2024 Open Championship: Ranking all 158 golfers - ESPN

TROON, Scotland — The 152nd Open, the last major championship of the season in men's golf, tees off Thursday at Royal Troon Golf Course on Scotland's west coast.

It's the last chance this season to win a major championship — the tournaments that separate legendary golfers from everyone else.

For Masters winner Scottie Scheffler, PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele and U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau, it's a chance to add a second title to an already remarkable season.

For Rory McIlroy, it's one more opportunity to end a nearly decade-long drought without a victory in the big four.

«It's hard to explain and it sounds negative, but it's like, 'If I don't win this, it's another year without a major,'» said two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas. «It's just the unfortunate reality. We only get four tries in a year. And then once it's done, all right, got to wait until next year.»

Here is a closer look at the golfers in The Open field, from the legitimate contenders, dark horses, past champions and amateurs.

Jump to a section:
The guys who can win
If everything goes right
Hey, miracles happen
Happy to make the cut
Past champions
Amateurs

Here are the legitimate contenders to win The Open. They have the games, guts and nerves to handle four pressure-packed rounds in potentially rainy and windy conditions.

Scottie Scheffler
The world No. 1 golfer bounced back from a so-so performance at the U.S. Open by winning for the sixth time in 2024 at the Travelers Championship. Tiger Woods was the last golfer to win seven times in a season on the PGA Tour (2007). The Open is the only major in which Scheffler hasn't finished in the top three; his best finish was a tie for eighth at Royal St. George's in England in 2021.

Bryso