On Monday morning, the R&A announced a big change for its flagship tournament, the Open Championship, for 2028. Instead of its normal mid-July dates, the 2028 Open will be postponed until early August.
The reason? A conflict with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Here’s what you need to know.
Olympic golf pushed 2028 Open Championship to August
The 2028 Summer Olympics are heading to sunny Los Angeles, Calif., the first Olympics to be held in the United States since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. The last Summer Olympics in the U.S. was the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
One event that was not included in 1996 that will be part of the 2028 Olympics is golf.
Golf initially returned at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The 2028 golf events will be played at iconic Riviera Country Club, home of the PGA Tour’s Tiger Woods-hosted Genesis Invitational. It will feature separate men’s and women’s tournaments, in addition to a new mixed-team event.
But the dates for the 2028 Olympic golf competitions present a problem for one of golf’s most important tournaments: the Open Championship.
The Olympic golf events are scheduled for July 19-29, 2028. Traditionally, the Open Championship is held in mid-July. So something had to be done to solve this scheduling issue to allow golf’s best male players to compete.
The answer came Monday morning, when the R&A announced they would push back the playing of the 2028 Open to make room for the Olympics. The new dates for the 2028 Open will be August 3-6.
But the men’s Open isn’t the only tournament moving dates. Both the 2028 ISPS HANDA Senior Open and the 2028 AIG Women’s Open will also be held in August. The Senior Open will be held the week after the Open (August 10-13), and the Women’s Open will be played the week after that (August 17-20).
R&A CEO Mark Darbon explained the decision in a press release, adding that the Open would return to its usual July date in 2029.
“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,” Darbon wrote. “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. We can also confirm that The Open will be returning to its normal mid-July dates in 2029.”
While we now know the date of the 2028 Open Championship, we don’t know where it will be played. The R&A has yet to announce the Open host courses past 2027, when it will head back to the Old Course at St. Andrews.
