It’s been a year of surprise winners at majors, and one of these five golfers could become the latest to shock
When Rory McIlroy won the Masters back in April, he made it so that 10 of the last 11 major championships were won by one of the game’s top stars. Parity was not a word often uttered around major championship golf in recent years, but the stunning victory by Aaron Rai at the PGA Championship and Wyndham Clark popping up to win a second U.S. Open have made it so the 2026 Open Championship feels as wide open as ever.
Beyond the general state of the sport in 2026, where more players than ever feel like legitimate threats to win a major, The Open has lived up to its name and produced its fair share of surprise champions. Brian Harman is the most recent example with Todd Hamilton and Ben Curtis — going back-to-back in the middle of Tiger Woods’ heyday — serving as the shining examples of how the door is always open for someone to have a magical week in the United Kingdom and change their life.
This week, the top stars in the game will be trying to snap this mini-run of surprise winners and restore some order to major championship golf, but with many of the sport’s elite out of their best form at the moment, the opportunity is ripe for another player to emerge from the pack and snatch a major championship.
Tom Kim was on the prospective list last week before he won the Scottish Open and made it impossible to call him a sleeper after a win that shrunk his odds to 45-1. Despite that shakeup in plans, let’s dig through the odds sheet to find five sleepers for this week’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
2026 Open Championship sleeper picks
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook