It has become standard procedure in recent seasons for Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy to be the pre-tournament favourites at a major, but both the world’s top two head into The Open with questions about their games.
Scheffler claimed a four-shot victory at Royal Portrush 12 months ago and is now bidding to become the first back-to-back winner of The Open since Padraig Harrington, although arrives having suffered his first missed cut since July 2022 at the Genesis Scottish Open.
A shock early exit allowed Scheffler to arrive early at Royal Birkdale, a course he has never previously played, with the world No 1 yet to experience the same volume of success he has enjoyed over the previous four years.
Scheffler has had four runner-up finishes since his last win at The American Express in January and remains a dominant force from tee to green, although sits outside the top 90 in the PGA Tour's 'proximity to the hole' statistic.
He insisted he didn't feel like he 'played that bad' during his missed cut at The Renaissance Club but admitted he 'wasn't hitting it close enough' during his second-round 72, with an improvement in approach play likely required ahead of another week of links golf.
Similar can be said about McIlroy, who sits outside the top 110 in the PGA Tour statistics for proximity to the hole and scrambling from the rough, with the six-time major champion admitting he identified a problem to fix in his own game ahead of Royal Birkdale.
McIlroy self-diagnosed himself as being 'so bad at golf' after a poor approach shot during the final day in Scotland, where a six-under 64 lifted him inside the top five and offered his best finish since holding off Scheffler to retain The Masters in April.
"At least I know what I'm doing," McIlroy said, having battled the 'left miss' at various points this year. "It's a matter of trying to rectify it. Obviously there was some good in there, but there was some bad. I'm going to need to work a little bit."
McIlroy overcame similar issues mid-tournament at Augusta National earlier this year to win the Green Jacket again, with the 2014 Champion Golfer of the Year still likely to contend this week in a tournament where he has six top-seven finishes in his nine starts since that win.
Scheffler is in a similar position, having finished outside the top-10 in majors just six times over the last six seasons and now searching for a fifth major win in as many years. Even without their complete A-games, both him and McIlroy will expect to see their names high on those iconic yellow leaderboards come Sunday evening.
It would be little surprise to see an American named Champion Golfer of the Year again this year, even if it's not Scheffler, given four of the previous five winners have been from the United States and plenty have shown signs of form in recent months.
Chris Gotterup finished third on his Open debut last year and is already a three-time winner on the PGA Tour this season, while Russell Henley - inside the world's top five after winning the Charles Schwab Challenge - has five top-10s in his last nine major starts.
Wyndham Clark recovered from an opening-round 76 to finish tied-fourth last year and has since won the US Open, one of two titles in 2026, leaving many tipping him to follow Xander Schauffele and Scheffler in making The Open their second major win of the season.
There's also an argument to make for world No 3 Cameron Young - a past Open runner-up and with two PGA Tour wins to his name this season, with Collin Morikawa another popular pick and previous winner of the Claret Jug.
Don't forget Brian Harman, a winner of The Open when it was last held in Merseyside in 2023 and with three top-10s in the last four years at the event. With over a third of the field and 11 of the world's top 20 from America, expect to see plenty challenging this week.
When Bryson DeChambeau bounced back from an opening-round 78 to backdoor a top-10 finish at The Open last year, few would have predicted the spectacular major slump that was to follow.
DeChambeau needs to make it through to the weekend to avoid a 'Grand Slam' of major missed cuts in 2026, having already suffered shock early exits at The Masters, PGA Championship and US Open.
The American's form will be under scrutiny again as questions continue over LIV Golf's long-term future, with the two-time US Open champion already admitting earlier this year to placing extra pressure on himself going into the majors.
DeChambeau missed the cut when it was last here in 2017 and his record at The Open is worse than any of the other majors, with the 32-year-old also battling swing issues at various points during the major season.
"The only time he's played well at an Open Championship in recent years is last year, and it was just the last three rounds when the wind died down," former PGA Tour player Johnson Wagner said. "He is not built for The Open Championship.
"I would say there's a much better chance of him missing the cut than him even just making the cut."
As Thomas Tuchel's England football team look to end their 60-year wait for World Cup glory, England's golfers look to break their own drought and produce just their third different Champion Golfer of the Year from the same period.
While the island of Ireland has taken home five Claret Jugs over the past 20 years, including Padraig Harrington here at Royal Birkdale in 2008, no Englishman has won The Open since Sir Nick Faldo claimed the Claret Jug for a third time in 1992.
There would be few more popular this week than hometown hero Tommy Fleetwood, who has a huge mural on the Southport & Birkdale Sports Club wall and looks to claim his maiden major at the course he used to sneak on with his father as a child.
Fleetwood failed to contend when it was last here in 2017 but arrives in good form, having finished no worse than 14th in his last five worldwide starts and delivered a solid weekend at the Genesis Scottish Open.
Matt Fitzpatrick has won three times on the PGA Tour this season and also contended at The Renaissance Club over the weekend, plus Justin Rose eyes a fairytale major success at the venue he finished tied-fourth as a teenage amateur in 1998.
Tyrrell Hatton is another regular major contender who won on LIV Golf last month, while Aaron Rai has already ended an English major drought by becoming the first in over a century to win the PGA Championship.
Victory for England against Argentina on Wednesday evening would raise the possibility of the R&A slightly adjusting their final-round start times, to avoid the conclusion overlapping with a World Cup final, given most of the record-breaking crowds at Royal Birkdale will want English success in both events.
"World Cup fever is certainly maturing to a serious height at the moment, and the English are particularly getting very giddy about their chances now," former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley said in a media call ahead of The Open.
"As great as golf is, as great as The Open is, competing with the World Cup final - with England in it - is probably not going to happen. I think if you intertwined an English player even just in contention going into the Sunday, I think that would resonate very strongly."
Your Site is once again the exclusive home of The Open in the UK and Ireland, with over 75 hours of live coverage from across the seven days of tournament week at Royal Birkdale.
Live coverage begins at 9am for each of the three practice days, before wall-to-wall action from the final men's major of the year gets under way at 6.30am on Thursday on Your Site Golf.
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