Sports

2026 Open Championship Round 4: Tee Times, Pairings & What to Watch at Royal Birkdale

CBSSports.com · July 19, 2026

Key takeaways

Sunday pairings at The Open are set strictly by score — the closer to the lead, the later the tee time.
Wind and weather shifts at Royal Birkdale can dramatically change conditions between morning and afternoon groups.
Watch the chase groups just ahead of the leaders — major Sundays are often decided by players making a move before the final pairing even reaches the turn.

Sunday at Royal Birkdale means one thing: the final march to the Claret Jug. Round 4 of the 2026 Open Championship wraps up the week, and the tee sheet tells its own story about who's actually in contention and who's just playing out the string.

How Sunday Pairings Work Unlike the first two rounds, where players are grouped essentially at random (or by tradition, ceremonial groupings, and TV considerations), Saturday and Sunday pairings are built strictly off the leaderboard. Whoever is atop the standings after 36 holes gets the last tee time on moving day, and that formula repeats into Sunday — the closer you are to the lead, the later you go off. That's why the anchor group in the final round is always the most-watched tee time of the tournament.

Why the Last Groups Matter Most At an Open Championship, weather at Royal Birkdale can swing wildly from morning to afternoon — wind off the Irish Sea has decided majors before. Early starters sometimes get a calmer morning window, while the leaders going off in the afternoon can face a completely different golf course by the back nine. That's part of what makes the final pairings sheet more than just a scheduling formality — it's a real variable in who wins.

What To Watch For - The anchor pairing: Whoever is paired last is either the outright leader or co-leader entering Sunday. Watch how they play the first few holes — nerves at a links major show up fast. - Chasers a few groups back: Major Sunday history is littered with players who came from three or four shots back in the group ahead of the leaders and made a charge before the leaders even reached the turn. - Course conditions: Royal Birkdale's back nine has closing stretches that have wrecked plenty of good rounds. Watch how the wind numbers change through the afternoon tee times.

The Bigger Picture The Open Championship remains golf's oldest major, and Royal Birkdale has hosted its share of dramatic finishes over the decades. However Sunday's pairings shake out, the format guarantees drama built right into the tee sheet: the players with the most to win, and the most to lose, go out last, with the whole field and a global TV audience watching every shot.

Why it matters

Final-round tee times aren't just scheduling trivia — they reveal exactly who's in contention and set up the conditions each contender will face. For golf fans, knowing how the pairings work makes watching Sunday's Claret Jug chase at Royal Birkdale that much sharper.