USA Sports presents live championship and studio coverage of The Open at Royal Birkdale across USA Network and Golf Channel

STAMFORD, Conn. – July 14, 2026 – USA Sports presents live championship and studio coverage of The 154^th Open at Royal Birkdale in Southport, United Kingdom across USA Network and Golf Channel. Coverage includes nearly 12 consecutive hours of opening-round and second-round coverage on Thursday and Friday starting at 4 a.m. ET on USA Network, and lead-in coverage at 5 a.m. ET on Saturday, 4 a.m. ET on Sunday.

In addition to USA Network’s championship coverage, Golf Central Live From The Open surrounds the 2026 championship with nearly 25 hours of live studio coverage from Royal Birkdale on Golf Channel. In total, USA Sports will present nearly 125 hours of live and encore championship and studio coverage from Royal Birkdale across USA Network and Golf Channel.

THE 154^TH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
The final men’s major championship of the year tees off from Royal Birkdale in Southport, United Kingdom, the most regular venue to host The Open besides St. Andrews. This will be the 11^th time Royal Birkdale has hosted The Open, and first since 2017 when Jordan Spieth won his third major championship title.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler won The 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush by four strokes over Harris English. Scheffler is coming off his first missed cut in 78 consecutive starts after shooting even par in two rounds at The Gensis Scottish Invitational last week.

USA Network will provide nearly 30 hours of live coverage of The Open, including 11.5 hours of coverage of the first and second rounds on Thursday and Friday. Major Champion and 17-time PGA TOUR winner Jim Furyk will once again join USA Network’s major championship coverage as an analyst, following his successful stint in the role at this year’s U.S. Open and Travelers Championship.

USA Network Broadcast Team:

• Play by Play: Terry Gannon / Steve Sands / Tom Abbott

• Analysts: Jim Furyk / Curt Byrum / Karen Stupples

• On-Course: Smylie Kaufman / Jim “Bones” MacKay / Arron Oberholser

Notable Players in the Field

• Scottie Scheffler
• Rory McIlroy
• Tommy Fleetwood
• Jordan Spieth
• Xander Schauffele
• Matt Fitzpatrick 
• Cameron Smith

LIVE FROM THE OPEN
Live From The Open coverage on Golf Channel began today at 8 a.m. ET and continues throughout the day until 1 p.m. ET, when Golf Channel will air a special presentation of the R&A’s “Last Chance Qualifier.”

The “Last Chance Qualifier” was held on Monday, with 12 players competing across 18 holes at Royal Birkdale for a chance to tee-it-up in The Open on Thursday. Englishman Joe Dean won by one stroke to earn the final spot in the field.

The Live From primetime team of host Rich Lerner and analysts Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley highlight coverage throughout the week, joined by a star-studded lineup of Golf Channel’s best analysts and reporters.

Live From The Open will include numerous guest appearances and features throughout the week, including features on hometown player Tommy Fleetwood, 2017 The Open champion Jordan Spieth and 2008 champion Padraig Harrington, who both won at Royal Birkdale.

Live From The Open Broadcast Team

• Hosts: Rich Lerner, Anna Jackson 
• Analysts/Contributors: Brandel Chamblee, Paul McGinley, Arron Oberholser, Ryan Lavner, Eamon Lynch, Paige Mackenzie, Smylie Kaufman, Brendon de Jonge
• Reporters: Todd Lewis, Rex Hoggard, Emma Carpenter (Puntacana)

Last week, Furyk, Lerner, Chamblee, and McGinley previewed The Open on a media conference call. Click here for the full transcript. Highlights include:

Jim Furyk on the how preparing for his analyst role is similar to preparing for a PGA TOUR event: “Comparing it to playing, I think live golf is very similar to playing. You prepare but at the end of the day, you get so many seconds to either pull off a shot or make a call on live air. Sometimes it's really good, sometimes it's not so good. You accept it, you move on, and you learn from the experience. I enjoyed working with Paul and Brandel at the Masters. I worked with Rich at the U.S. Open. I think there's a lot more to it. There is a talent to it as well. Some folks are going to be better than others, but the preparation, the amount of work that's put in surely is reflective on the work. I probably over-prepared in golf, but I'm learning and I'm getting better at preparing for this job and I've enjoyed the process.”

Rich Lerner on 2026 Player of the Year: “Player of the Year is very much up for grabs at this final major. I would say Scottie probably, based on the overall statistical package, is a slight number one, but he could be caught. If Gotterup wins, I think there's a case for Chris Gotterup. There's obviously a case for Rory. If he wins, that would be two majors. There's a case for Fitz, that would be a fourth win with strong performances at the better events. And then there's a case, obviously, for Cameron Young if he were to add The Open to his Players title and the signature tournament that he won down at Doral. So, plenty for us to discuss on Live From next week. We're excited.”

Paul McGinley on the R&A’s new fan code of conduct: “Like everything in this game, we need to have boundaries and the USGA and the R&A are the custodians of the game in that regard, as well as the PGA TOUR, and those boundaries have to be set in stone. I think we've got a very unique demographic in golf and that demographic demands and looks for a code of behavior complicit with the standing that golf has as a sport. If we lose that, and if the game becomes a little bit more of a free-for-all in terms of behaviors and codes, we risk alienating that demographic and it's got to be nurtured… The people who watch other sports might not want to entertain the standards that golf has, but I think that's a strength that we have rather than a weakness.”

Chamblee on Royal Birkdale: ““As it relates to the list of winners (at Birkdale), it introduced us to Peter Thomson and then (years later) Peter Thomson won his fifth (Open) there. Another one, Tom Watson, won his fifth there in '83. In '76, it introduced us to Seve Ballestero in ‘98, it introduced us to Justin Rose. Padraig Harrington winning back-to-back, culminating there with his victory in 2008. He was the first European to do it in over 100 years, and then Jordan Spieth gave us Seve moments, gave us Arnold Palmer moments, all rolled into one en route to winning. So, there's almost a historically significant memory of every single Open Championship that has been contested at Birkdale.”

PGA TOUR: CORALES PUNTACANA CHAMPIONSHIP
This PGA TOUR additional event takes place at Corales Golf Club at Puntacana Resort & Club in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. As part of the strategic alliance between the PGA TOUR and the DP World Tour, the field this year includes members of the DP World Tour.

Garrick Higgo won the 2025 playing of the event, beating Joel Dahmen, Keith Mitchell, Jeremy Paul, Michael Thorbjornsen and Alejandro Tosti by just one stroke.

This year’s field includes both emerging and established talent, such as Blades Brown, Nick Dunlap, Emiliano Grillo, Higgo and Brandt Snedeker.

Golf Channel presents the Corales Puntacana Championship starting at 12:30 p.m. ET Thursday and Friday, 12 p.m. ET on Saturday, and 4 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Golf Channel Broadcast Team

• Play by Play: George Savaricas 

• Analysts: Graham DeLaet 

• On-Course: Tripp Isenhour / James Nitties
• Reporter: Emma Carpenter 

USGA: U.S. GIRLS JR. CHAMPIONSHIP
The USGA’s U.S. Girl’s Jr. Championship takes place this week at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C., with 126 female amateurs under the age of 19 competing for the prestigious title.

In 2025, Aphrodite Deng at 15 years-old became the first Canadian to win the U.S. Girls' Junior with her 2-and-1 victory over Xingtong Chen, of Singapore at the Atlanta Athletic Club's Riverside Course.

Golf Channel Mobile and GolfChannel.com will present the semifinals matches and championship match live starting at 3 p.m. ET on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Golf Channel will air an encore presentation of the matches starting at 6 p.m. ET Friday and Saturday.

-GOLF CHANNEL-

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