The fourth and final Major Championship of the PGA Tour season arrives this weekend at Royal Birkdale. The legendary course just north of Liverpool, England, will host its first Open Championship since 2017, when Jordan Spieth won in a crazy turn of events down the back nine. On the 13th hole of the final round, Spieth hit his golf ball about 100 yards right of the fairway. Spieth took nearly 30 minutes to play his second shot after working with officials and finding his line-of-sight free drop. Finally hitting from 240 yards out, over a mound, Spieth managed a bogey. He eventually won that Open Championship. We now return to the golf course, which looks to be running very firm. The grass is seemingly browner than it is greener in many places. That will spice things up in a big way.Key Course MetricsObservations from Monday at Birkdale....1. Firm and fast. Yup. Not sure I've ever seen an Open course this brown and firm at the start of the week. Really makes players think, on all shots.2. Birkdale is a great venue. It ticks a lot of boxes. Course, setting, area, visuals,… pic.twitter.com/vTKV30y3xz— Jamie Kennedy (@jamierkennedy) July 13, 2026Royal Birkdale Golf Club is a classic links-style course. There are minimal trees and a lot of fescue in between the holes. With how firm the course expects to play, fairways can be missed with little penalty, especially with the moguls obsessively dominating them. Every hole is its own and will still demand smart tee shots, lining up the best possible approach shots into these bumpy greens. Given how hard the greens may be, especially in proximity to the pin, putting will not be a demanding metric for winning at the Open Championship. Rather, lag putting will be more important. Per Datagolf's Relative Importance Plot, these are the most demanding macro-metrics of the event. Datagolf.coTournament History and Weather ReportRoyal Birkdale has hosted the Open Championship ten times in its history. Peter Thomson won the inaugural event in 1954. Twice in the 21st century has Royal Birkdale hosted the event. Padraig Harrington won at 3-over-par in 2008. Spieth won in 2017 at 12-under-par. Since 2017, the course has lengthened by just under 100 total yards. They removed 19 bunkers and vastly changed how certain par-3s will play. The 2017 results will not be heavily factored in for those who apply, such as Jordan Spieth. Here are the past 5 Open Champion's:2025: Scottie Scheffler (-17) — Royal Portrush2024: Xander Schauffele (-9) — Royal Troon2023: Brian Harman (-13) — Royal Liverpool2022: Cameron Smith (-20) — St Andrews Old Course2021: Collin Morikawa (-15) — Royal St. George'sIn a rare fashion for the Liverpool area of England, rain is <5% likely each day from now until the conclusion of the event. For reference, Liverpool averages over 30 inches of rain per year, and about 40% of days have some rainfall. Consider the event lucky. Thursday will have a high of 77 degrees, slowly decreasing through Sunday, which has a high of 68 degrees. Wind will be up, as per usual, with daily gusts up to 20 miles per hour. The Open Championship is expected to play easier than most years, despite the course being ultra-firm. The winner shall be double-digits under par. Fantasy Golf Picks (FanDuel)Matthew Fitzpatrick ($11,600)Fitzpatrick has maxed out his strokes gained around the green, with a plus-2.8 rating, per Datagolf. He has 3 top-4 finishes in his last 4 events. Fitzpatrick has won 3 times this season, and at last year's Open Championship, he finished in sole 4th place. He has not missed a cut in the event since 2018. He is playing as well as anyone in the world, but is priced as the 6th choice. Justin Rose ($10,800)Rose always shows up to these big events with a high ceiling. At the 2026 Masters, he finished 3rd. Rose has finished no worse than T-11 in either of the 3 Major Championship's this season.The form of Rose is solid with 4 top-25 finishes in his last 5 events. These links-style golf courses are something he knows, being from England. Rose recently had a T-16 and T-2 finish at the last two Open Championships. Tyrell Hatton ($10,500)Just like Rose, Hatton is English. That bodes well for playing links golf. Hatton has scarcely played in 2026, but he has consistently shown up well. Hatton finished T-17 at the Scottish Open, T-7 at the US Open, and he won LIV Golf Andalucia. That rounds out his last 3 events. Back at the Masters, Hatton finished T-3. Over Hatton's last 7 events, he is averaging 1.91 strokes gained over the field, per round. Tom Kim ($8,800)Kim is the steal of the week at this price. He won the Scottish Open last week and is in the best form of his PGA Tour career. In the 2023 Open Championship, Kim finished 2nd. Back at the 2026 US Open last month, Kim finished 3rd. Kim's game fits this golf course quite well. He gains 1.2 strokes on the field in scrambling, and that is the paramount metric to winning here. On the PGA Tour, he ranks 34th out of 157 qualified golfers. More Fantasy Sports On SI News:Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow