2026 British Open: What is playoff format at Royal Birkdale?

The Open Championship returns to Royal Birkdale Golf Club for the 11th time in history and for the first time since 2017. The field of 156 players features the defending champion Scottie Scheffler, reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, who last won The Open when it was contested at Royal Birkdale.

In the event of a tie after 72 holes, the winner will be decided by a playoff by stroke play over an amount of holes to be determined by The Open Championship Committee.

The playoff format has traditionally been a three-hole aggregate, with the specific three holes selected for the aggregate loop to be chosen by The R&A based on course routing, crowd control and playability. If the players are still tied after playing these extra holes, a hole-by-hole playoff will be played immediately, repeating play on the 18th hole only until a winner emerges.

The player with the lowest aggregate over the extra holes will be declared the winner. If the playoff involves more than two players, those other than the winner will be deemed to have tied for second place, regardless of their scores in the playoff.

The last playoff at The Open came in 2015 at St. Andrews, where Zach Johnson prevailed over Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman.

The three-hole format was adopted in 2019 at Royal Portrush. Beginning with 1989, when Mark Calcavecchia defeated Greg Norman and Wayne Grady at Royal Troon, The Open used a four-hole aggregate "extra session." Prior to that, The Open used both 18- and 36-hole playoffs during different eras.

In addition to 1989 and 2015, there has been one other three-man playoff at The Open: 1999 at Carnoustie, won by Paul Lawrie over Jean Van de Velde and Justin Leonard.

The 2002 Open at Muirfield also featured a four-man playoff, won by Ernie Els over Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington and Thomas Levet. (Els and Levet were tied after the four-hole aggregate; Els won on the first hole of sudden death.)