For the second straight year, the man whose 15 major victories are second only to Jack Nicklaus’ 18 will miss all four of the season’s major championships. As reported by Sports Illustrated on Tuesday, Tiger Woods has not entered July’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, and with no exemption into next month’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, the 50-year-old will be absent from the game’s biggest events this summer.

Woods also missed all of the majors last year while recovering after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon in March 2025.

Woods had disc replacement back surgery last October and seemed to leave a slight opening for possibly playing in April’s Masters. But on March 27, he was involved in a car accident near his home in Jupiter, Fla., and arrested on the scene for driving under the influence, failing a sobriety test and refusing to take a urine test. There were also two hydrocodone pills in his pocket.

Woods has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test. On May 12, a judge overseeing the case ruled that prosecutors could get access to the golfer’s medication records. Woods’ lawyers had argued for a protective order, asserting that the golfer’s medications records should not be open to the public. The judge did approve a protective order that restricted access to the records.

On March 31, Woods announced he would step away to “seek treatment and focus on my health.” Then on April 1, a Martin (Florida) County court judge granted a motion for Woods to travel to Switzerland for treatment away from media and public scrutiny.

Woods then travelled to Switzerland and was there until reports surfaced last week that he returned to Florida. It has been speculated that he came back to support his girlfriend, Vanessa Trump, the ex-daughter-in-law of President Donald Trump.

On Saturday, flight trackers reported that Woods’ plane had returned to Switzerland—ostensibly to resume what has been reported to be three months of treatment.

The winner of 82 PGA Tour titles, Woods is approaching two years of not playing official competitive golf. His last tournament was he 2024 Open Championship at Troon, where he missed the cut. Prior to that, he’d played four times that season—withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational due to illness, finishing 60th in the Masters, and missing the cut in both the PGA Championship and U.S. Open. He is now more than five years removed from his last major victory—an improbable and revered triumph, at the age of 45, in the 2019 Masters.

The Masters, with its lifetime exemption for winners (as long as they can be competitive), and the Open Championship (champions exempt until 60) are the only majors for which Woods still holds future status.

Sports Illustrated also reported that Phil Mickelson has submitted an entry into the Open Championship. The 55-year-old won the Claret Jug in 2013 at Muirfield and has competed in 31 of the past 32 Opens. He has, however, played only one tournament on LIV Golf this season and didn’t play in the Masters and PGA Championship while citing “family health issues.” Mickelson was not exempt for the U.S. Open and did not attempt to qualify.

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In an era where the sites of the 1935 PGA Championship, 1937 Ryder Cup and 2051 U.S. Open already have been announced (plan your trips to Oak Hill, Congressional and Oakland Hills, respectively), it was an oddity that the site of the 2028 Open Championship was still unknown a little more than two years before it is to be played. That is until Monday when the R&A announced that Royal Lytham & St. Annes would be the site for the 156th playing of the game’s oldest championship.

Located 50 miles north of Liverpool along England’s west coast, Lytham will be hosting the Open for the 12th time, the most recent coming in 2012 when Ernie Els won for the second time, claiming the claret jug as Adam Scott stumbled with bogeys on the final four holes. The dates for the event are Aug. 3-6, later than the Open is traditionally held in order to accommodate the 2028 Olympics being played that July in Los Angeles.

Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club.

The stage is set for 2028. pic.twitter.com/iqZZNWe94a

— The Open (@TheOpen) April 27, 2026

“This is one of golf’s most cherished and historic venues and The Open’s return to these famous links will spark huge interest among fans to be part of one of the world’s great sporting events and celebrate the rich traditions of golf’s original Championship,” said R&A CEO Mark Darbon in a press release. “We are grateful to the members of Royal Lytham & St Annes and the local authorities for their support in making this happen. We look forward to enjoying another fantastic championship on England’s golf coast in 2028.”

Past Open champions at Lytham include Bobby Jones, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Bob Charles, Tony Jacklin, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Lehman, and David Duval.

“We are honoured to be chosen as the host venue for the 156th Open in 2028. The Club has a long and successful association with The Open, and we take great pride in our place within the Championship’s history,” said Tim Walker, Chairman of Council at Royal Lytham & St Annes, who made a nod to Lytham’s Open history. “It is fitting that this announcement comes as we mark 100 years since Bobby Jones’ victory here in 1926 and the granting of our Royal status. We look forward to welcoming the world’s leading players, together with spectators and audiences from across the globe, to our links on England’s golf coast.”

This summer, Lytham plays host to the AIG Women’s Open from July 29 to Aug. 2.

2028. Royal Lytham and St Annes.

It's time to remember again. pic.twitter.com/7khswaLHpH

— The Open (@TheOpen) April 27, 2026

FUTURE OPEN SITES

2026 — Royal Birkdale, Southport, England

2027 — The Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland

2028 — Royal Lytham & St. Annes, Lancashire, England

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Rory McIlroy believes Scotland’s famed Muirfield Golf Club should be returned to the Open Championship rota in time for the 2028 edition.

Muirfield Golf Club – David Cannon

Speaking to reporters after a third-round 71 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the reigning Masters champion said the Gullane area golf course “deserves” to be placed on the unofficial list of anchor sites the R&A uses for the men’s links major.

The U.K. major is headed this summer to Royal Birkdale, in the Southport area of Northwest England, before returning to the Old Course at St. Andrews in 2027 for the 155th Open.

Phil Mickelson holds the Claret Jug after winning the 142nd Open Championship at Muirfield in 2013. Rob Carr

While the R&A has not yet announced host courses for the 2028 and 2029 editions, McIlroy says Muirfield is worthy of welcoming back for the first Open since Phil Mickelson triumphed in 2013.

“Yeah,” the 2014 Open champion said Saturday when asked if it was time Muirfield came back into the equation. “I would say Birkdale this year, would be very early to bring an Open back to that [Northwest England] region in 2028.” Meaning, Royal Lytham may not be a suitable host for 2028 given it is less than 40 miles from Birkdale. In that case, Muirfield may be a better candidate.

“Muirfield, they obviously rectified the issues that they had,” he said. McIlroy was referring to a 2017 vote by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers to allow women members for the first time in Muirfield’s centuries-old history. McIlroy had been critical of the issue. At that year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, McIlroy said it was “ridiculous” that it had taken so long to allow women to join. Five years after the vote, Muirfield hosted the Women’s Open for the first time, with South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai winning in a playoff.

At Royal Portrush during last year’s Open, Darbon spoke about potential future Open rota venues. He acknowledged that with the enormous scale of the modern British Open, Muirfield had logistical hurdles to consider but added discussions with the East Lothian course were positive.

“We love the golf course at Muirfield,” Darbon said. “We’re in a discussion with the venue right now. There are some things that we need to evolve at Muirfield—the practice ground, in particular, is a challenge for us to host the modern Open, and this is work we need to do. And if they need to facilitate some of the infrastructure that we require decent cabling to enable the scale of the production that we have these days.

“But it’s good dialogue, and we’d love to be back here in the future.”

The logical issues aside, Muirfield is regarded among the finest in the U.K. It ranks seventh in Golf Digest’s World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses.

“It’s a wonderful golf course,” McIlroy said. “It’s one of the best courses on the rota and in the U.K., but I think, as well, it has to commercially make sense. I think [CEO of the R&A] Mark Darbon has been brought in to make the Open Championship commercially viable. I would say Muirfield, that area [of] North Berwick, that would probably be one of the more commercially viable opens. It would be wonderful if it was. Again, I’m not privy to those conversations but Muirfield deserves to be back on The Open rota.”

Now a career Grand Slam champion and five-time major winner, McIlroy wants another shot at hoisting the claret jug at Muirfield, having missed the cut in 2013 in what he said “could have been the lowest point in my career.” He won the Open at Royal Liverpool the following year.

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On Monday, Royal Liverpool Golf Club—better known as Hoylake—released this video of a literal bomb going off beside one of its famed greens. But don’t worry, it wasn’t the product of another terrifying headline or one of Gil Hanse’s links “restorations” (credit to our own Alex Myers for that zinger). Instead, it was the controlled detonation of a WWII-era artillery shell that was recently discovered beneath the 13-time Open Championship venue. Check it out.

This week, an unexploded artillery shell was found on the course.

Following a successful controlled explosion carried out by specialists, the site was made safe.

To find out more about Royal Liverpool’s war years, follow this link: https://t.co/RhjnuTurpx pic.twitter.com/wCQexf4yF5

— Royal Liverpool Golf Club (@RLGCHoylake) December 15, 2025

Remarkable stuff. During World War II, Royal Liverpool, like many coastal links courses across Great Britain, was converted into a military site. Installed there was an early radar system designed to identify and anticipate the approach of enemy aircraft. Its fairways were soon crisscrossed with barbed wire and embedded with live mines as fears of a land invasion by Nazi forces mounted. In 1944, the removal of those mines began with a series of controlled explosions that left the golf course in tatters. The work was thorough, but somehow this shell evaded detection, remaining dormant for another 80 years.

Obviously, this clip represents a remarkable collision of Hoylake’s golf and human histories, which intertwine in fascinating and unexpected ways across the United Kingdom. We’re glad, of course, that no one was hurt and the shell was safely detonated with minimal damage to the iconic links, but we’re equally happy Hoylake decided to share this moment with the golf world. It’s not every day you get to see something like this, and it’s more proof that links golf—despite all its obsolete eccentricities—remains the best golf.

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The Open Championship is moving, temporarily, to August in 2028.

The R&A announced the decision Monday for the tournament not to conflict with the Olympics golf competition in Los Angeles.

The claret jug will be contested from Aug. 3-6, about two weeks later than its normal July spot. The Summer Games in Los Angeles will are expected to begin on July 19. In 2028, there will be a men’s individual competition (July 19-22), a mixed team event on the 23-24, and a women’s individual tournament starting on July 26. All events will take place at Riviera.

As part of the R&A’s announcement, the 2028 Women’s Open and Senior Open were also pushed back into August to accommodate the Olympics. “We have worked collaboratively with the relevant bodies and our partners to agree alternative dates for staging our major championships in 2028 to accommodate the Olympic golf competitions,” R&A CEO Mark Darbon said in a statement.

“We appreciate the constructive discussions we have had with all of the stakeholders and believe that providing clarity on the dates now will assist with the planning of the global golf calendar in 2028.”

Darbon added that the events will return to their normal dates the following season.

The R&A has not publicly revealed the host venue for the Open in 2028, as only Royal Birkdale (2026) and the Old Course at St Andrews (2027) have been announced.

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The R&A announced in June that it would host a last-chance on-site qualifier for the Open Championship beginning next year at Royal Birkdale. There will be 12 players in a winner-take-all competition where one will advance directly into the championship (July 16-19) that will start three days later. It’s essentially a Monday qualifier like the old days on the PGA Tour, but for one of the four biggest prizes in the game.

On Tuesday, the R&A announced the eligibility for the qualifier, putting into picture the criteria for how they’re going to select the 12 players who will play in the 18-hole competition Monday morning (July 13) at Royal Birkdale.

Here is how the field will be determined:

• The top two players not eligible for the Open in the Official World Golf Ranking published on July 6.
• The runner-up in the British Amateur if still an amateur on July 13.
• Players who were in a playoff in final qualifying but did not advance.
• Players who finished one position behind those who secured a place at final qualifying.
• Players who were tied for a qualifying place in events that are part of the Open Qualifying Series (excluding Scottish Open) but failed to qualify because they were ranked lower in the world ranking.

“We have also developed eligibility criteria for the Last-Chance Qualifier which stays true to the traditions of The Open and our qualification process,” said Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, chief championships officer at the R&A. “Every golfer who tees it up at Royal Birkdale will have earned the right to do so and we look forward to seeing which player emerges from the field in the Last-Chance Qualifier to seal their place in the Championship.”

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The Old Course at St. Andrews has been in the news this week for announcing changes ahead of the 2027 Open Championship in an effort to defend the storied layout against the best players in the world. But there’s not much to be done anywhere if Kyle Berkshire gets a hold of one.

The Long Drive legend and YouTube creator recently filmed at the Old Course. And he brought the famed Road Hole to its knees by driving the par 4 and making a two-putt birdie.

You can watch it all on Berkshire’s Instagram page here. Just look at the insane line he takes off the tee in order to roll one up to the front edge of the green:

Impressive stuff from Berkshire. There’s not much that can be done to “Kyle-Proof” that. Unless, the Old Course Hotel adds an extension.

MORE: How Gary Player plays four rounds a week at age 90 and why he thinks he’ll still be playing at 100

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Journeys with Tom McKibbin: ‘Being compared to Rory, is something I have obviously heard for a while now’

With the seven-shot victory over fellow LIV golfer Peter Uihlein, the 22-year-old Northern Irishman earned exemptions into the 2026 Masters and Open Championship. Both Augusta National and the R&A changed eligibility criteria in August, announcing that winners of national opens would receive invitations. The Hong Kong Open is one of six national opens on the schedule.

This is Northern Irishman’s second victory as a professional, the first coming on the DP World Tour in 2023 at the Porsche European Open. He began this week with a first-round, course-record 60 then shot back-to-back 65s before closing with a 63, going wire-to-wire in the win.

First Asian Tour win
Masters debut
Third appearance at The Open

Tom McKibbin with a dominant debut at the Link Hong Kong Open#LHKO2025 #InternationalSeries #TimeToRise pic.twitter.com/8W91eiKKMU

— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) November 2, 2025

“I played some of the best golf I’ve ever played,” said McKibbin. “To shoot those scores around here, it’s pretty special.”

The Masters in April will be McKibbin’s first appearance at Augusta National and just his fifth in a major. As for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale next July, that will be his third consecutive appearance (T-66, MC).

“Very excited. To go back and play my third Open, it will be very cool,” he said. “And to have that drive down Magnolia Lane for the first time ever will be even more special. Historic tournaments like this deserve their spots, and it’s great to take advantage of that.”

McKibbin joins Chris Gotterup (Scottish Open), Marco Penge (Spanish Open) and Naoyuki Kataoka (Japan Open) as the most recent beneficiaries of the new eligibility criteria. Two more invitations will be earned in national opens, one at the Australian Open in December and another at the South African Open in late February.

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That doesn’t mean the links are sacrosanct. Throughout its long history the Old Course has simultaneously evolved and been intentionally modified. New tees have been built, fairways have been adjusted and bunkers added and removed. As golf changes, so does the Old Course despite its aura of permanence.

On that note, The R&A and the St. Andrews Links Trust announced Tuesday a series of renovations the Old Course will undergo ahead of the 2027 Open Championship. Individually, the alterations are subtle and might not be observable to anyone not intimately familiar with the design. But taken collectively, the governing bodies believe they will create a more consistent challenge for major championship competitors in places around the course that have become vulnerable.

The modifications, beginning next week under the guidance of the British architecture firm Mackenzie & Ebert, include adding 132 yards across six different holes—five, six, seven, 10, 11 and 16—bringing the total yardage to 7,445. The teeing areas of the 11th and 16th holes will also be enlarged, and the championship tees on 12 and 14 have shifted. At the par-5 fifth, a new tee will add 35 yards to the hole taking the length to 605 yards. Two short par 4s, the seventh and 10th, will be 22 and 29 yards longer, respectfully.

“What we saw in the last Open on the par 4s were more players, in relatively calm conditions, being able to get on or near the greens with their tee shots than in the past,” says Grant Moir, executive director of The R&A. “No. 10 has been drivable downwind before, but the extension means it’s unlikely to be drivable in flat conditions, and the length on seven makes it less likely, though not impossible, that players will be able to carry Shell bunker.”

Moir also believes taking the par-3 11th, the famous Eden hole, back to 195 yards will also have an impact.

David Cannon/R&A

“In recent times, for instance, that well-known hole location just over Strath bunker has become relatively accessible given the clubs players have in their hands. Adding 21 yards to that tee shot will enhance the challenge to that hole and to all the hole locations, certainly into the prevailing southwest wind.”

Two new bunkers will angle into the right side of the landing area on the par-4 second, replacing two obsolete bunkers in the short rough. A new fairway bunker at the par-4 sixth will protect against long drives down the left. The 10th will receive a new bunker 60 yards short of the front of the green to the left. Fairway bunkers and surrounds on nine and 12 are set to be recontoured, and the top edge of the Road Hole bunker on 17 will be lowered slightly to offset years of bunker sand-splash build up.

The biggest alteration comes at the par-4 16th, one of golf’s finest alternate route holes. For generations, players had to decide whether to squeeze a drive between the Principal’s Nose bunker (with the Deacon Sime bunker lurking beyond it) and the out-of-bounds line on the right, or play safely left of the centerline hazards and then contend with a more difficult approach to the green.

Prior to the 2000 Open, the fairway left of Principal’s Nose was converted to rough. Rarely used as a primary hazard at St. Andrews, the expanse of rough made the 16th an oddity, and one-dimensional. Over time, however, more players began risking a poor lie in the left rough over the greater disaster of driving out of bounds to the right. That area will be reclaimed as fairway, with two new bunkers constructed on the through-line beyond and to the left of Deacon Sime, waiting to capture drives played too conservatively.

“That’s been somewhat unsatisfying,” Moir says of players intentionally hitting toward the rough. “So, although it kind of seems counterintuitive to replace rough with fairway to increase the challenge, the combination of the fairway extending left as it did in the past and the addition of those bunkers long actually provides optionality as well as the enhanced strategic challenge that we’re looking for.”

The expansion of short grass at 16 fits into St. Andrews’ overall design concept, says Sandy Reid, director of greenkeeping for the St. Andrews Links Trust.

“We’re cognizant of how the Old Course has been played in the past with more tight turf, and that’s something we’ve been looking at enhancing as an organisation,” he says. “I think these changes represent a nod to the past. More tight turf complements our thoughts on how the course should be presented.”

We’ll know soon how the changes impact a course that’s been in a defensive crouch, from a scoring perspective, for 25 years (the average winning score in the five Opens since 2000 is 16.8 strokes under par). One thing the golf world can count on is that this will not be the last round of modifications at the Old Course. As players continue to hit the ball farther and harder, St. Andrews will have to respond again in the future if it continues to be in the Open rota. Which brings up the next question: for a venue that’s already been stretched to the point that championship tees are now positioned on parts of the neighbouring courses, is there any more room available?

Moir thinks there is. “For any of us to say it wouldn’t be possible to extend it in the future, I think that would be unwise,” he says. “I’ve never ceased to be amazed by the creativity people have in finding ways to enhance the challenge of this golf course.”

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That is, unless you’re a sublimely gifted teen golfer from Japan chasing a spot in the Masters and The Open via a win at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.

The story of Taisei Nagasaki losing in a thrilling playoff this weekend at Dubai’s Emirates Golf Club was almost as compelling as the tournament’s winner, Thai golfer Fifa Laopakdee.

That is the power of a tournament created jointly in 2009 by Augusta National and the R&A to grow golf in regions around the world. The Asia-Pacific can simultaneously change an amateur’s career and teach the runner/s up and contenders a harsh—yet invaluable—a lesson about the margins of golf at the highest level.

During Sunday’s final moments of the TV broadcast, there were moving scenes at the Emirates G.C. when Nagasaki was captured bowing to the renowned Dubai course. It was a gesture of respect, an acknowledgement of gratitude for the mere opportunity to have a short putt in regulation that, had it dropped, would have secured a drive up Magnolia Lane and a trip to Royal Birkdale.

A moment of respect in defeat. pic.twitter.com/yX7An2ZNTu

— Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (@AAC_Golf) October 26, 2025

It showed maturity for a golfer born in the same year as the tournament: 2009. Nagasaki, who hails from Miyazaki on the Japanese island of Kyushu, won the Boys’ 12-14 division of the 2024 Japan Junior Championship while he finished runner-up in the Boys’ 13-14 division of the Junior World Championships in San Diego the same year. He has results on some of junior golf’s biggest stages.

Perhaps nothing, though, can prepare a golfer for the pressure of a putt to gain entry into two majors—even when leading by five shots after three rounds. Nagasaki had been struggling on the final day, with six bogeys and just two birdies in 14 holes, but he hung in there. On the 72nd hole, he faced a brutal up and down from behind a greenside bunker to green sloping away from him. He produced an exquisite pitch shot to four feet.

Missing the putt didn’t deter Nagasaki from continuing the fight in a playoff, until he blinked on the third extra hole against Laopakdee. A pitch shot Nagasaki caught heavy led to a par, and Laopakdee made birdie to become the first Thai to win the event.

And then came the bow, after knocking in a gut-wrenching par putt. Moments later, Nagasaki broke down while speaking through a translator about the loss on the Asia-Pacific broadcast. “When I think of big stages like the Masters and the Open, I still get nervous, and I feel that I’m not yet strong enough mentally,” he said. “I will practice more and get winning experiences to win at this stage next year.”

Nagasaki’s bow was reminiscent of an iconic version of the same gesture by Hideki Matsuyama’s caddie, Shota Hayafuji, after his boss won the 2021 Masters—10 years after claiming his second Asia-Pacific Amateur victory. Hayafuji’s bow drew the applause of sports fans around the world, yet the ancient practice is common in Japan, from retail stores to sporting events and offices around the country.

Perhaps, but golf had not seen one on a grand stage since the 2021 Masters. And at the Emirates G.C., it was special to see such grace in defeat. Perhaps even more so from a teenager.

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