to familiar face Dermot Byrne<\/a> – kickstart a return to winning ways for the 2019 Open Champion?<\/p>\nThe Clara man is one of seven Irishmen in the field, including himself, McIlroy, two-time Open winner P\u00e1draig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Tom McKibbin, Amateur champ Stuart Grehan of Baltray and his fellow amateur David Howard.<\/p>\n
DeChambeau in danger of unwanted grand slam<\/p>\n
American Bryson DeChambeau arrives at Birkdale trying to avoid the ignominious record of missing the cut in all four majors for the first time in his career. He is already on his worst run in a calendar year \u2013 only once since he was eligible for all four majors in 2018 has he failed to play the weekend in more than one major \u2013 but his game does not look anywhere close to his best.<\/p>\n
Being a LIV golfer has not helped as his only competitive action in the five weeks prior to the Open was last month at Shinnecock Hills where he failed to break par in his two rounds.<\/p>\n
![\"PORTRUSH,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024af8c-614.jpg\"\/)
\nDefending champ Scheffler triumphed at Portrush<\/p>\n
Scottie Scheffler to emulate P\u00e1draig Harrington?<\/p>\n
World number one Scottie Scheffler is bidding to become the first man to successfully defend his Open title since our own P\u00e1draig Harrington, coincidentally at Birkdale, in 2008.<\/p>\n
Only 16 players have gone back-to-back in the event\u2019s long history but the American\u2019s major finishes this season (joint second at the Masters, 14th at the US PGA and tied fourth at the US Open) suggest he is in with a chance as he has competed without being on top form.<\/p>\n
Harrington harking back to most glorious days<\/p>\n
Harrington – still bagging majors at the ripe old age of 54 – returns to the scene of his masterpiece. Having broken his major maiden at Carnoustie in 2008, the Dubliner defended his title in style a year later at Birkdale.<\/p>\n
His championship-winning second shot into the par-five 17th secured his second straight clarer jug. “It’s one of the few times I\u2019ve heard my caddie [Ronan Flood] say ‘good shot\u2019 before the ball is finished,” Harrington later said. “Once I\u2019d hit that, I knew I\u2019d won the Open.”<\/p>\n
![\"Golf:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024af8e-614.jpg\"\/)
\nFaldo’s 1992 Muirfield triumph was the last by an Englishman<\/p>\n
England expects \u2013 again<\/p>\n
Nick Faldo in 1992 remains the last Englishman to win the Open. There are currently 13 Englishmen in the field, led by major winners Aaron Rai \u2013 the newly-crowned US PGA champion \u2013 Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick.<\/p>\n
Southport\u2019s Tommy Fleetwood, back on home soil, and his Ryder Cup team-mate Tyrrell Hatton could also be considered contenders. Of those Rose has been the most consistent in majors this year, having not finished lower than 11th, although Hatton has two top-sevens and a missed cut while Rai finished 11th in last month\u2019s US Open.<\/p>\n
New-look Birkdale presents greater challenge<\/p>\n
Five holes have been changed since the Open last visited in 2017, the most significant being a redesign on the back nine which has seen the old 15th hole become the 14th with a few tweaks and a completely new 15th.<\/p>\n
The 241-yard hole, still only the third-longest par three in Open history, will play predominantly downwind with a narrow entry, bunkers to the left and large run-off to the right.<\/p>\n
“Getting the ball to stop on the green could be difficult as the wind gets up. It does want to run away from you. There could be big moments here,” said Birkdale head professional Gregg Pettersen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 154th Open Championship takes place at Royal Birkdale, which is hosting the tournament for an 11th time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-551308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"HOYLAKE,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024af8a-614.jpg\"\/)