Sun, June 28, 2026 at 5:11 PM UTC
The field of 156 for the 2026 Open Championship will not include nine past champions. It’s a who’s who, also some “whatever happened to that guy,” but there are also no real surprises.
The golf world has known for some time now that Tiger Woods would miss the Open. His last round in competition was at the 2024 Open. Bob Harig reported in May that Woods didn’t submit an entry to the 2026 Open.
More recently, Phil Mickelson was added to the list. He was originally on the R&A’s exempt list, as recently as last Tuesday, but Lefty has since slid down into the non-playing section. It was on Friday, June 26, that Alan Shipnuck dropped a reporting bombshell on Mickelson.
Officially, the R&A’s website describes the list of non-playing past champions as:
The following players were exempt for The 154th Open but either did not enter the championship or have since withdrawn:
Past champions are exempt through the age of 60.
Todd Kelly is an assistant managing editor at Golfweek.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson past champions not playing British Open