When could championship return to Ireland?
It took only six years for the British Open to return to Royal Portrush after its successful staging in 2019. An estimated crowd of 278,000 was expected at Royal Portrush last week, which would have made it the biggest attendance at an Open held outside St Andrews. How long will it take for the R&A to bring back the final men’s major of the season to County Antrim?
The R&A is holding its cards close to the vest. While the PGA already has announced future championship sites through 2034 (with the exception of 2033) and the USGA has sites booked as far out as 2051, the R&A has only shared future sites through 2027. (Royal Birkdale is on deck and St. Andrews in 2027.) During his Open Championship press conference, R&A chief executive Mark Darbon suggested that the 2028 site will be named sometime before the middle of next year. Golfweek hears that Royal St. George’s in England, which last hosted the 149th Open in 2021 could be in line for a return date. Muirfield, which last hosted in 2013, could also be a serious contender but Darbon noted some logistical changes, including to the practice facility, that need to be made.
The next visit to the Emerald Isle may actually come in Ireland, not Northern Ireland. Portmarnock Golf Club has been under consideration in recent years. Set on a peninsula which juts into the Irish Sea about 8 miles northeast of Dublin, the course winds its way through rolling sand hills on crisp turf and pot bunkers abound.
“I’ve heard they’re talking about it. I’ve heard they might go there. It would be amazing, 30 minutes from my house. I’d be able to stay at home and play in an Open,” said 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry on Sunday. “It’s one of the best golf courses in the world. I think it’s good enough to host an Open, and hopefully it will soon.”
Speaking to Golfweek, fellow Irishman Paul McGinley also gave his full endorsement: “Absolutely,” he said. “Outside of a St. Andrews Open, it would be a memorable Open golf-wise as well as commercially. Amazing course and right in the center of Dublin.”
But there are still a few holdups, meaning it may not happen before 2032, including the fact that Ireland isn’t part of Britain so technically the British Open – for those who refer to it as that rather than the Open Championship – would be played outside the United Kingdom for the first time. But it does feel that Portmarnock has moved into the category of “when, not if” it will host an Open. Promising news arrived in late April when the club membership voted and approved several modifications to the links requested by the R&A and to be undertaken by architects Mackenzie & Ebert, who have worked on several of the links in the current rota.
“We think it’s a wonderful links golf course and we’ve been really encouraged by the support that we’ve had in principle from the Irish government to work with us to understand whether we could stage an Open Championship there in the future,” Darbon said. “We’re knee deep in feasibility work to help us answer that question fully. We expect to have a clearer picture by the back end of this year.”
As for Royal Portrush, the club’s original contract, signed with then-R&A chief Peter Dawson, promised three Opens within a span of 20 years.
“I think it will be 10 years at least,” said Wilma Erskine, the former Royal Portrush secretary, who was involved in wooing the R&A for the original deal.
Northern Ireland’s favorite son, career Grand Slam holder Rory McIlroy, is confident that he’ll get another chance of winning on home soil at Portrush.
“I think Portrush has quickly turned into one of the best two or three venues that the Open goes to. Talk to every player this week, and they won’t say one single bad thing about the golf course,” he said. “Then I just think the way it sets up, from a logistical standpoint, I think the R&A have worked so well with the local government to make sure everything runs smoothly. Yeah, I hope so. It’s only been six years since 2019. I’m not sure Portrush is going to have the Open every six years, that would be nice, but I would obviously love it to keep coming back.”
Given that the R&A’s TV deal dwarfs that of what the USGA rakes in, expect the commercial success of the Open to be a top priority and making sites such as Royal Lytham and Carnoustie to appear with less frequency in the rota and Ireland and Northern Ireland to be trendy picks. With the 153rd Open a financial success and a contract guaranteeing a return by 2039, Portrush should have its pick of the litter.
“The R&A is looking at how attractive Portrush is and how much of a moneymaker Portmarnock will be,” said one industry observer. “It’s become very much about the profit and loss statement.”
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