169,7750,1525,399,208,424],"class_list":["post-34202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aaron-rai","tag-arnold-palmer","tag-british-open-royal-birkdale-facts-figures","tag-golf","tag-harris-english","tag-ian-baker-finch","tag-johnny-miller","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-lee-trevino","tag-mark-omeara","tag-matt-kuchar","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-padraig-harrington","tag-peter-thomson","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-wyndham-clark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}