The Open Championship returns to Royal Birkdale on Thursday for the first time since Jordan Spieth's famous 2017 victory, and the course couldn't be more different from what we've seen at recent major venues. At 7,223 yards and par 70, Birkdale is one of the shorter courses on the Open rota — but with over 100 bunkers and exposed links terrain that amplifies every mph of wind off the Irish Sea, accuracy off the tee and precision iron play matter far more than length. The players who win here control their ball flight. The players who don't, don't make the weekend.
With that in mind, here's a $49,700 DraftKings lineup built for the conditions — with one lineup decision worth thinking through until the first tee shot Thursday morning.
Matt Fitzpatrick — $10,000
Golf Channel ranks Fitzpatrick second in its Birkdale field rankings, calling him "a massive course fit with his chipping and ability to thread it around trouble." He's contended at the Scottish Open and owns three wins this season, tied for the most on the PGA Tour. At +1500, he's the best English course-fit option at any price in the field, and his accuracy-first game was built for exactly this kind of links test.
Xander Schauffele — $9,800
The 2024 Open champion has finished inside the top 20 in six of his eight Open starts and was T-20 at Royal Birkdale in 2017. The concern this week is real — he missed the cut at the Scottish Open and has mentioned a lingering injury since the PGA Championship — but his links record and major-championship floor make him too expensive to leave off the board entirely. Floor play at the top of a DFS lineup.
Chris Gotterup — $8,500
Three wins this season and red-hot form heading into his second Open. The DraftKings Network is enthusiastic about him at this price — "a difficult fade," their cheat sheet reads — and his recent stretch (T11, win, strong Scottish showing) is elite. The legitimate caution here: Golf Channel flags that Birkdale "doesn't allow you to spray it like Renaissance," and Gotterup's driving accuracy doesn't profile as well here as his overall form might suggest. Still hard to leave out a three-time winner this season.
The swap to consider: Collin Morikawa at $8,700 (+$200) is the more defensible links pick. The 2021 Open champion's iron play is, per multiple analysts, "tailor-made for Royal Birkdale." He finished on the podium at the Travelers, his ball-striking trends are pointing up, and past Open champions tend to find something at this event they can't quite explain. If you're building a second lineup, Morikawa is the right call here.
Robert MacIntyre — $8,000
The Scotsman is playing the best golf of his life heading into his favorite major. He followed a T10 at the Travelers with a T3 at the Genesis Scottish Open, has never missed the cut at The Open, and already owns three top-10 finishes in the championship. Multiple DFS analysts at Yahoo Sports and DraftKings Network are pointing to him as a value anchor in the mid-tier — he's a legitimate contender at +2700, not just a cut-maker.
Tom Kim — $6,800
The value play that makes this lineup work. Kim ended a 1,001-day winless drought at the Genesis Scottish Open with a flawless final-round 64, following a T3 at the U.S. Open. He's gained strokes on approach in 12 of his last 13 events, leads the Tour in scrambling, and finished second at The Open in Liverpool two years ago. At $6,800 and off the momentum of a links win, he's the most efficient spend in the field.
Brian Harman — $6,600
The 2023 Open champion at Hoylake. Links golf has a memory, and Harman's iron play — which at the 2023 Open he was gaining over 4.0 strokes on approach in the weeks prior — profiles well for the precise ball-striking Birkdale demands. Multiple analysts flag him as a Birkdale value play at +10000. At $6,600, you're essentially getting a past Open champion as a cheapie. He'll need his best stuff to contend, but his floor here is solidly above his salary.
The lineup: Fitzpatrick · Schauffele · Gotterup · MacIntyre · Kim · Harman — $49,700 total
The Morikawa version: Fitzpatrick · Schauffele · Morikawa · MacIntyre · Kim · Harman — $49,900 total
Both come in under the $50,000 cap. The Gotterup version offers more upside if his recent win streak carries over to links golf. The Morikawa version is the safer, course-fit-first approach for a course that doesn't forgive poor driving. Either way, the building blocks — Fitzpatrick's accuracy, MacIntyre's form, Kim's momentum — are as well-suited to Royal Birkdale as anything available at these salaries.
Tee times begin Thursday at 1:35 a.m. ET. Good luck out there.