The Open to be played at new venue

Where will The Open Championship go in future years? The R&A’s chief executive provided the lowdown at Royal Birkdale.

This week, The Open is being played at one of its most storied links – and a baked out Royal Birkdale is just about the perfect setting to end the major season.

In the background, though, constant and fervent discussion continues over where the game’s oldest major could head next.

We now know that, after it’s return to St Andrews in 2027, the Open will be back in the north west of England again when the tournament heads to Royal Lytham for the first time since 2012.

The growing concern has been that courses on the Open rota are now needing to adapt century-old links courses to accommodate spectator numbers that this week will surpass 300,000.

However, Mark Darbon, the R&A’s chief executive, believes the Lytham return is proof that the game’s governing bodies are prioritizing the finest links layouts rather than just the bottom line.

“It’s an event that’s clearly resonating with people all around the world, including those that want to attend and watch this wonderful championship live,” Darbon told reporters at Birkdale on Wednesday.

“If we’re able to facilitate spectator volumes onsite, we’ll always consider that, but it’s not the primary driver for us. We’re going back to Lytham in a couple years time. Lytham has a much smaller footprint. There’s absolutely no way we’ll be near the volume of spectators at Lytham that we have here this week.

“Our choices, first and foremost, start with the underlying principle for us, which is we want to take The Open Championship to venues that will offer a true test of links golf. We’re not taking venues off the rotation because they’re smaller than others, but there’s a balance to be struck too, and we think we’re getting that right.”

It is of course incredibly difficult for reasons associated with both logistics and the golf courses themselves for a new layout to enter the current Open rota.

Prince’s, the famed Sandwich course which hosted the Open once back in 1932, will host the Walker Cup in 2032 but is “not under consideration.”

Darbon added: “The work they’ve done in recent years down at Prince’s has been spectacular, but we’re really happy with the rotation that we’ve got at the moment.

“As you know, and it’s been well-documented, we are in discussion with Portmarnock around the potential for an Open Championship in the future. No plans beyond that at this stage.”

Indeed, it it now a matter of time before Dublin venue Portmarnock becomes the first venue outside the United Kingdom to stage an Open.

 “We’re getting pretty close,” Darbon revealed. “It’s a complicated venue because of the scale of The Open Championship. So there’s been a lot of great feasibility work with the golf club themselves, with the local authority, with government. We’ve undertaken a big feasibility study. That work is pretty much done. We’ve confirmed that we believe we can take an Open Championship there.

What we’re looking to do is build a model that opens up opportunities for the AIG Women’s Open and The Open for many, many years to come. So that’s the dialogue we’re in right now with the Irish government, and we’re optimistic that those discussions are heading in the right direction.”

As for a time frame?

“In the spirit of transparency, it’s taken a bit longer than I think I and we thought, but it’s complicated doing all of that feasibility work,” he admitted. “We’re hoping to have a pretty clear view by the end of the year for sure.”

While a new venue will soon be introduced to the rota, places like Muirfield remain on the outside looking in. The East Lothian course has staged the Open on 16 occasions – most recently when Phil Mickelson won the Claret Jug in 2013 – but it changes will need to be made if the Open is to return.

“We’ve got a great dialogue with Muirfield,” said a coy Darbon. “We’ve just staged a really successful Amateur Championship there for the women. We’re excited to return an Open Championship to that venue in the future.

“It requires a few tweaks both around the golf course and across the site more broadly, but it’s a good dialogue with the club and one that we’ll maintain.”