How to watch the British Open golf tournament

Whether you call it the British Open or the Open Championship, if you’re a golf fan you’re pumped for the return of the sport’s oldest major. After being cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic, the British Open will be played for the first time since 2019 at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, U.K., from July 15-18.

In addition to being golf’s oldest major, for the first time in a long time it will also serve as the final of the four major championships thanks to the PGA Championship being moved from August to May. That means when the announcer declares the winner “the champion golfer of the year,” it will have a bit more symbolic weight to it.

Because of the two-year gap between British Opens, Shane Lowry is still the defending champion after his convincing win at Royal Portrush in 2019. However, the likes of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Paul Casey and more will look to take the title for themselves, as will two-thirds of this year’s major winners, Jon Rahm (U.S. Open) and Phil Mickelson (PGA Championship) — Master’s champ Hideki Matsuyama is skipping the British Open due to a recent positive COVID test.

NBC will once again be the network carrying major golf tournament in the U.S., with coverage across the Golf Channel, the Peacock streaming service and NBC proper. The full broadcast schedule for the British Open — which will require some early wake-up calls for die-hard fans — can be found in the sidebar to the left, but read on below to find out how to watch all of the action.

How to watch the British Open golf tournament in the U.S. 

NBC will cover the British Open in a similar fashion to what it did with the U.S. Open, offering live round coverage across The Golf Channel, Peacock and NBC.

Peacock will offer both early morning live coverage and simulcasts of the main broadcast throughout the tournament for Peacock Premium subscribers, while the base Peacock package will provide coverage of featured groups and featured holes all four days. The base Peacock package is a free, ad-supported option, while Peacock Premium is available for either $4.99 (with ads) or $9.99 (no ads).

For coverage that will be available on The Golf Channel, viewers will need a cable or vMVPD subscription that offers the channel (YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and Fubo TV). NBC’s coverage, meanwhile, is available to anyone with an antenna, a cable subscription or the same streaming platforms that offer the Golf Channel. 

Something else to know, YouTube TV has said that it is offering 4K coverage of featured holes for the British Open broadcast for subscribers who sign up for the new 4K add-on. It is priced at $19.99, but users can get a 30-day free trial of the 4K add-on and YouTube is also offering a special deal that makes it $9.99 for the first year.

How to watch the British Open golf tournament in the U.K.

For those over in the U.K., the British Open will be available for TV viewers on Sky Sports. If anyone wants to stream the tournament, existing Sky TV customers can watch it through the Sky Go app at no additional cost.

The schedule for the British Open over in the U.K. is available on Sky.com. 

How to watch the British Open from anywhere

The British Open will feature golfers from all over the world heading to Royal St. George’s. If you’re not in the U.S. or U.K. but have an interest in the tournament, a VPN is a great way to be able to watch all of the action.

A VPN (virtual private network) routes the network traffic to and from your computer through a specific set of servers in a specific country, allowing for users to watch content on an encrypted feed.

$12.95 at ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is one of the easiest and affordable ways to watch what you want from anywhere you want to watch it. Plus it'll help keep your network traffic away from any prying eyes on public networks.

And it's a great way to keep up with all of the action of the British Open from anywhere in the world.

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