St. Andrews to host 2027 Open Championship, celebrate significant anniversary

The home of golf has its next Open Championship on the calendar.

The R&A announced Thursday that the 155th Open Championship will be played on St. Andrews’ Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, on July 15-18, 2027. That year will also mark a significant anniversary for golf’s oldest major, as it will be 100 years since amateur Bobby Jones won the 1927 Open at St. Andrews, winning by six and defending his title from the previous year at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

2027 will be the 31st playing of The Open at St. Andrews and first since 2022, when Cameron Smith started the day four back of co-leaders Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland but shot a final-round 64 to win by one over Cameron Young.

Thursday’s news was also the first announcement made from Mark Darbon, the new chief executive of The R&A.

“I’m looking forward to The Open’s return to St. Andrews every bit as much as the fans and the players,” Darbon said in the release. “There is something incredibly special about The Open being played on the Old Course and so many of the great champions have walked these fairways since the first staging here in 1873. St. Andrews is the home of golf and it generates a unique atmosphere for the fans and the players as well as providing an amazing spectacle on television and digitally for millions of viewers around the world. It promises to be another milestone occasion at one of sport’s greatest and most historic venues and we will be doing everything we can to make it a memorable experience for everyone involved.”

The announcement also means Tiger Woods might get another chance at St. Andrews. When he played there in 2022 — and received an emotional farewell en route to a missed cut — Woods assumed it was likely his last Open at a place he’s long called his favorite golf course in the world.

Woods, who has won three Opens — including two at St. Andrews — will be 51 when the 2027 Open arrives.

“It’s very emotional for me,” Woods said after his round in 2022. “I’ve been coming here since 1995, and I think the next one comes around in what, 2030? I don’t know if I will be physically able to play by then. So to me it felt like this might have been my last British Open here at St. Andrews. And the fans, the ovation and the warmth, it was an unbelievable feeling.”

While many U.S. Open and PGA Championship venues are mapped out years ahead of time, The R&A only announces the next couple of Open venues in advance.

This year’s Open will be at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Portrush, Northern Ireland, while 2026 is scheduled for Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. Shane Lowry won at Portrush in 2019, and Jordan Spieth won the last Open at Birkdale, when he outlasted Matt Kuchar down the stretch to win the claret jug in 2017.