Large-Field GPP Breakdown: The Open Championship

We are back for the final major of 2026, ladies and gentlemen. This year has gone by so fast, yet I’m not really sure if I’m having fun yet. I guess you could say there are plenty of instances when we have fun while losing money. That’s been this year, for me. But anyways, we head to the fourth and final major of the year — The Open Championship. Some say this is the purest form of golf and the purest major. I’m indifferent, but I definitely low-key love the fact that lock is Wednesday night. No more 3:00 a.m. builds for me! And with that, a friendly reminder to JOIN YOUR CONTESTS BEFORE 1:30 a.m. ET. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Scottish Open – Recap 

The Scottish Open actually started much like the John Deere for myself — I was cooking after Day 1, and it all went downhill from there. I hate it when that happens, and I’m just praying the opposite is true this week. Here’s a look at the winning lineup:

• It was a triple-$9K build that started with Matt Fitzpatrick/Wyndham Clark/Robert MacIntyre. I thought the studs were generally under-owned (Scottie Scheffler 4%, Rory McIlroy 15%, Jon Rahm 9%, and Xander Schauffele 14%). This lineup at least jammed the three chalk guys up top together, so I’ll give it credit for that, but not much more. 
• The lineup came in with a cumulative ownership of 84%, higher than the range I typically target. This could have been even higher too, especially if one of those $9K players steamed even more.

I was disappointed in how the Scottish turned out, given that I thought the best plays post-lock were Rahm and Xander. Both guys were mediocre throughout the tournament, with Xander even missing the cut. What’s interesting is that now this week the field is gravitating toward the top of the board. How will they know?

The Open Championship – Preview 

I tried to keep the Scottish Open part of this a bit shorter, given that we have a lot to talk about at The Open, but that last point is quite interesting to talk about later on. It’s always interesting to point out where the field moves back and forth based on the pricing of the slate and how projections shake out, especially in a sport where we know projections are good but fragile. Either way, welcome to The Open week, where it feels like the golf world is quite excited to see the best players in the world tee it up at Royal Birkdale for the first time since Jordan Spieth’s win in 2017. The narratives are out this week for SURE, and I’ll be checking X throughout the day to try and confirm some of the steam that I am expecting on certain players. An X account I always like to check is “GolfTipsChecker,” who tracks which players are taking the most outright money in the market. While that’s not DFS, it’s still a great indicator of who’s “popping” in the field’s “models.”

Speaking of narratives, there are many this week. I’ve heard all week about how Royal Birkdale is a course where you can club down because everything is already so firm. I’ve heard that you need to have strategy in mind on almost every hole, because the course will challenge you to weigh the risk/reward of shots based on your skill set. Bryson DeChambeau, for example, will struggle because he apparently has no strategic mind. This is “true links golf,” as many would have you believe, which is probably true. So, that means first-timers to links golf are inherently going to struggle! We obviously cannot play those guys. That’s sarcasm, by the way. Anyways, because The Open travels every year, we haven’t seen a major at Royal Birkdale since 2017. Here are the results from that year: