At long last, the final major of the 2026 season. This week, we head over to Royal Portrush Golf Club in Southport, United Kingdom for the 154th Open Championship. With a loaded field, a tough links venue, and $17,000,000 up for grabs, let's not waste any time.

Don't forget, when looking to build your lineups, make sure to take advantage of our PGA DFS Projections, PGA DFS Ownership, and PGA DFS Lineup Optimizer to get every advantage you can. 

Let’s dive in!

 

The Open Championship 2026: Daily Fantasy Golf Picks & Projections

The Open Championship, often referred to as the British Open or simply The Open, is entering it's 154th iteration of the event. Established in 1860, this has long been considered one of the largest and most prestigious events in the world. While the Open is always played on a coastal, links style golf course, Royal Birkdale is hosting for it's 11th time, and is the 17th different venue that has been used. Most casual fans will recognize courses such as St. Andrews, Muirfield, or Carnoustie as venues that are known to host this event, and might not have even heard of this venue before if they haven't been watching for long. 

 

Royal Birkdale: Course Breakdown This Week

Royal Birkdale is our venue this week, and it's often been called one of the “fairest” tests of golf on the planet. Playing as a par 70 just over 7,200 yards, this course has been stretched out since we last saw it in 2017. In 2024, Tom Mackenzie was brought in to redesign the venue to prepare for this year's tournament. The total yardage number is a bit deceiving however, as the venue features only 2 Par 5's (one of which in theory could be stretched over 700 yards), and instead features multiple 500 yard par 4's to make the scoring more difficult. 

Birkdale plays different than many links venues, due to it's fairways often being nestled in between the heavily featured dunes of links golf. This lessens the impact of “blind” shots that are more common at our other host venues. Additionally, there are over 100 bunkers on the venues, which create other challenges as they often are found between 280 and 350 yards off the tee, which is where many players may expect their tee shots to end up. To make matters worse, the recent heatwave that hit the United Kingdom has dried the course out. This takes fairways that are already been known to play firm and role out far, and amplifies that to a level in which some iron shots may be able to approach 300 yards off the tee. As a result, accuracy off the tee will be massive, as balls in the wrong area can end up in the 6" fescue or gorse, which will make 2nd shots play much more difficult.

Players will be hitting their approach shots into 5,500 square foot greens that typically play slow, but may play quicker and harder to hold given the dryness of the course. This will create an importance in short game, as getting up and down will be crucial if greens are hard to hold and could play a factor in separating the cream from the crop. As is expected for links courses in this region, the weather will come into play as well, with the wind projected to get as high as 15 miles per hour steady and gusts well above that. This will require creativity of players as they navigate how to approach 2nd shots. 

With these factors in mind, our statistical model becomes more clear. Driving Accuracy gets a premium, as well as Distance from Edge of Fairway as wide misses can get penalized more heavily than small misses (though both will be common this week). Additionally, Approach play is going to be as important as ever, and has often been the calling card of this venue. 150 to 200 yards is the expected range of importance this week, but all level of approach will need to be crisp. The greens will play relatively straight forward, and slower than many other venues, but the dryness may impact this, leading to an increased importance in Strokes Gained: Short Game to help identify players who both putt well, but also play well when the greens are inevitably missed.

 

The Open 2026 Field: Golf DFS

As expected with major championships, this is an extremely loaded field in terms of talent. Scottie Scheffler will look to defend his title from last season, and is joined by 11 other former champions. Jordan Spieth won last time we saw Royal Birkdale in the rotation, though I would not expect the same performance out of him as even he has stated the venue is playing much differently this year. The top 74 players in the OWGR are in attendance this week, as well as those who have qualified through a variety of factors. This includes players who finished Top 25 in the 2025 Race to Dubai rankings on the DP World Tour, BMW PGA Champions, player who are top 20 in the 2026 Race to Dubai rankings who have not otherwise qualified, open qualifiers, and last-chance qualifiers. This results in a diverse field of talent, and players with a variety of backgrounds and skills though it's common to see high-end talent win as the last 12 winners have all been inside the top 40 in OWGR. 

 

 

This Week’s PGA DFS Optimizer & Lineup Generator

To enhance your daily fantasy golf selections and secure optimal PGA DFS values, it's advisable to utilize our PGA DFS optimizer and lineup generator. This optimizer serves as a valuable resource for daily fantasy golf enthusiasts aiming to develop effective lineups!

It provides projections, updates on player injuries, and a range of analytical insights to facilitate the lineup-building process. Essentially, it functions as a strategic advantage for participants in daily fantasy golf and makes their own PGA DFS picks!

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: Top Tier

Rory McIlroy ($11,900 DraftKings/$12,600 FanDuel)

If no one else will say it, I will. Rory is the most likely player on tour to win any tournament he enters right now. He's playing above Scottie for me, so the discount from the top of the board is easy to take advantage of. Rory's play off the tee should be a strength here, and we're once again on a putting surface that should eliminate his biggest issue. The only thing that could hold Rory back would be his approach play, but given how often he steps up in harder environments, I don't have any concerns about him this week. 

Tommy Fleetwood ($10,500 DraftKings/$12,100 FanDuel)

Fleetwood has been doing his thing recently, as he has recorded 5 straight top 15 finishes, and outside of a missed cut at the PGA, has made every other cut this season. He's recorded 6 top 10 finishes as well, and has top 16 finishes in 5 of the last 7 open championships to boot. More importantly, his recent play has been strong, and he's avoiding bogeys and double's at elite rates. Couple in this with his historical skills in windy conditions and the fact he's top 20 in basically every stat I pulled this week, shows me that the discount on Tommy from a few other players may be worth it this week.

Tyrrell Hatton ($8,900 DraftKings/$10,500 FanDuel)

I didn’t mean to have all of my favorites at the top be European born players, but sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles with links golf, a staple of the region. Hatton has dominated links style play in his career, and 9 of his 11 wins as a professional have been outside of the US, with his only victory here being the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational which played very links-like that week due to the weather. He also elevates his play against stiff competition, with top 10 finishes in both the U.S. Open and Masters this year. He’s going to be a crowd favorite and should be a DFS favorite as well.

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: MID-TIER

Colin Morikawa ($8,700 DraftKings/$10,900 FanDuel)

Morikawa is the number one wind player in my model this week. Not only did that surprise me, but also is the number one player off the tee on Windy courses that play dry as well. Morikawa has the all around game (at times) to be as competitive as anyone on the planet, and he's a previous Open Champion. He's playing great this year as well with a win, 5 other top 10's and a top 20 finish at the U.S. Open and top 10 at Augusta. It wouldn't surprise me to see Colin get yet another major title.

Wyndham Clark ($8,200 DraftKings/$10,200 FanDuel)

Clark has won a major this year, won the Byron Nelson, and has missed just one cut since the Masters. That'll play. He recorded his best finish at an Open last season with a T4 finish at Royal Portrush, but his play in all facets of the game has been strong, with the driver cooperating and the putter being arguably better than anyone on the planet for the last 3 months. He's coming off a strong finish at the Scottish Open as well, which has a great correlation to play here. 

Justin Thomas ($7,500 DraftKings/$9,900 FanDuel)

Thomas is not the same player he used to be as he continues to work his way back from injury but he's been in strong form. Prior to the Scottish Open, he recorded 7 straight top 20 finishes, including a T4 at the PGA Championship. The irons will have to bounce back a bit, but the rest of his game has been strong, and he's been one of the best short game players on the planet (he leads the field) since the Cadillac Championship in May. I'm willing to take a flier here. 

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: VALUE TIER

Tom Kim ($6,800 DraftKings/$8,800 FanDuel)

I identified Kim as an outright winner last week, and I see no reason to come off the guy right now. He's playing incredibly accurate off the tee, and the irons have been his calling card for most of his career. He's been a runner up at this event prior, and his win at the Scottish Open should point to a strong finish here as well. If he continues to take advantage off the tee and put himself in scoring positions, this price will look disrespectful at the end of the week. 

John Parry ($5,800 DraftKings/$7,600 FanDuel)

Parry may be a rookie on the PGA Tour this year, but the 39 year old has made quite the career for himself on the DP World Tour. He's been playing well this year on tour, with multiple top 20 finishes, and he's recorded one at the Open as well. He's going to need to be good with the flatstick, and off the tee, but the irons and short game can play. 

J.J. Spaun ($6,700 DraftKings/$9,200 FanDuel)

Spaun is such a consistent player. His worst stats in my model still rank above field average, and I was a bit shocked to see him so low when putting this profile together. He's accurate off the tee, the irons are incredible, and the short game is what can hold him back but even this has been strong of late. He's going to need to step up this week, but in his Open debut last year he finished 23rd. That alone is proof to me he can compete this week.

 

 

PGA DFS Picks This Week (Cheat Sheet)

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