Qualifiers for all 2026 Signature Events, THE PLAYERS and majors

UPDATE (June 30): As scheduled, Final Qualifying for The Open Championship was conducted on Tuesday. All 20 spots reserved for the field at Royal Birkdale were determined, five each via 36-hole sprints at four sites – Burnham & Berrow, Dundonald Links, Royal Cinque Ports and West Lancashire.

Only the qualifier at West Lancashire required a playoff to whittle its cohort to five. Matthew Jordan emerged from that 3-for-1 battle. The Englishman is one of 10 qualifiers with at least one prior appearance in the major. That includes all five at West Lancashire. By contrast, all five who emerged from Burnham & Berrow will be debutants in the major.

The 10 with previous experience are a combined 14-for-26 in The Open. They include Matthew Southgate (4-for-6) and Peter Uihlein (2-for-4), who recorded personal bests in the major the last time that Royal Birkdale hosted in 2017. Southgate finished T6, while Uihlein placed T44. Both qualified this year at Royal Cinque Ports.

Up to nine spots in the field of 156 at Royal Birkdale remain reserved for qualifiers via three conduits that are detailed chronologically in REMAINING QUALIFYING CRITERIA below the alphabetical list of all currently exempt. In the meantime, but only after the Official World Golf Ranking is updated following action around the world this weekend, the R&A likely will announce the golfers who will help fill the field in order of position. The same OWGR also will be used for the alternate list.

They are sealed, and they delivered.

The last of the eight Signature Events of 2026 – the Travelers Championship – was contested last week at TPC River Highlands, and it required an extra day for Viktor Hovland to upend Scottie Scheffler in a playoff.

The duo concluded regulation on Sunday, but a mid-afternoon weather delay thwarted the possibility of deciding the champion before dark, so they returned to the par-4 18th hole on Monday morning. Although Scheffler stuffed his approach to 4 feet, 10 inches, he failed to convert for birdie after Hovland holed his birdie try from just inside 7 feet.

When Scheffler’s bid to extend burned the left edge, Hovland clinched his eighth PGA TOUR title. It’s his first win since the 2025 Valspar Championship. He was fully exempt on the PGA TOUR as a winner through 2029, so his triumph at TPC River Highlands extends his membership another season.

Hovland already was eligible for The Open Championship in two weeks, so the field of 156 at Royal Birkdale does not gain a qualifier as a result. However, when the results of the Travelers were plugged into the FedExCup standings, the top five not yet eligible for The Open Championship inside the top 20 were poised to gain entry into the final major of the year. This year’s cohort claims just one member – Alex Fitzpatrick at 17th.

With a T7 at the Travelers, the Englishman cemented his berth by rising three spots in the ranking. In his only prior start in The Open, he finished T17 at Royal Liverpool in 2023.

Fitzpatrick was the last of four Open exemptions determined this past weekend. The other three were in Europe.

The first among them was captured by Tim Wiedemeyer. As the winner of the European Amateur Championship, the native of Germany earned the exemption reserved for the champion. He prevailed by two strokes at Vanajanlinna Golf and Country Club in Hämeenlinna, Finland. He arrived for the competition slotted 18th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, the best among his countrymen. The soon-to-be senior at Texas Tech University never has appeared in a PGA TOUR event.

The European Amateur also was the last of the three tournaments that comprised the Open Amateur Series for which the golfer who totaled the most WAGR points punched a ticket for The Open. Lev Grinberg of France is this year’s top performer. He opened the trio with a victory at the St. Andrews Links Trophy. After failing to qualify for the match-play format of the British Amateur, he placed T6 at the European Amateur Championship, seven strokes back of Wiedemeyer. The Ukraine-born Grinberg sat 46th in the WAGR ahead of the European Amateur. He’s just 18 years of age.

The last scheduled exemption into The Open was reserved for the top finisher at the Italian Open who wasn’t otherwise exempt. With a bogey-free, 7-under 64 at Circolo Golf Torino, Eugenio Chacarra ran away for a five-stroke margin of victory and the spot. It’s the 26-year-old Spaniard’s second consecutive win following the KLM Open three weeks ago. He’s a career 0-for-2 in the majors, but he’ll be making his debut in The Open.

The R&A recently announced that eligible past champions John Daly, Ernie Els, Zach Johnson and Justin Leonard have opted not to compete in The Open this year. As all were recent entrants, each had appeared in the alphabetical list below but has since been removed. Former winners Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods also will not peg it at Royal Birkdale. However, the 2001 Open champion, David Duval, is committed, so he has been added. He hasn’t appeared since 2022 and hasn’t made a cut in The Open since 2015.

And because Jackson Koivun is turning professional for this week’s John Deere Classic, he is forfeiting his exemption into The Open as the recipient of the 2025 Mark H. McCormack Medal, so he also has been removed below. To play in the major via that conduit, he was required to retain his amateur status.

NOTE: Until all methods of entry are released by the governing bodies, traditional criteria are used to determine qualifiers. Refer to remaining qualifying criteria at the bottom of the page for details.

OPEN = The Open Championship

Recent additions

OPEN -- Sam Bairstow; José Luis Ballester Barrio; Matthew Baldwin; Eugenio Chacarra; Tiger Christensen; MJ Daffue; Alejandro de Castro Piera; Alex Fitzpatrick; Lev Grinberg; David Howard; Matthew Jordan; Kazuma Kobori; Jack McDonald; James Nicholas; Marcus Plunkett; Antoine Rozner; Nevill Ruiter; Bård Bjørnevik Skogen; Tom Sloman; Matthew Southgate; Caleb Surratt; Austen Truslow; Peter Uihlein; Tim Wiedemeyer

NOTE: Golfers are omitted if they haven’t competed recently in majors for which they are eligible (e.g., The Open Championship = Paul Lawrie).

REMAINING QUALIFYING CRITERIA

• Criteria are listed in chronological order where possible. Best estimates are given but all are subject to change.

The Open Championship (OPEN) at Royal Birkdale Golf Club – July 16-19

• Top 5, not otherwise exempt, inside the top 20 in the Race to Dubai at the conclusion of the BMW International Open (July 5).
• Top 3, not otherwise exempt, who make the cut at the Genesis Scottish Open (July 12).
• Winner of the Last-Chance Qualifier (July 13).