2026 British Open Cut Line Prediction: Who Will Make the Weekend at Royal Birkdale?

Set your alarms, because the British Open is set to begin on Thursday morning at Royal Birkdale.

With it being the last men's major of the year, let's make the most of the betting opportunities we have this week. You can find my best bets to win in this week's betting preview, but in this article, we're going to focus on the cut. The first step to winning a major is making the weekend, which makes Friday's round extra interesting. Let's dive into the history of the cut line at the British Open, my prediction for what it'll be this week, and then I'll give you my best bets to both make and miss the cut at Royal Birkdale.

British Open Cut Line History

Cut Line at Last Five British Opens

Year	Course	Cut Line
2025	Royal Portrush	+1
2024	Royal Troon	+6
2023	Royal Liverpool	+3
2022	St. Andrew's	EVEN
2021	Royal St. George's	+1

The last time the British Open was hosted at Royal Birkdale in 2017, the cut line was +5.

2026 British Open Cut Line Prediction

As I wrote in my score predictions article, I think the changes to the course, as well as the conditions this week, will make the course play a few strokes more difficult than it did in 2017. With that being said, the course played difficult in the first two rounds that year. I think we're going to see a higher winning score, but with the same cut line.

Cut line prediction: +5

2026 British Open Best Bet to Make the Cut

Matt Wallace missed the cut at last week's Scottish Open, but I'm willing to look past that result considering he lost over two strokes per round with his putting, an uncharacteristic issue for the Englishman.

He has competed at six different British Opens and has made the cut in four of them. He has played well enough for me to bet on him to do that again this year.

Pick: Matt Wallace to Make the Cut (-150) via DraftKings

2026 British Open Best Bet to Miss the Cut

Jon Rahm's game is lost right now. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open and then finished T36 at the Scottish Open. He lost significant strokes with his irons in both starts, while also losing strokes around the greens. That's bad news ahead of teeing it up at a major venue. He also finished just T34 at last year's British Open.

I think Rahm is a great bet to miss the cut at +280 amongst the top dogs this week.

Pick: Jon Rahm to Miss the Cut (+280) via FanDuel

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