The 126th U.S. Open Championship is live Thursday at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, an already-dramatic opener that was halted by dense morning fog before play resumed on one of golf’s most storied and demanding courses, with Scottie Scheffler hunting a career Grand Slam and Rory McIlroy chasing back-to-back major titles in a star-studded field watched across more than 200 hours of broadcast and streaming coverage.
The 126th U.S. Open: Why This One Matters
Not all US Opens carry the same weight. The 126th edition, returning for the first time since 2018 to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on the eastern tip of Long Island, arrives with a narrative architecture that gives every round a story independent of the scoring.
Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1, enters needing only a US Open title to complete the career Grand Slam, wins across all four major championships, joining a list that includes Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Ben Hogan. Rory McIlroy won the Masters at Augusta in April and is pursuing back-to-back major titles, a feat that would re-establish him unambiguously as the defining player of his era. Aaron Rai, the 2026 PGA Championship winner, arrives in search of a second straight major to open a title window of his own.
Add Shinnecock Hills’ notorious difficulty, when the course last hosted the US Open in 2018, no player finished the week under par, and the result is the kind of major championship that rewards patience, precision, and nerve above all else.
Play began Thursday morning and was briefly halted by dense Atlantic fog before resuming, a Shinnecock tradition, in its own way.
Thursday, Round 1: What’s On, When, and Where
Round 1 is in full swing, and the broadcast picture for Thursday is straightforward.
Television:
- 6:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET — USA Network: Main Round 1 broadcast, opening with the early morning wave of tee times and carrying through the early afternoon groups. USA Network is available to cable and satellite subscribers on standard packages and can be streamed via Sling TV, YouTube TV, DirecTV Stream, Hulu + Live TV and Xfinity.
- 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. ET — NBCSN / Peacock simulcast: Late Round 1 coverage, including the back nines for afternoon starters and post-round analysis with the NBC Sports on-course reporting team.
- 8 p.m. – 10 p.m. ET — Golf Channel: Live From the U.S. Open — on-site highlights package, player interviews, leaderboard review and detailed first-round analysis from Golf Channel’s broadcast team.
Streaming:
- 7:29 a.m. ET – finish — Peacock (US Open All-Access): Peacock Premium subscribers receive all-access coverage from the first tee shots, including the ability to monitor multiple groups simultaneously.
- 7:29 a.m. ET – finish — USOpen.com (FREE): The USGA’s official championship site streams featured group coverage from 7:29 a.m. ET each day at no charge, with no sign-in or subscription required.
- 7:29 a.m. ET – finish — USGA App (FREE): The official USGA mobile app (iOS and Android) provides the same free featured group streams, plus live scoring, leaderboard, player statistics, video highlights and photo galleries.
- Featured Groups (YouTube TV, DirecTV, Xfinity): Featured group windows begin at approximately 7:30 a.m., 7:45 a.m., 8:15 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 1:45 p.m. and 2 p.m. ET Thursday, accessible to subscribers of those platforms.
The featured group confirmed for the 7:29 a.m. ET window Thursday includes Rory McIlroy alongside European Ryder Cup teammates Ludvig Åberg and Tommy Fleetwood, the most-watched pairing of the opening round.
Friday, Round 2: The Cut Approaches
Round 2 on Friday brings the broadcast home to NBC for its first afternoon window of the championship, with Peacock carrying the early action and taking the baton from NBCSN.
Television:
- 6:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET — NBCSN / Peacock: Early second-round coverage.
- 1:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. ET — NBC / Peacock simulcast: NBC’s flagship network takes the afternoon second-round broadcast in the largest single viewership window of the opening two days.
- 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. ET — NBCSN / Peacock: Extended late-afternoon coverage.
- 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. ET — Golf Channel: Live From the U.S. Open, second-round edition.
Streaming:
- 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET — Peacock (All-Access): Full-day second-round streaming.
**7:30 a.m., 7:45 a.m., 8:15 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 1:45 p.m., 2 p.m. ET — USOpen.com / USGA App / YouTube TV / DirecTV / Xfinity (Featured Groups, FREE on USGA platforms).
Saturday, Round 3: Moving Day at Shinnecock
Moving day on Saturday — the round that historically reshapes leaderboards at major championships — transitions to NBC’s flagship network for the bulk of afternoon coverage.
Television:
- 10 a.m. – Noon ET — USA Network: Early third-round coverage.
- Noon – 8 p.m. ET — NBC / Peacock simulcast: NBC’s six-hour primary broadcast, covering the heart of the third round and the crucial scoring windows where the champion typically begins to separate.
- 8 p.m. – 10 p.m. ET — Golf Channel: Live From the U.S. Open.
Streaming:
- 10 a.m. – Noon ET — Peacock (All-Access)
- Featured group windows TBD — USOpen.com / USGA App / YouTube TV / DirecTV / Xfinity
Sunday, Round 4: The Champion Is Crowned
Sunday’s final round brings the longest NBC broadcast window of the week, closing out the championship from noon until the final putt drops.
Television:
9 a.m. – Noon ET — USA Network: Early Sunday round coverage.
Noon – 7 p.m. ET — NBC / Peacock simulcast: The championship’s climactic broadcast — up to seven hours of live final-round coverage, through the last group’s final hole, the trophy presentation and post-championship interviews.
Streaming:
9 a.m. – Noon ET — Peacock (All-Access)
Featured group windows TBD — USOpen.com / USGA App / YouTube TV / DirecTV / Xfinity
The Free Option: Your Step-by-Step Guide
Multiple no-subscription options are available for fans who want to follow the championship without adding a streaming service.
USOpen.com is the USGA’s official platform and offers free, registration-free featured group streaming beginning each morning. The site also provides live scoring, a full leaderboard updated in real time, hole-by-hole shot tracking, video highlights and written coverage from journalists on site at Shinnecock Hills.
The USGA App mirrors the USOpen.com free stream and adds mobile push notifications for birdies, eagles, course alerts and breaking tournament news. It is available free on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
For those who are cable subscribers — even basic cable — USA Network carries Round 1 from 6:30 a.m. Thursday, and that signal is accessible through every major live TV streaming service at its base subscription level. Cable subscribers can also stream USA via GolfChannel.com and the Golf Channel app.
Golf Channel’s Supporting Role: Live From the U.S. Open
Golf Channel’s on-site show Live From the U.S. Open functions as a daily companion broadcast to the main championship coverage, available throughout the week. Running each evening after the main round concludes, it provides the most comprehensive post-round analysis of the day’s scoring, detailed course breakdowns and exclusive player interviews.
Golf.com confirms the show is also accessible to cord-cutters via GolfChannel.com and the Golf Channel App using a valid cable login and is included within YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream’s channel packages for subscribers on those platforms.
Over 200 Hours of Coverage: A Broadcaster’s Commitment
NBC Sports and its production partner Versant have committed to more than 200 hours of total 2026 US Open coverage across all platforms — from the pre-championship Live From programming that began June 15 through Sunday’s trophy ceremony.
That figure represents one of the most comprehensive single-championship production commitments in golf broadcasting history, reflecting both the commercial weight of a major at Shinnecock Hills and the proliferation of simultaneous streaming windows that allow dedicated fans to watch essentially any group on the course at any point during the round.
The official viewing schedule at usopen.com/viewing-schedule lists exact daily featured group tee times and is updated each morning based on the confirmed draw — making it the most reliable single source for cord-cutters and cable subscribers alike to plan their day around the golf that matters most to them.
The Fog That Opened the Championship
Even before a single stroke was struck for score, Shinnecock Hills introduced the 2026 field to the course’s most reliable challenge: the weather.
The USGA had publicly forecast heavy wind and possible afternoon storms for Thursday. What arrived instead was dense morning fog rolling in off the Atlantic, thick enough to halt opening-round tee times before the field was fully dispatched. Golf Channel confirmed the suspension early Thursday and tracked the course’s gradual clearance as the marine layer lifted over the fescue hills.
It was, in a sense, the perfect Shinnecock opening, a reminder that no plan survives first contact with the conditions on this particular stretch of Long Island, and that the champions who have lifted trophies here have all done so not because the course cooperated, but because they refused to let it break them.