Winning a golf tournament is one thing. Winning a major championship is another. Winning a major championship in your home country that hosts the event only once every few years heightens the stakes. And even more so when no one from your country has been able to lay claim to the trophy they all so desperately seek for more than 30 years.Nick Faldo is the last Englishman to win The Open. He did so in 1992 when he raised the Claret Jug for the third and final time at Muirfield. The six-time major champion has long been lauded as one of the greatest European golfers — certainly English — as he was the only player from England to win The Open after Tony Jacklin did the same in 1969.One man — albeit three times — from England has won The Open in the last 50 years. One man.The 2026 Open Championship returns to England this year where Royal Birkdale will host the championship for the 11th time, trailing only the Old Course at St. Andrews for the most in the Open rota. Last time the tournament was held here, an American in Jordan Spieth reigned supreme. The time before it was an Irishman in Padraig Harrington.
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More Americans like all-time legends such as Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Lee Trevino can say the same. Even multiple Australians can too with Peter Thomson (twice!) and Ian Baker-Finch claiming major victories on these grounds.
A Northern Irishman in Rory McIlroy has won an Open in England. A Swede in Henrik Stenson has won one in Scotland. A Scot in Paul Lawrie did so in dramatic fashion at Carnoustie, as did an Italian in Francesco Molinari.
Multiple Americans, Irishmen, Northern Irishmen, South Africans and Australians have won The Open since Faldo in 1992.
Not an Englishman, though, and certainly not in his own backyard.
English golf is having a moment. That is indisputable. Behind the behemoth that is the United States — hey now, we are talking about individual accolades and not the Ryder Cup for our purposes — it is the second best golfing country in the world.
They are in possession of one major championship trophy thanks to Aaron Rai’s impressive PGA Championship victory at Aronimink this past May. They have one of the best players in the world in Matt Fitzpatrick, who leads the PGA Tour in terms of wins this year and is the front runner for Player of the Year honors as the season comes to a close.
Even as 46 approaches, Justin Rose has been a consistent fixture in major championships with three top-11 finishes in three attempts this year with two runner-up results in The Open since 2018. Tyrrell Hatton and Alex Fitzpatrick are both in form as is Tommy Fleetwood who could arguably be the best player without a major championship on his résumé.
And oh yeah, speaking of backyards, this Open is right in Tommy’s.
“It’s obviously very, very special,” Fleetwood mentioned. “I think for anybody that was lucky enough to grow up in the town of Southport. It’s such a golfing town, and The Open at Birkdale holds such a special place in the area.
“Yeah, it’s a dream just to be competing in an Open here, so I feel very, very lucky. Still have lots of memories from the 2017 Open here. Yeah, just excited for the opportunity to play in front of everybody. It’s very rare to have an opportunity to play a tournament, let alone The Open, in the town where you grew up in front of fans that were all there to support you. Very excited.”
In total, three of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Rankings hail from England. Five of the top 22 do too. There are 11 inside the top 100.
For a country with so much golf history and with so much golfing form ahead of this year’s Open, the argument can be made that this is as good a chance as they will have over the last three decades or so to come home with the Claret Jug.
The good news for them, if they do, they won’t have to travel at all to celebrate with those who are rooting for them to do the same.
