an open date on the calendar looming<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut, once again, it was Turnberry that was the most talked-about venue in the R&A\u2019s annual presser.<\/p>\n
Lauded as possibly the best course in the Open rota, Turnberry hasn\u2019t hosted the game\u2019s oldest championship since 2009. It underwent a significant renovation as well as a change in ownership, with President Donald Trump now at the helm.<\/p>\n
During his tenure, Darbon\u2019s predecessor, Martin Slumbers, was insistent that he would not bring an Open back to Turnberry because he was not confident that the focus would be on the competition.<\/p>\n
Darbon on Wednesday pointed more to the logistical challenges that the site presents, including the rail system and accommodations nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve been extremely clear on our position in respect to Turnberry,\u201d Darbon said. \u201cWe love the golf course, but we\u2019ve got some big logistical challenges there. You see the scale of the setup here, and we\u2019ve got some work to do on the road, rail and accommodation infrastructure around Turnberry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve explicitly not taken it out of our pool of venues, but we\u2019d need to address those logistical challenges should we return.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked specifically about Trump, Darbon said that he met a few months ago with Trump\u2019s son, Eric, and other leaders from the organization to discuss some of the challenges that remained.<\/p>\n
Of how Trump\u2019s ownership affected the decision, Darbon said, \u201cIt\u2019s a somewhat hypothetical question in that unless we address the logistical challenges, it\u2019s difficult for us to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darbon was also pressed about Muirfield, which last hosted an Open in 2013. He said the R&A continues to work with the club on some of its outstanding issues around staging a modern Open, such as the practice grounds and the production cabling. Darbon said he was \u201copen minded to solutions,\u201d such as using the practice area of neighboring Renaissance Club, site of last week\u2019s Scottish Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good dialogue,\u201d he said, \u201cand we\u2019d love to be back there in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Open\u2019s return to Royal Portrush for the second time in six years \u2013 after a 68-year absence \u2013 Darbon said that the organization is also seriously exploring the possibility of taking the event outside the borders of the United Kingdom for the first time, at Portmarnock in Ireland.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t just the venue for the 2028 Open that remains unclear. The dates for the event are also not confirmed, with the Los Angeles Olympics in mid-July complicating the timing. Darbon said he expects an announcement on the dates in the next few months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland \u2013 The R&A expects to announce the venue for the 2028 Open Championship sometime in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}