Transcript \u2013 Dan Hicks, Kevin Kisner, and Jim \u201cBones\u201d Mackay<\/a><\/p>\nSTAMFORD, Conn. \u2013 July 13, 2026 \u2013 NBC Sports presents comprehensive coverage of the 154th Open Championship from Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, with live coverage across NBC, Peacock, and NBCSN beginning this Thursday, July 16. Royal Birkdale hosts golf\u2019s oldest championship for the 11th time, as the world\u2019s best players compete for the coveted Claret Jug.<\/p>\n
Defending champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler headlines the field as he looks to become the first player to successfully defend The Open title since reigning U.S. Senior Open champion Padraig Harrington, who successfully defended his title at Royal Birkdale in 2008.<\/p>\n
Scheffler will be challenged by World No. 2 Rory McIlroy, the 2014 Open champion, who returns looking to capture his second Claret Jug. Among the other top contenders are Matt Fitzpatrick (No. 3), Cameron Young (No. 4), Russell Henley (No. 5), Chris Gotterup (No. 6), 2021 Open champion Collin Morikawa (No. 7), reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (No. 8), Tommy Fleetwood (No. 9) who returns to compete in his hometown of Southport, Justin Rose (No. 10), Jon Rahm (No. 11), and recent Travelers Championship winner Viktor Hovland (No. 12).<\/p>\n
Royal Birkdale most recently hosted The Open in 2017, when Jordan Spieth captured the Claret Jug with a memorable three-shot victory.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Open Championship marks NBC Sports\u2019 10th Open Championship broadcast. Dan Hicks, NBC Sports\u2019 lead golf play-by-play voice since 2000, calls his 10th Open Championship and second at Royal Birkdale. Host Mike Tirico works his 28th Open Championship as a broadcaster, second-most for the event among U.S. broadcasters in the host\/play-by-play role (trailing only Jim McKay). It will also be Tirico\u2019s fourth Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, having previously worked the event there in 1998, 2008, and 2017.<\/p>\n
In total, NBC Sports will present 20+ hours of traditional live championship coverage Thursday-Sunday \u2013 and more than 150 hours of live coverage surrounding the Open Championship in total including featured groups and streaming coverage on Peacock.<\/p>\n
NBC Broadcast Team<\/p>\n
Host: Mike TiricoPlay-by-play: Dan Hicks \/ Terry Gannon \/ Mike Tirico \/ Steve SandsAnalyst: Kevin Kisner \/ Brad Faxon \/ Paul McGinley \/ Curt ByrumOn-Course Reporter: Jim \u201cBones\u201d Mackay \/ Smylie Kaufman \/ John WoodInterviews: Cara BanksRules: Charlie Maran<\/p>\n
How To Watch \u2013 Thursday, July 16 \u2013 Sunday, July 19 (all times ET)<\/p>\n
TV \u2013 NBC, NBCSN, and USA NetworkStreaming \u2013 Peacock, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports appDate
Peacock\/NBCSN
USA Network
NBC\/Peacock
Thursday, July 16
*1:30-4 a.m.
4 a.m. \u2013 3:30 p.m.
Friday, July 17
*1:30-4 a.m.
4 a.m. \u2013 3:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 18
5 – 7 a.m.
7 a.m. \u2013 3 p.m.
Sunday, July 19
4 – 7 a.m.
7 a.m. \u2013 2 p.m.<\/p>\n
*coverage will begin shortly before the first scheduled tee time at 1:30 a.m. ET
NBC Sports will complement its comprehensive Open Championship coverage with live featured groups on Peacock Thursday-Sunday, showcasing two morning groups and two afternoon groups each day. Jordan Cornette and Jay Croucher will host Peacock\u2019s Open All Access whiparound show Thursday and Friday beginning at 8 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
New this year, Peacock will offer a Player Focus stream featuring every shot from a marquee player with more detail, more analysis and additional content. <\/p>\n
NBC Sports will utilize a number of its commentators throughout featured groups and featured holes coverage, supplemented by Sky Sports and world feed commentators, including:<\/p>\n
Play-by-play: Cara Banks \/ Tom AbbottAnalyst\/on-course reporters: John Cook \/ Karen Stupples<\/p>\n
-NBC SPORTS-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weekend Coverage on NBC and Peacock Begins at 7 a.m. ET Saturday and Sunday First Round Coverage Begins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-799343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}