British Open will return to Royal Lytham in 2028, with a slight Olympic delay

Warren Little/WME IMG via Getty Images

The 2028 golf calendar is a mystery — How many PGA Tour events will there be? Will LIV Golf even exist? — but at least one major element is now, at last, in place. The British Open — or Open Championship, if you prefer — will tee off in August 2028 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club, a storied venue along England’s west coast.

The event’s dates run from Aug. 3-6, several weeks later than the traditional British Open slot. That’s because 2028 will also feature the Olympics and its golf events. The men’s competition will take place from July 19-July 22, while the mixed-team event will run July 23-24. That gives the game’s most elite players more than a week to recover and get from Los Angeles to the U.K.

Royal Lytham has hosted 12 Opens, most recently in 2012. That event featured Ernie Els sweeping in to win his second major after Adam Scott stumbled badly, bogeying his final four holes. Other champions at Royal Lytham include Bobby Jones, Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros. Here’s a quick refresher from some of those likely to tee it up in 2028:

In addition to the Olympc travel schedule, the question marks for Royal Lytham focus on its distance relative to the modern game; technology and fitness keep a significant percentage of the course’s 200-plus bunkers from posing any kind of problem. Long backups are likely, and the tournament will need every scrap of the shorter daylight of August.

In an era where the 2051 U.S. Open venue has already been decided — see you in 25 years, Oakmont — the fact that a British venue was still uncertain barely two years in the future was more than a little strange. There had been some speculation in golf circles that Turnberry — now a Trump property — or Muirfield would find/lobby their way back into the Open rota, but their time has not yet come.

This year’s championship will be held at Royal Birkdale, with next year’s returning to the home of golf at the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland.