Golf’s final major of 2025 is here and figuring out the fan favorites at this British Open won’t be difficult.
Royal Portrush is the host, a links course at the northern tip of Northern Ireland. Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry hail from the country, with Lowry having won the last Portrush Open in 2019 and McIlroy returning this year as a Grand Slam champion. They’ll be warmly welcomed and heavily pulled for all week.
Both are on the list of contenders, but it’s a deep list as always. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, like McIlroy, is looking for a second major title in 2025. Xander Schauffele, world No. 3, is the defending champion and last week said he was in “full chase mode” to find his game—perhaps a T8 finish Sunday at the Scottish Open is a kickstart for this week.
J.J. Spaun is golf’s most recent major champion, having prevailed last month in the U.S. Open at Oakmont, and is seeing how peers look at him differently now. In case you’re wondering, the last player to win back-to-back majors was Tiger Woods in 2006, winning the Open at Royal Liverpool and the PGA (when the PGA was the year’s final major).
LIV Golf stars are coming to Portrush via Valderrama, where Jon Rahm finished second by a shot and will look to continue the progression in a major season where he has finished T14 (Masters), T8 (PGA) and T7 (U.S. Open). Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Tyrrell Hatton are also among the LIV contingent.
The last man in the field of 156 is Chris Gotterup, having outdueled McIlroy among others at the Scottish for his second Tour win. But McIlroy’s runner-up was his best finish since his Masters triumph and a positive sign for this week.
If the pride of Holywood, Northern Ireland, is in the mix come Sunday at Portrush, you’ll know it.
2025 British Open full field
156 players
Åberg, Ludvig
Adam, Cameron
Akutsu, Mikiya
An, Byeong Hun
Axelsen, John
Berger, Daniel
Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
Bhatia, Akshay
Bloor, George
Bradley, Keegan
Brown, Daniel
Burmester, Dean
Burns, Sam
Campbell, Brian
Canter, Laurie
Cantlay, Patrick
Catlin, John
Cauley, Bud
Cave, Sebastian
Choi, K.J.
Cink, Stewart
Clark, Wyndham
Clarke, Darren
Conners, Corey
Couvra, Martin
Day, Jason
DeChambeau, Bryson
Detry, Thomas
Echavarria, Nico
Els, Ernie
English, Harris
Fang, Ethan
Farrell, OJ
Fichardt, Darren
Finau, Tony
Fitzpatrick, Matt
Fleetwood, Tommy
Fowler, Rickie
Fox, Ryan
Garcia, Sergio
Glover, Lucas
Gotterup, Chris
Graham, Connor
Greyserman, Max
Griffin, Ben
Guerrier, Julien
Hall, Harry
Harman, Brian
Harrington, Padraig
Hastings, Justin
Hatton, Tyrrell
Henley, Russell
Herbert, Lucas
Hidalgo Portillo, Angel
Hillier, Daniel
Hoge, Tom
Højgaard, Nicolai
Højgaard, Rasmus
Hoshino, Rikuya
Hovland, Viktor
Hughes, Mackenzie
Im, Sungjae
Imahira, Shugo
Jaeger, Stephan
Jakubcik, Filip
Johnson, Dustin
Johnson, Zach
Johnston, Ryggs
Jones, Frazer
Jordan, Matthew
Kaewkanjana, Sadom
Kanaya, Takumi
Kawamoto, Riki
Kim, Michael
Kim, Tom
Kimsey, Nathan
Kirk, Chris
Knipes, Curtis
Koepka, Brooks
Kokrak, Jason
Langasque, Romain
Lawrence, Thriston
Lee, Min Woo
Leishman, Marc
Leonard, Justin
Li, Haotong
Lindell, Oliver
Lowry, Shane
Luck, Curtis
MacIntyre, Robert
Manassero, Matteo
Matsuyama, Hideki
McCarthy, Denny
McCarty, Matt
McIlroy, Rory
McKibbin, Tom
McNealy, Maverick
Mickelson, Phil
Migliozzi, Guido
Molinari, Francesco
Morikawa, Collin
Naidoo, Dylan
Newman, Bryan
Niemann, Joaquin
Norgaard, Niklas
Norris, Shaun
Novak, Andrew
Olesen, Jacob Skov
Olesen, Thorbjørn
Oosthuizen, Louis
Ortiz, Carlos
Parry, John
Pavon, Matthieu
Peake, Ryan
Pendrith, Taylor
Penge, Marco
Poston, J.T.
Potgieter, Aldrich
Rahm, Jon
Rai, Aaron
Reed, Patrick
Reitan, Kristoffer
Rose, Justin
Rozner, Antoine
Saddier, Adrien
Sandborg, Jesper
Schauffele, Xander
Scheffler, Scottie
Schmid, Matti
Scott, Adam
Smith, Cameron
Smith, Jordan
Smylie, Elvis
Soderberg, Sebastian
Song, Young-han
Spaun, J.J.
Spieth, Jordan
Stenson, Henrik
Straka, Sepp
Suh, Justin
Svensson, Jesper
Taylor, Nick
Teder, Richard
Theegala, Sahith
Thomas, Justin
Thompson, Davis
van Tonder, Daniel
Vegas, Jhonattan
Wallace, Matt
Walters, Justin
Waring, Paul
Westwood, Lee
Young, Cameron
Young, Daniel
Yu, Kevin
Zheng, Sampson
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 2025 British Open Full Field: Royal Portrush Hosting the Year’s Final Major.
