Yellow golf duck wearing a green flat cap and holding a putterOff to the Golf

Last checked: October 2026 · Does Your Duck Quack

The 16th hole of the Old Course at St Andrews.
Richard Webb · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source
Golf history

Every Open Venue: All 14 Courses and Host Counts

Fourteen courses have hosted The Open, and together they account for the 154 championships completed between 1860 and 2026.

Find your stay

The story and its setting

Fourteen courses have hosted The Open, and together they account for the 154 championships completed between 1860 and 2026. This is a historical list of places where the event has actually been played. It is wider than a list of recent hosts and different from a schedule of announced future venues. Prestwick, Musselburgh, Royal Cinque Ports and Prince’s remain part of the record even though their latest Opens belong to a much earlier period. A championship’s geography cannot be understood by looking only at the next few years.

The table counts completed editions through the 2026 championship at Royal Birkdale. A scheduled future appearance is not an additional completed Open. St Andrews therefore has thirty in this record; the announced 2027 championship would be its thirty-first only once it has taken place. The future venues guide separates those announcements from the results collected here.

Every course and its completed Opens

All 14 Open host courses: completed championships through 2026
CourseOpensFirst yearLatest yearSources
Prestwick2418601925First · Latest
St Andrews3018732022First · Latest
Musselburgh618741889First · Latest
Muirfield1618922013First · Latest
Royal St George's1518942021First · Latest
Royal Liverpool1318972023First · Latest
Royal Cinque Ports219091920First · Latest
Royal Troon1019232024First · Latest
Royal Lytham & St Annes1119262012First · Latest
Carnoustie819312018First · Latest
Prince's119321932First · Latest
Royal Portrush319512025First · Latest
Royal Birkdale1119542026First · Latest
Turnberry419772009First · Latest

“First” and “latest” refer to the first and most recent Opens played at the venue, rather than the founding of the club or the opening of the course. The total does not include other championships held there. A Women’s Open, Senior Open or Amateur Championship can be an important part of a course’s history without adding an entry to this particular count.

The original three Scottish homes

Prestwick hosted the inaugural championship in 1860 and went on to stage twenty-four Opens, the last in 1925. Willie Park Snr won the first; Jim Barnes won the last. The earliest championships were played over three circuits of the original twelve-hole course. Prestwick’s absence from the modern host schedule does not make it peripheral to the event’s history. Its record includes the Morris family, the original belt and the championship before it began travelling between venues.

St Andrews entered the story in 1873, when Tom Kidd won. Its thirty completed Opens are more than any other venue’s total. The latest was the 150th championship in 2022, won by Cameron Smith. Several generations of winners connect the Old Course with the event, but the numbering can be confusing: the 150th Open was the championship’s overall edition number, not a count of Opens at St Andrews. The table keeps those different quantities apart.

Musselburgh staged six Opens between 1874 and 1889. Mungo Park won the first and Willie Park Jnr the last. Its nine-hole links required four circuits to make up the championship’s thirty-six holes. That format explains why historical aggregates there cannot be compared directly with a later seventy-two-hole Open. The old venue preserves a separate part of the championship’s early travelling period, alongside Prestwick and St Andrews.

Muirfield and the first English hosts

Muirfield’s first Open in 1892 was also the championship’s first played over seventy-two holes. Harold Hilton, an amateur, won that edition. Sixteen Opens have been held there, most recently in 2013, when Phil Mickelson took the title. The venue connects a fundamental format change with a succession of later champions, including two wins each by James Braid and Nick Faldo. Its total belongs to the course, not to every championship held by the Honourable Company elsewhere in its earlier history.

Royal St George’s became the first English Open venue in 1894, with J.H. Taylor the winner. Its fifteen editions run through Collin Morikawa’s 2021 victory. The move to Sandwich expanded the championship beyond Scotland; it did not create a separate English Open within this record. Later winners at the course include Harry Vardon, Greg Norman and Darren Clarke, placing widely separated playing eras on the same stretch of Kent links.

Royal Liverpool’s thirteen Opens began in 1897, when Hilton won his second title, and extend to Brian Harman’s victory in 2023. Hoylake has also hosted events central to the amateur game, but those do not enter the Open total. Bobby Jones’ 1930 victory, Tiger Woods’ 2006 title and Rory McIlroy’s 2014 win provide three distinct ways into its major-championship history. The course’s story is larger than any one of those famous winners.

A wider twentieth-century championship

Royal Cinque Ports, at Deal, held two Opens: J.H. Taylor won in 1909 and George Duncan in 1920. A small total does not imply a minor association. Both editions belong to the championship’s development, and the 1920 tournament was its return after the First World War interruption. Its place beside Royal St George’s on the Kent coast makes the difference between separate clubs especially important: their host records should not be combined under a general Sandwich or Deal label.

Royal Troon first hosted in 1923, when Arthur Havers won, and staged its tenth Open in 2024, won by Xander Schauffele. Earlier records often shorten the name to Troon; those editions are part of the same venue total. Its winners include Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Henrik Stenson. Stenson’s 2016 aggregate of 264 belongs to the championship’s scoring records, giving the course significance beyond the number of times it has hosted.

Royal Lytham & St Annes has eleven Opens, from Bobby Jones’ 1926 victory to Ernie Els’ win in 2012. The club’s later Women’s Open championships do not increase that figure. Visitors can encounter Seve Ballesteros’ men’s Open victories and the women’s championship histories of Catriona Matthew and Georgia Hall in the same broader club story while keeping the competitions distinct. The table measures a single event, not the total championship activity at Lytham.

Carnoustie’s eight editions began with Tommy Armour in 1931 and most recently produced Francesco Molinari’s 2018 victory. Between them came Ben Hogan’s sole Open appearance in 1953 and Paul Lawrie’s play-off success in 1999. The number of hostings does not capture the length of every interval: Carnoustie did not stage The Open between 1975 and 1999. A course can remain prominent in championship memory while waiting many years for the next edition.

Prince’s hosted in 1932, when Gene Sarazen won. Its single appearance gives it the smallest total in the fourteen-course record, with the first and latest years necessarily the same. It remains a genuine Open venue, rather than an honorary addition because it sits near another famous course. The distinction matters when reading descriptions of Kent golf: Prince’s, Royal St George’s and Royal Cinque Ports each have their own championship results.

The post-war additions

Royal Portrush became the first host outside Great Britain in 1951, with Max Faulkner the champion. The Open returned in 2019, when Shane Lowry won, and in 2025, when Scottie Scheffler took the title. Those three editions make up its completed total. The long gap after 1951 is why the return carried such significance; it was the renewal of an existing championship connection rather than the creation of a wholly new Open venue.

Royal Birkdale first staged The Open in 1954, won by Peter Thomson. The 2026 championship, won by Ryan Fox, brought its total to eleven. A list that still gives Birkdale ten has stopped before that edition. Its winners also include Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Padraig Harrington and Jordan Spieth. Different generations have added to the venue’s record, while the course has remained a recurring English setting for the championship.

Turnberry is the most recent addition to the historical set of fourteen. It first hosted in 1977, when Tom Watson beat Jack Nicklaus in the Duel in the Sun. Three further Opens followed, won by Greg Norman in 1986, Nick Price in 1994 and Stewart Cink in 2009. A course’s last completed hosting is a historical fact; it should not be read as a promise about whether or when another championship will be awarded.

Following the record on a trip

The year-by-year champions list connects every edition to its winner, while the Open records page explains the scoring and age milestones. Each course history adds the local detail that the totals cannot show. Choose a small geographical group for a visit and use the current venue guides to check access. Historical hosting establishes a sporting association; present-day visitor arrangements and future championship tickets are separate questions.

Sources and useful official links

Useful reading for your visit

Visit today

Where to stay

Check availability

Booking.com

Check availability

Some links earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure.