The year’s final major should bring us a quality player, and that’s why we should pay attention to Jim Furyk’s opening comments during the Golf Channel press conference ahead of the 2026 edition of The Open Championship at England's famed Royal Birkdale Golf Club.
“Eleven times it's hosted The Open,” U.S. Open champ turned Golf Channel analyst Jim Furyk said about Royal Birkdale, “an amazing list, highlighted by Peter Thomson winning twice in his fifth.”
When he said amazing, he meant it. The list includes Jordan Spieth, Padraig Harrington, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino, Mark O'Meara, Ian Baker-Finch, and, of course, Arnold Palmer. What that should mean for your office pool is don’t look at also-rans. If you are picking a name, pick bigger rather than smaller because two of the players on that list, Tom Watson and Peter Thomson, won the British Open five times.
Royal Birkdale's run started with Thomson, a truly significant Aussie. While Thomson may not be known to a lot of golf fans today, he won three British Opens in a row, from 1954 at Birkdale to 1955 at The Old Course at St. Andrews, and he then finished his triple play with the 1956 title at Royal Liverpool. That's some golf.
Two years later, Thomson won number four at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Then he had to wait several years before returning to the place where it started, Royal Birkdale, for his fifth and final British Open title, once again at Royal Birkdale. Five titles at four different courses. That’s a significant champion. Later in his career, he came to the U.S. for the PGA Tour Champions circuit, and in 1985, he won nine tournaments.
But perhaps the biggest name to make the British Open and Royal Birkdale a big deal was Arnold Palmer, who declared it part of the modern Grand Slam in 1960. Palmer had won The Masters and U.S. Open that year, and the British Open was the next leg in the list of tournaments he wanted to win. Palmer made a valiant effort, but he didn’t make it. Kel Nagel beat him by a shot at St. Andrews, which has brought us all manner of winners in its multi-century history.
However, the next year, 1961, Palmer returned. The championship was being played at Royal Birkdale, and Palmer won it and then won the next year at Royal Troon for two in a row. But British golfers remember Palmer for more than that. He was the man who resurrected The Open and started it along the path to the significant, modern, worldwide major it has become.
For those reasons, Furyk’s comments should get our attention. Golf, like humanity in general, stands on the shoulders of those who came before, the prior champions. And because of the past winners, the 11th playing of the British Open at Royal Birkdale should bring us someone we know.
Someone who is either a rising star, a star in the making, or someone who is already a star. The last 10 times the British Open has been played there, star or star-quality golfers won. And two prior champs won five British Opens. That’s hard to ignore.
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