Irish Open 2026 betting guide: Doonbeg, the field and the markets

The Irish Open starts at Doonbeg on Thursday with Rory McIlroy defending his title, ten Irish players in the 138-man field and one of the strongest groups the tournament has had in years.

This year's course changes the equation too. The K Club was parkland golf. Doonbeg is exposed links golf on the Clare coast, with the front nine generally playing with the prevailing wind and the back nine turning into it. If the wind gets up, a short hole can change character very quickly.

For anyone betting on the tournament, that makes the course, tee times and each-way terms worth understanding before looking at a player's name and price.

Updated 9 September 2026: final field and tee times confirmed, Doonbeg course setup corrected to par 70, current betting prices added and Irish broadcast information refreshed.

Irish Open 2026 at a glance

Doonbeg is hosting the Amgen Irish Open for the first time. McIlroy arrives as defending champion after beating Joakim Lagergren in a play-off at the K Club last year, while Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm, Rasmus Højgaard and Pádraig Harrington give the field another four former winners.

There is plenty beyond the old champions. Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton, Robert MacIntyre, Joaquin Niemann, Patrick Reed, Sepp Straka and both Højgaard brothers are among the names starting on Thursday.

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Irish Open 2026 field and tee times

The final field is set at 138 players, and the first two rounds have produced a few groups that are worth knowing even if you never place a bet.

McIlroy goes out on Thursday afternoon with Robert MacIntyre and five-time Major winner Brooks Koepka. Ten minutes later, Lowry starts alongside Patrick Reed and two-time Irish Open champion Jon Rahm.

Tom McKibbin gets a particularly interesting draw. He plays with Alex Fitzpatrick and Luke Donald, Europe's captain for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor.

The ten Irish players and their opening groups

The Irish contingent is broader than the five familiar names at the top of the market. McIlroy, Lowry, McKibbin, Power and Harrington are joined by Mark Power, Cormac Sharvin, Thomas Higgins, Max Kennedy and Liam Nolan.

Late withdrawals can still alter a group, so check the official tee sheet again before play if a specific pairing matters to you.

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How Doonbeg plays and who the course suits

First, one correction from the earlier version of this guide: the tournament course is a par 70, not a par 72.

It measures 6,838 yards and runs as one nine out and one nine back through the dunes. The front nine generally plays with the prevailing wind. Turn for home and much of the back nine plays into it.

That matters more than the raw yardage suggests.

Doonbeg is not set up simply to reward whoever hits the ball furthest. The course's own professional, Brian Shaw, has described the test in terms of manoeuvring the ball and short-game skill rather than a week where everyone simply attacks pins and holes putts.

The rebuilt 18th makes the point nicely. It is now a 462-yard par four, uphill to an elevated, undulating green, with bunkers asking questions both from the tee and on the approach. It also plays into the prevailing wind.

Then there are holes such as the 137-yard 14th. On paper it looks short. In the wrong wind, the difference can be several clubs.

What sort of form is relevant?

There is no previous Irish Open at Doonbeg to study, so course history here is useless. The more interesting evidence comes from other exposed links courses.

Jon Rahm has already won the Irish Open twice on links layouts, at Portstewart in 2017 and Lahinch in 2019.

Shane Lowry has the most obvious Irish links result of all, winning The Open Championship at Royal Portrush by six shots in 2019.

Rasmus Højgaard won the 2024 Irish Open at Royal County Down, another very different but exposed links test.

And more recently, Rory McIlroy won the 2026 Genesis Scottish Open in high winds, with Robert MacIntyre finishing second after a closing 64.

None of that tells us who wins at Doonbeg. It does tell us why links form is more relevant this week than it was when the Irish Open was played on a parkland course at the K Club.

The other variable is timing. If the wind changes during the day, the morning and afternoon waves can effectively face different golf courses. That is especially worth remembering in first-round leader and three-ball markets.

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Where the Irish Open prices sit

McIlroy is the clear favourite going into the tournament.

The table below is a price snapshot checked on 9 September 2026 at an Irish-licensed bookmaker. Golf prices move constantly, so treat these as a picture of the market rather than a promise of what will be available when you place a bet.

The broad shape of the market has not changed much since Monday. McIlroy was around 6/1 at the start of the week and remains there, while Rahm has stayed around 9/1. MacIntyre has been one of the clearer small movers, shortening from roughly 16/1 early in the week to 14/1 in the current snapshot.

That does not mean a shorter price makes somebody a better bet. It simply tells us where the market has moved.

If you are comparing prices, do not look only at the number beside the player's name. Golf is one of the clearest examples of why the odds and the terms need to be compared together.

Top Irish player prices

The home-player market is already live too.

Those prices also show how different this market is from the outright.

McIlroy can finish fifth overall and still win the top Irish player bet if every other Irish player finishes below him. Conversely, an Irish player does not need to challenge for the trophy to win this market.

The current market includes players from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Always check the actual list of selections before betting rather than assuming how a bookmaker defines the pool.

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The Irish Open betting markets that actually matter

A 138-player golf tournament produces a lot more than one winner market. The useful part is understanding what each bet is asking a golfer to do.

Outright winner

This is the simple one. Pick the player who wins after 72 holes, including any play-off needed to settle first place.

The difficulty is the size of the field. Even the favourite is 6/1 rather than the sort of very short price you might see on a dominant football team, because McIlroy still has to beat another 137 players.

Each-way

Golf and each-way betting go together because outright prices are long and bookmakers can pay several finishing places.

The trade-off is important. More places often means a shorter win price or a smaller place fraction.

At the time of checking, one licensed Irish market offered the standard Irish Open outright at one-quarter of the odds for five places. It also offered a separate ten-place version at one-fifth of the odds, but with shorter outright prices.

For McIlroy, for example, the standard market was 6/1. The ten-place version was 5/1.

Neither structure is automatically better. It depends on whether you value the bigger win price or the extra place coverage.

Our separate guide explains golf each-way bets, Rule 4 deductions and dead heats in more detail.

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Top Irish player

This is a smaller race inside the main tournament.

The bet is settled on whichever named Irish or Northern Irish golfer finishes highest in the designated market. The overall winner of the Irish Open could be Rahm or Hatton and the top Irish market would still settle separately.

Dead heats can matter if two players finish level, so check the market's settlement rules.

Three-ball betting

Three-ball betting ignores almost everyone else.

You are betting on which player records the lowest score within one group for that particular round. McIlroy could shoot 68, sit 20th on the overall leaderboard and still win his three-ball if MacIntyre and Koepka both shoot 70.

That makes Thursday's marquee groups interesting markets in their own right.

First-round leader

The first-round leader market asks only who sits top after Thursday.

Prices are much longer than outright prices because one exceptional round is enough. McIlroy, for example, was around 16/1 for first-round leader in the market we checked despite being 6/1 to win the tournament.

Doonbeg adds another wrinkle here. If one tee-time wave gets meaningfully calmer conditions, the weather draw can affect the first-round leaderboard much more than it affects a four-day outright bet.

Top 5, top 10 and top 20 finishes

These markets remove the need to pick the champion altogether.

They can make more sense if your view is simply that a player should have a strong week rather than that he will beat the entire field.

Again, compare the price rather than assuming the safer-looking outcome automatically offers better value.

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The Irish players at Doonbeg

McIlroy naturally takes most of the attention. He is defending the title, won this event in 2016 and 2025, and arrives with another recent links result after winning the Scottish Open earlier this summer.

Lowry's connection with the tournament goes back even further. His 2009 victory at County Louth came while he was still an amateur, one of the most unusual wins in the event's modern history.

Harrington is making his 31st consecutive Irish Open appearance. He won at Adare Manor in 2007, then followed it with back-to-back Open Championship victories in 2007 and 2008.

McKibbin and Séamus Power make up the other two Irish names nearest the front of the current betting market. Behind them, Mark Power, Sharvin, Higgins, Kennedy and Nolan give the home crowd ten players to follow in total.

The important point for a betting guide is not that an Irish player should be backed because the tournament is at home. It is that markets such as top Irish player give those ten golfers their own separate contest, with very different prices and settlement rules from the outright.

The Irish Open is already part of Ryder Cup 2027

The Ryder Cup is not happening this year, but it has already become part of the story at Doonbeg.

Qualification for Europe's 2027 team began at the British Masters on 27 August 2026. The Irish Open is one of the early counting events and carries 1,500 Ryder Cup points.

The 2027 Ryder Cup takes place at Adare Manor, County Limerick, with Luke Donald returning as European captain. The leading six players on the European points list qualify automatically, and Donald will choose the remaining six.

That makes his group with McKibbin interesting, but one good round beside the captain does not decide selection. There is almost a full year of qualification left.

McIlroy, Lowry, Rahm, Hatton, MacIntyre, Højgaard and Straka all played in Europe's 2025 Ryder Cup team and are in the Doonbeg field this week.

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A short history of the Irish Open

The Irish Open was first played at Portmarnock in 1927, and 2026 is its 71st edition.

It has moved around the island throughout its history rather than living at one permanent venue. Portmarnock, Royal County Down, Ballybunion, County Louth, Carton House, Adare Manor and the K Club are among the courses to have hosted it.

McIlroy is trying to join an unusual club this week. Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Sir Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie each won the event three times, while McIlroy and Rahm arrive at Doonbeg on two victories apiece.

Lowry's 2009 amateur victory and Harrington's 2007 win are the other two results that stand out most for an Irish audience.

Doonbeg now gets its first turn. The K Club is already due to host the tournament again in 2027.

Betting on the Irish Open in Ireland

Online betting regulation changed between last year's Irish Open and this one.

Since 1 July 2026, remote betting operators serving the Irish market have moved into the licensing system overseen by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI). If you are checking a bookmaker, the useful thing is whether the operator holds the appropriate current Irish betting licence.

One point needs clearing up because the regulator's role is easy to overstate. The GRAI currently says it does not handle individual customer disputes with gambling businesses. If you have a dispute over a bet, payment or account, the first step is the bookmaker's own complaints process.

The GRAI regulates licensed operators and can act on compliance with licence obligations. That is different from acting as an individual dispute-resolution service.

We explain the wider regulatory changes in our guide to the GRAI and gambling regulation in Ireland.

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How to watch the Irish Open in Ireland

You do not need a paid subscription to follow the tournament live this year.

RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player are showing live coverage from Thursday through Sunday. Sky Sports also carries the tournament throughout the four rounds.

Sky's scheduled live windows are:

Weekend general admission at Doonbeg has sold out. Thursday and Friday general admission remained available at the latest official ticket check.

If you are watching mainly to follow a bet, remember that plenty happens before the main television window. The first groups are on the course early in the morning, particularly on Thursday and Friday.

Frequently asked questions

When is the 2026 Irish Open?

The competitive rounds run from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September 2026 at Trump International Golf Links, Doonbeg, County Clare.

The pro-am takes place on Wednesday 9 September.

How many players are in the 2026 Irish Open?

There are 138 players in the final field.

After two rounds, the top 65 and ties make the cut and continue into the weekend.

What par is Doonbeg for the Irish Open?

Doonbeg is playing as a par 70 at 6,838 yards for the 2026 tournament.

That corrects the par-72 figure that appeared in some earlier pre-tournament information.

Who is the favourite for the Irish Open?

Rory McIlroy was 6/1 in the current Irish market snapshot we checked on 9 September, ahead of Jon Rahm at 9/1.

Prices change, sometimes quickly, so check the live market before betting.

Who are the Irish players in the field?

There are ten: Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Tom McKibbin, Séamus Power, Pádraig Harrington, Mark Power, Cormac Sharvin, Thomas Higgins, Max Kennedy and Liam Nolan.

McIlroy, Lowry and Harrington are all former Irish Open champions.

What are the main Irish Open betting markets?

The outright winner, each-way, top Irish player, three-ball and first-round leader markets are among the most prominent.

Top 5, top 10, top 20 and head-to-head markets are also widely available.

How do each-way bets work at the Irish Open?

You place two bets, one on the player to win and one on the player to finish within the specified places.

The number of places, place fraction and outright price can all vary. Read our golf each-way guide before comparing offers solely on the number of places advertised.

How can we watch the Irish Open in Ireland?

The 2026 tournament is live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from Thursday to Sunday, with Sky Sports also carrying live coverage.

Golf Channel is a US broadcaster for this event, not the main viewing route for Irish audiences.

Does the Irish Open count towards Ryder Cup qualification?

Yes. The 2026 Irish Open is inside the qualification period for Europe's 2027 Ryder Cup team and carries 1,500 Ryder Cup points.

The 2027 Ryder Cup will be played at Adare Manor in County Limerick.

Is online betting on the Irish Open regulated in Ireland?

Remote bookmakers serving Irish customers fall under the GRAI betting-licensing regime that went live on 1 July 2026.

The GRAI regulates licensed operators, but currently says individual customer disputes should first be escalated directly with the gambling business.

Safer gambling

The Irish Open is four days of golf, not an income opportunity. Bet only what you can comfortably afford to lose, and do not chase a bad Thursday with bigger stakes on Friday.

If gambling is causing difficulty for you or someone you know, the National Gambling Helpline is free and confidential on 1800 936 725, 24 hours a day. You can also find support through GamblingCare.ie.