The 2025 Open Championship is shaping up to be one of the greatest ever as Grand Slam hero Rory McIlroy returns to Royal Portrush.
McIlroy secured his place in golfing history in April by finally winning The Masters and completing the Career Grand Slam and will now be looking to win his second Claret Jug.
The Open returns to McIlroy’s homeland of Northern Ireland this summer with Shane Lowry also hoping to replicate his iconic victory at Portrush in 2019.
America’s Xander Schauffele won the famous trophy last year, holding off Billy Horschel and Justin Rose at Royal Troon to become the Champion Golfer of the Year.
Schauffele will hand the Claret Jug back on the Monday of tournament week before heading out to try and win it again.
And an all-star field will gather alongside him in County Antrim for what promises to be a brilliant event.
The Open 2025: Date and how to follow
The 153rd edition of The Open is being held from Thursday, July 17 to Sunday, July 20.
It is taking place on the Dunluce Links Course at Royal Portrush Golf Club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Play will get going at 6:35am on the opening two days and at 7:30am over the weekend.
talkSPORT will have regular updates from Portrush throughout the week. More details on our coverage will follow soon.
To tune in to talkSPORT through the website, click HERE for the live stream.
Listen via the talkSPORT app here, or on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
The action will also be shown live on Sky Sports Golf throughout the week with their extended coverage starting at 8am on Monday.
The Open 2025: Tee times and field
The field will be made up of 156 players before the cut on Friday night.
McIlroy and Lowry will headline the field alongside the likes of Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Ludvig Aberg and Collin Morikawa.
A number of LIV Golf stars will be in action too including Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith.
Tommy Fleetwood, Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton will be among the star names hoping to become the first Englishman to win The Open since Nick Faldo in 1992.
Three-time Open champion Tiger Woods is likely to miss out through injury following Achilles surgery in March.
Open Regional Qualifying will take place on June 23 before Final Qualifying is held on July 1 with 16 spots up for grabs.
The full field can be found here while the tee times and groupings for the opening two rounds will be announced on the Tuesday of tournament week.
The latest leaderboard from County Antrim can be found here once play is up and running.
The prize money for this year’s event will be confirmed in due course but the total fund was $17m last year with Schauffele claiming the top prize of $3.1m.
The Open 2025: Course details
The Open has been held at Royal Portrush twice before, first in 1951 and then again in 2019 when Lowry claimed a famous victory.
Portrush was established in 1888 but the Dunluce Links Championship Course – as well as the surrounding town – underwent a major revamp ahead of the 2019 tournament.
The par-71 course was extended to 7,344 yards with two new holes added, a number of others changed and the greens redeveloped.
Portrush also benefited from new infrastructure works with the train station upgraded and other amenities improved.
Any further course changes for The 2025 Open will be announced in due course while 278,000 fans are set to descend on the famous old links during the week.
Drama awaits at Portrush’s ‘Calamity Corner’ – the devilishly difficult par-3 16th which can play as long as 236 yards over a huge ravine.
The fourth and fifth holes – named ‘Fred Daly’s’ and ‘White Rocksare’ – are two of the finest par-4s in world golf.
The Open 2025: What has been said?
Following his incredible Masters win, McIlroy joked about attempting to become the first player to ever complete the calendar slam.
No golfer has won all four majors in a single year, although Woods did win all four consecutively in 2000 and 2001, culminating at the 65th Masters.
McIlroy has a great chance of doing well at all the remaining majors this summer.
He has won multiple times at Quail Hollow, the venue of the PGA Championship, has the power to overcome Oakmont at the US Open and previously held the course record at Portrush.
After winning at Augusta, he said: “You can’t win all four majors in a year if you haven’t won the first one.
“The next major is at Quail Hollow, somewhere I have loved for the most part of my career, there’s The Open at Portrush, the Ryder Cup at Bethpage.
“There’s a lot of golf left this year. I’ve gotten off to a great start, obviously, and I can’t wait to keep it going.”
