Takeaways from an Eventful 2026 Open Championship

From how Royal Birkdale fared as a major championship host to multiple rules controversies and NBC's lackluster television coverage, here are my biggest takeaways from an action-packed 2026 Open Championship.

Royal Birkdale Crowned Another Deserving Champion

Royal Birkdale’s longstanding reputation for identifying distinguished champions should not be questioned because a 39-year-old first-time major winner walked away with the Claret Jug.

Ryan Fox may not be world No. 1 or a future Hall of Famer, but he is a terrific player and a deserving champion. Also, the contenders down the stretch included Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, Cameron Young, and Si Woo Kim — four of the best players in the world this season. Entering the week, nobody had more top 10s on the PGA Tour this year than Kim and Scheffler (nine). Young is the reigning Players champion and won at Doral by six. Burns nearly won the U.S. Open and was in the penultimate pairing at Augusta.

Would the membership have preferred a champion like Scheffler or Rory McIlroy? Probably. But Fox is a worthy winner, and he does not detract from the club’s phenomenal list of champions.

{{inline-article}}

Restoring the Principle of Playing the Ball as It Lies 

Outside of Fox’s victory, the biggest story of the week was the spotlight on the rules of golf, which came to the forefront on two high-profile occasions. 

Bryson DeChambeau received a two-shot penalty on Friday for improving the area of his intended swing on the fifth hole. Then, during Sunday’s final round, Scottie Scheffler received free relief after his second shot on No. 17 disappeared into vegetation beyond championship infrastructure a mile left of his target. Although Scheffler’s ball was not found initially, officials determined with virtual certainty that it had entered the TIO area, entitling Scheffler to relief. He played his next shot from a clean lie to 10 feet and made birdie to pull within one shot of the clubhouse lead. Later, NBC relayed that his ball was ultimately found, but whether the ball was found or not — and how long it took to find it — does not impact the ruling. 

There is a fundamental difference between these two situations. DeChambeau was found to have violated the rules. Scheffler did not break the rules. That is an important distinction. 

But examining the two situations together, they expose a broader issue in the game. As Garrett Morrison aptly wrote, the game has drifted very far afield from one of its foundational principles: playing the ball as it lies. 

When making the DeChambeau ruling, the R&A had access to more information than I do, including a conversation with Bryson himself. Rory McIlroy also voiced his support for the ruling, and I would readily acknowledge that he has a more informed perspective than mine. However, based on publicly available footage and comments, I still remain unconvinced that DeChambeau’s intended swing of play was definitively improved. And I was shocked when the R&A proceeded with a penalty given the countless instances where players take liberties with the rules without facing consequences — questionable drop techniques, mashing down rough behind the ball with a wood before changing clubs to an iron, taking awkward stances for cart path relief, etc. 

While the two situations are fundamentally different, watching DeChambeau receive a two-shot penalty while Scheffler hit a ball deep into trouble, received a free drop, and had a clean path to make birdie doesn’t sit right with me as someone who cares about the principle of playing the ball from where it lies. 

I don’t feel sorry for DeChambeau. Every competitive golfer knows exactly what they are doing when stepping around their golf ball. Nonetheless, the game needs more consistent rules enforcement across tours and championships. Players have become increasingly brazen in taking advantage of the rules in ways that erode the integrity of the competition and put honest players at a disadvantage, yet penalties are rarely applied. 

Moving forward, there needs to be more consistency in protecting the field and ensuring golfers play the ball from where it lies, regardless of the situation. 

The way players take a drop and treat the area around their golf balls deserves more scrutiny. Additionally, relief from temporary immovable obstructions has become far, far too generous and too material to the outcome of tournaments. Whether the answer is designated drop zones that result in terrible lies from all TIO areas or another solution entirely, the governing bodies need to evaluate how TIO relief is administered. 

In any event, I applaud the R&A’s commitment to enforcing the rules. If they were enforced more consistently on the PGA Tour and across all major championships, the DeChambeau ruling wouldn’t have generated nearly as much controversy as it did. But there is plenty of room for improvement to restore the principle of playing the ball as it lies and to protect the players who take that responsibility seriously. 

The Failure of NBC’s Coverage

With a relentless commercial load, commentary that lacked substance, leaderboard graphics containing repeated errors and incorrect names, the lead analyst responding to social media criticism while live on the air, and plenty more, NBC was not up to the task of broadcasting the season’s final men’s major. 

To offer a specific example, Kevin Kisner completely whiffed in his handling of the DeChambeau rules controversy. Asked directly for his perspective on the situation on Saturday, he never weighed in on whether or not the penalty was justified. He instead questioned why the walking official wasn’t standing by DeChambeau when the incident took place. That is a fair point to raise, but failing to address the central question after having a full day to compose his thoughts on the biggest story of the championship is poor analysis. As a player himself, Kisner had the opportunity to share insights he is uniquely qualified to share, and he either deliberately chose not to or didn’t have the wherewithal to realize he should. 

In today’s world, consumers have countless entertainment options. If they decide to devote hours to watching a major championship, they deserve a broadcast worthy of the occasion. NBC failed majorly to deliver that this weekend.

On the bright side, every golf fan can now say they know every lyric to Somewhere Only We Know by Keane, which must have played 1,000 times during commercial breaks over the last four days. 

The Impact of Dry, Wispy Rough

I had the opportunity to play Royal Birkdale two weeks before the championship, and I was surprised at how dramatically the course changed from then until the start of the Open. 

When I saw it, the native areas were lush, thick, and penal. By championship week, unseasonably hot weather had baked the course out, producing dry, wispy rough that reduced the penalty for offline shots. Players who missed a high percentage of fairways didn’t pay a significant price because they could almost always cleanly get a club on the back of the ball.

It is useful information to bank for future Open Championships. When the wind is modest and native areas become dry and less dense, accuracy will not be favored to nearly the same degree as in cooler, windier conditions. It may sound obvious, but the impact was significant.

{{inline-course}}

A Balanced Mix of Major Tests

The four major championship venues offered a refreshing variety of tests in 2026. 

Aronimink couldn’t have looked more different from Shinnecock Hills. Augusta National generally favors high-ball hitters, while Royal Birkdale — particularly under typical Open conditions — doesn’t disadvantage players with lower ball flights. 

Rory McIlroy, one of the game’s longest hitters, won the Masters. Aaron Rai, firmly on the shorter-hitting end of the spectrum, won the PGA Championship. Two of the champions had already won majors; two won for the first time. 

Golf is at its best and is most entertaining when there is variety in the skills it tests, the aesthetics it presents, and the type of champion it crowns.  This year’s collection of major venues delivered exactly that.