On Monday morning, the R&A announced a major change to its flagship tournament, the Open Championship, for 2028. Instead of the normal mid-July dates, the 2028 Open will be postponed until early August.
The reason? A conflict with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Here’s what you need to know.
Olympic golf moved the 2028 Open Championship to August
The 2028 Summer Olympics are headed to sunny Los Angeles, California, the first Olympics to be held in the United States since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. The last Summer Olympics in the US were the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
One event that was not included in 1996 and will be part of the 2028 Olympics is golf.
Golf initially returned at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. The 2028 golf events will be played at the iconic Riviera Country Club, home of the PGA Tour’s Tiger Woods-hosted Genesis Invitational. There will be separate men’s and women’s tournaments, in addition to a new mixed team event.
But the dates for the 2028 Olympic golf competitions pose a problem for one of golf’s most important tournaments: the Open Championship.
The Olympic golf events are scheduled for July 19-29, 2028. Traditionally, the Open Championship is held in mid-July. So something had to be done to solve this scheduling problem so that the best male golfers could compete.
The answer came on Monday morning, when the R&A announced they would postpone playing the 2028 Open to make room for the Olympics. The new dates for the 2028 Open are August 3-6.
But the Men’s Open isn’t the only tournament date. Both the ISPS HANDA Senior Open 2028 and the AIG Women’s Open 2028 will also be held in August. The Senior Open is held the week after the Open (August 10-13), and the Women’s Open the week after (August 17-20).
R&A CEO Mark Darbon explained the decision in a press release, adding that the Open would return to its usual July date in 2029.
“We have worked with the relevant authorities and our partners to agree alternative dates to host our major championships in 2028, in support of the Olympic golf competitions,” Darbon wrote. “We appreciate the constructive discussions we have had with all stakeholders and believe that providing clarity on the dates now will assist in the planning of the global golf calendar in 2028. We can also confirm that The Open will return to its normal mid-July dates in 2029.”
While we now know the date of the 2028 Open Championship, we don’t know where it will be played. The R&A did that has yet to announce Open host courses beyond 2027when it returns to the Old Course at St. Andrews.
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