2026 Open Championship: Top DraftKings Showdown Plays & Live Bets Ahead of Round 2
The 2026 Open Championship is officially underway, with Royal Birkdale proving to be even firmer and more demanding than expected. Jackson Suber is your surprise leader after the opening round, closing with a red-hot finish of 4-under-par over his last five holes to sign for a 5-under-par 65. Dan Brown and Sungjae Im took advantage of a calm early morning tee time, each posting 4-under-par from the same group. Cameron Young, Bryson DeChambeau, Robert MacIntyre, Scottie Scheffler, and Collin Morikawa round out the list of top-contenders, each within three strokes of Suber’s lead through the opening round.
Looking ahead, we have new data at our disposal to adjust our approach in DFS formats before Round 2 gets underway on Friday. Conditions were calm Thursday morning with wind gradulally picking up for the afternoon wave. The exact same forecast is in store for Friday, giving a slight edge in round 2 to players with an early tee time. Ahead, we’ll look to identify the players who have shown they are most due for a Round 2 breakout.
Take a look at some of the best pillar players for the 2026 Open Championship DFS contests and live betting opportunities.
DraftKings Showdown Golf Strategy
DraftKings Golf Showdown Golf is a one-round Daily Fantasy format in which players aim to construct the best-scoring one-round lineup while staying within the allotted salary cap. To identify value in Golf Showdown, it’s typically best to focus on buy-low opportunities on players who’ve shown uncharacteristically poor putting in the prior round. There is also an opportunity to find leverage by identifying favorable weather splits and players who are more likely to card birdies-or-better.
Round 2 Open Championship Showdown Pillar Plays
No two years seem to be the same at The Open, as each course on the rota brings a unique identity. While Total Driving, distance, and short game are more essential on other Open Championship venues, Royal Birkdale has established its own unique identity as the preeminent test of accuracy. The R&A have set this course up exactly how they want to, drying out these brown fairways to make the course play firmer. That invites players to test their creativity and use the ground game more often, especially when hitting from out of position into these fescue-based greens. Going forward, it is the players who can consistently place themselves in the fairways and demonstrate skilled approach play who stand the best opportunity to contend at Royal Birkdale.
Identifying value players who check each of these boxes can provide valuable bonus points in the DraftKings Showdown format. The three players below will be foundational plays in my Round 2 Showdown lineups for these reasons.
Collin Morikawa ($8,800)
I was half-committed to Collin Morikawa going into this week. I loved his course profile fit and ceiling potential enough to back him as a viable outright play, but had some concerns about his week of prep leading in that caused me to avoid him in pre-tournament matchups and placement bets. The opening round can answer a lot of questions for players we aren’t sure about leading in, and in the case of Morikawa, I liked everything I saw.
There does not seem to be a wave disadvantage, as playing conditions will even out over the course of the first two days, but Collin did catch a bit of bad luck by playing the back nine in the worst of the afternoon wind. After starting 4-under-par through his first 10 holes, he limped into the clubhouse going 2-over-par for his final 8 holes. All told, Morikawa looked just as he has all season: Elite in driving accuracy and approach play, and above-average on the greens. Now the beneficiary of an early morning Friday tee time, Collin leads this field in SG: APP, and should be ready to fire at pins early and often.
Sungjae Im ($7,200)
SG: APP, Driving Accuracy, and Scrambling are the three most important stats I’m looking for in a player to withstand the test of Royal Birkdale. Sungjae is one of just two players in the field to rank top-50 across all three of those categories through the opening round. Calm playing conditions as one of the first players off Thursday morning certainly helped his cause, but if nothing else, this should give Im a boost of confidence that his game is major-ready.
Ranking 37th in SG: APP may not sound notable, but iron play has been the only area of Sungjae’s game that has been holding back in 2026; he has not gained strokes on approach since the Valspar Championship back in March. With some of the best hands on the PGA Tour, Sungjae can thrive in difficult conditions that emphasize needing to scramble often from difficult positions. It’s that particular skill set that helped him place inside the top 20 in two of his last three Open Championship appearances. If the iron play remains sharp, Sungjae will be a dangerous player to watch in Southport.
Alex Smalley ($7,000)
Alex Smalley wishes he could have one swing back: his very last tee shot of his round on Thursday. He walked up to the final hole as the solo leader at 5 under par, and walked off the 18th green with a double bogey after his tee shot ricocheted off the boundary fence and into the penalty area. The 18th hole claimed many victims on Thursday and will continue to do so over the course of this tournament, so I’m not going to dwell on one poor shot. This is not the first time we’ve seen Smalley atop the leaderboard in a major in 2026, as he nearly went wire-to-wire at the PGA Championship.
Smalley has looked right at home at Royal Birkdale, despite this being his debut at The Open. He leads the field in SG: Putting and also ranks top-25 in Driving Accuracy and SG: APP. It may not be sustainable to continue to lead the field in putting the rest of this week, but Smalley is a great putter in his own right, and that skill will serve him well when playing from tight lies around these greens. Smalley spoke about his love for the course after the opening round, and his play has certainly backed it up thus far.
Live Bets To Consider Entering Round 2
Round 2 Matchup: Wyndham Clark over Sam Burns
Best Available odds: -114
It appears the perspective of new parenthood has not yet set in for Sam Burns, who put the clubs down for a week and arrived later in the week to Royal Birkdale after the first of his second child last week. He certainly looked the part of a player who had not touched a club in weeks on Thursday, as Burns ranked 75th in SG: APP and outside the top 120 in both SG: ARG and SG: P in his opening round of 73.
Clark’s opening round was none too different, also carding a round of 73 with similar shortcomings around the greens. Considering we just watched Clark navigate links conditions well at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, where he finished T13, I feel more optimistic about his chances to bounce back stronger in round two. And while Clark has a reputation as one who feasts on long, open courses, his win at the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am supports that his game can translate on short coastal venues akin to Royal Birkdale, too.
Leader After Round 2: Cameron Young
Best Available odds: +990
Cameron Young never really left; he just stopped making putts over the course of the last month. A trip to The Open’s links may have been the remedy he needed, however, as he ranks top-30 in SG: Putting through the first 18 holes. If he continues at that rate, it will be the first time he’s ranking top-30 in putting at a tournament since he won the Cadillac Championship in May.
Cameron Young with a hot putter is a dangerous proposition, and he’ll have the added benefit of playing in calmer morning conditions in his second round. Just two strokes off the lead and ranking 13th in SG: T2G, it would not surprise me to see Young improve on his opening round of 67 after round 2.
Best of luck with your Open Championship DFS lineups and bets!
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