How much does it actually cost to spend a day at The Open? You might be surprised…

The spectator village at Royal Portrush

Golf tournaments can be pretty expensive to attend, but just how expensive is The Open Championship? Let’s find out…

When you think about going to a golf tournament, you think expensive entry tickets, sky-high food prices, and merchandise that makes you wince when you see the total on the receipt. But is The Open actually that expensive? Or is it cheaper than you expect? I spent the day as a spectator to find out just how much it will cost you to watch the players on golf’s greatest stage.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Travelling to The Open

How you get to The Open will depend on the venue you’re attending. Some courses have convenient public transport options, allowing you to take the bus or train straight to the course (such as Royal St. George’s, where a bespoke train service is put on to allow spectators to travel directly to the course from central London). For Royal Portrush, I decided to drive.

The Open operates multiple park and ride car parks during tournament week. With Open rota courses located in small towns, it’s the best way to ensure the roads don’t get overwhelmed with traffic. At Royal Portrush, car parking was £22.00 per day per vehicle. Not too dissimilar to a full day’s parking in a multi-storey car park in any major town.

Car park: £22.00

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The Open entry prices

For 2025, The Open didn’t offer any ‘season ticket’ style weekly passes, which meant spectators had to purchase a different ticket for each day they wanted to attend. Practice day tickets started from just £35.00, with Sunday’s final day costing £130.00 per person. To encourage more juniors into the game, under-16-year-olds were admitted free of charge all week. My ticket for attending on the Friday was £110.00. Of course, there are options to upgrade your ticket to hospitality experiences, but for someone wanting to be out among the action (and potentially the rain), the basic entry ticket is what you need.

The ticket ballot for the 2026 Championship at Royal Birkdale is open until 3pm BST on July 25, and you can find out how to apply for tickets here.

Day ticket: £110.00

Food and drinks at The Open

My first stop at the course was for something to eat and a nice mug (well, disposable cup) of tea. There were plenty of food and drink options on site at The Open Championship, with outlets catering to vegetarians and vegans, as well as providing a host of gluten-free options. The main spectator village beside the 18th hole offered fish and chips, pastries, burgers, hot dogs and pizzas that looked so good I made a mental note to head back for one later in the day.

I opted to go into ‘The Wedge’, which offered a selection of sandwiches and salads, as well as hot snacks priced at £6.50. I picked up a sausage roll and a tea for £9.70, but as I paid with a Mastercard, I got 5% off, bringing it to £9.22. The sausage roll was delicious, by the way, well worth the cost.

After walking out to the far point of the course to watch some of Friday’s morning play on the 7th and 8th holes, it was soon time for more sustenance, so I wandered back to the spectator village to get my hands on one of the pizzas I’d seen earlier, from ‘The Slice’. I chose the classic Margherita, which set me back £12.35 with the Mastercard discount. Very reasonable, especially if you’re sharing (I wasn’t, don’t judge me!), and it was a good size.

There were bars dotted around the site offering both soft and alcoholic drinks, with pints of lager and Guinness priced at £7.75, and a Coke costing £2.50. I took advantage of the Friday afternoon sunshine, just before the rain hit, and treated myself to a lager (no Mastercard discount on alcoholic drinks, unfortunately), before heading back out to the grandstand behind the 16th green to watch the afternoon groups coming to the end of their rounds.

Food and drinks total: £29.32

Merchandise

Coming to The Open is a special experience, one you truly want to remember. If you’re lucky enough to visit more than once, you may well end up with a collection of merchandise in your wardrobe, or replica 18th hole flags displayed in frames around your house. Walking into The Open Shop is like walking into a huge supermarket, but with added atmospheric music and videos as you walk through the doors (imagine a theme park queue). They have different sections for each brand of clothing, an entire wall of caps, and more driver head covers than you’d ever need. In fact, we rounded up the best Open merch for you earlier this week.

I wanted a few mementos of my time at Royal Portrush, so I selected a pin flag flask, a hoodie, and a pin badge. Fortunately, I had my own umbrella with me, as an emergency purchase when the rain came (and boy, did it come) would have cost another £45. The merchandise tent at Royal Troon last year sold out of umbrellas at one point.

If you’ve been at Royal Portrush this week, and something in the shop caught your eye, or if you just want to see what merch The Open has, you can have a browse here.

Merchandise total: £91.00

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Is anything free at The Open?

Yes! The Open has a few activities that you can take part in for no extra cost, and some really useful facilities.

Mastercard Tent

Anyone with a Mastercard could access this space in the spectator village. They ran scheduled events throughout the week, including driving simulators (the four-wheel kind), golf clinics, photo opportunities with the Claret Jug, and appearances from the brand’s ambassadors, including Viktor Hovland. You just had to show your card at the entrance and you were in!

HSBC Golf Zone

Spectators could take part in a putting challenge, snap some pics in the photo booth, and have a go on the incredible simulators, including the epic 160-yard challenge and a shot at leaderboard glory.

You could also try cracking the code on the HSBC Premier Vault for a chance to win prizes, and surprise visits from HSBC Ambassadors and other VIPs throughout the week.

Facilities

Dotted around the course were water refill stations to ensure everyone kept hydrated when the sun was shining down on the links, although there were points on Friday I could have opened my bottle and filled it from the downpours. There were also sunscreen dispensers and free phone charging stations for when those batteries inevitably drained from checking the scores (although there are leaderboards) and snapping shots of the best golfers in the world.

All in all, it was a fantastic day, and I can’t wait to be back next year.

Total cost of a day at The Open Championship: £252.32
Experience: Priceless

So, is that more or less than you were expecting? For me, it was well worth the money to experience the brilliance of some of the greatest golfers in the world at one of the best golf courses in Britain and Ireland.