The Open Championship is the fourth and final major of the calendar year, run by The R&A and contested in mid-July. It is the oldest of the four majors and the only one played outside the United States, rotating across a set of historic links courses in the United Kingdom. For a pool, The Open is the major with the most distinctive character — links golf is genuinely different from American parkland golf, weather is always a storyline, and the morning-versus-afternoon tee-time wave can produce dramatically different scoring conditions across a single round. Drafting a roster for The Open is a different exercise than drafting for the spring majors; this guide walks the differences.

The Open rewards links specialists who handle wind. Lock anchors to a Thursday morning that is the middle of the night in the United States; bias rosters toward proven Open performers and budget for weather to reshape the leaderboard.

When to launch your pool

The Open Championship plays Thursday through Sunday in mid-July. The first tee time is early morning local to the venue, which for a United States audience means R1 tee-off is often in the middle of the night. The lock-time math is the most demanding of any major: Thursday morning at the venue can be the middle of Wednesday night on the United States East Coast and several hours before that on the West Coast.

Open the pool seven to ten days out from R1. Send the first reminder Saturday before tournament week, the second Tuesday evening, and consider a third reminder on Wednesday afternoon — because the lock falls during overnight hours in the United States, entrants who plan to draft Wednesday night need to draft before they go to sleep, not Thursday morning when they wake up.

Picking your rules for this tournament

The Open Championship cuts after 36 holes to the top 70 and ties. That matches the PGA Championship's cut policy and is more generous than the US Open's 60-and-ties. Roster damage from the cut is generally moderate; the cut at The Open is more interesting for the weather story than for the math, since the cut frequently lands on a Friday afternoon when one wave has played in calm conditions and the other has played in wind.

The cut rule that fits is worst_active — same default as the other majors. The Open is the major most likely to produce a missed-cut bucket of golfers who played one round in benign conditions and one in genuine weather; worst_active applies the higher of the two counting rounds as the penalty, which feels more honest to entrants than a fixed flat penalty.

For the tiebreaker, best_single is the default. The Open is also the major where predict_winner lands well — the Sunday afternoon drama at a links course is some of the best golf coverage of the year, and a winner-pick gives every entrant a rooting interest on the final day even if their roster is out of contention.

Payout structure is similar to the PGA Championship — the wider cut means more rosters survive intact, so a slightly top-heavy split (50/30/20 across three places, or 40/25/15/10/10 across five) works well.

What makes this tournament different

Links golf is the through-line. Every Open Championship is played on a links course — the firm-turf, treeless, pot-bunkered terrain found along the coastlines of Scotland and England. Recent editions have visited Royal Troon, Royal Liverpool, St Andrews, Royal St George's, and Carnoustie. The common features across venues: wind, weather variability, ground-game shot-making, and pot bunkers that punish even small misses off the tee.

The morning-versus-afternoon wave matters more at The Open than at any other major. Weather in the United Kingdom in July can shift dramatically across a single day; a morning wave that plays in calm conditions and an afternoon wave that plays in twenty-mile-per-hour winds will produce scoring averages four or five strokes apart. Entrants who pick golfers in one wave inadvertently take on that wave's weather risk. This is a genuine drafting consideration, not just a storyline — but tee times are not published until the Tuesday of tournament week, which means most rosters get drafted without wave information.

Distance off the tee matters less at The Open than at any other major. Links courses reward bump-and-run approach shots, the ability to flight the ball low under wind, and creative recovery from pot bunkers and gorse. Golfers who rely on high carry distance and stop-on-a-dime approach shots tend to struggle at The Open even when they dominate other majors.

Who tends to perform well here

The Open rewards links specialists. The roster archetype that works is a mix of veteran European tour regulars who play links golf year-round, American golfers with proven links pedigree (a category smaller than it sounds — most American stars do not have deep links experience), and at least one or two depth picks from the European tour ranks below the top fifty. Tour specialization matters here in a way it does not at the other three majors.

Players who handle wind tend to do well; players who play a high, controlled trajectory tend to struggle when the weather turns. Recent Open winners have skewed toward golfers with multiple top-tens at The Open in their careers — the tournament is one where repeat performers genuinely have an edge, more so than at the US Open or the PGA Championship.

The roster shape that works: two anchors from the top twenty of the world ranking who have demonstrated links comfort (not just any top-twenty name), two mid-band picks from the European tour or from American golfers with strong links records, and two depth picks from veterans known for ball-flight control. See Picking Your Roster for the value-band math; The Open is the tournament where reading the player carefully matters more than chasing the highest world ranking available.

Setting up a Weekend Shootout instead

If your group could not coordinate around the overnight Thursday lock, the Weekend Shootout format is a particularly good fit for The Open. The post-cut field is already pruned by Friday's weather, which means Saturday morning drafters have meaningful information about who handled the conditions and who did not. Pool locks at 7:00 AM Central on Saturday — for The Open that is mid-afternoon at the venue, so by lock time the R3 first wave will have already started playing. Most years this is the cleanest information environment for a weekend-only pool of any major.

Common questions

Set one up

The Open Championship is the major with the most distinctive identity. If your group enjoys links golf, weather drama, and the deep history of the championship itself, sign in, open the wizard, and follow the host walkthrough. Mid-July is a quiet sports calendar for most American groups; The Open often draws the biggest engagement of any of the four majors as a result.