{"id":766555,"date":"2026-07-16T16:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766555\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:08:26","slug":"as-open-keeps-growing-ra-chief-insists-focus-remains-on-verity-of-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766555\/","title":{"rendered":"As Open keeps growing, R&A chief insists focus remains on verity of test"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 300,000 spectators are expected to enter the gates this week at Royal Birkdale, eclipsing the 290,000 that attended the last Open Championship at St. Andrews, in 2022. Though with golf\u2019s oldest major heading back to the Old Course next year, it\u2019ll be a record likely short lived.<\/p>\n

Mark Darbon, the R&A\u2019s chief executive, said Wednesday during his pre-championship address, that over 750,000 applicants have already entered the ballot for 2027 tickets.<\/p>\n

That lottery has been open for a mere nine days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted by the demand we have for The Open Championship,\u201d Darbon said. \u201cIt\u2019s an event that\u2019s clearly resonating with people all around the world, including those that want to attend and watch this wonderful championship live.\u201d<\/p>\n

But is The Open getting too big?<\/p>\n

While rota stops such as Birkdale, St. Andrews and last year\u2019s Royal Portrush have succeeded in accommodating the sheer mass of a modern Open, it hasn\u2019t been without significant effort.<\/p>\n

Led by the R&A\u2019s preferred design firm, Mackenzie and Ebert, which consults at nine of the 10 Open regular venues, Birkdale underwent widespread changes for this year\u2019s championship, including the addition of a completely new hole, the par-3 15th, and the removal of the old par-3 14th, where Jordan Spieth hit what he calls the greatest shot of his career during the final round of his 2017 triumph. A new members\u2019 short-game area now occupies the space of the old 14th, though that and the adjacent range comprise this week\u2019s fan village.<\/p>\n

M&E\u2019s recent work at St. Andrews includes shifting the 12th tee slightly to \u201chelp ease championship spectator movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Portrush\u2019s return to the rota in 2019, the 17th and 18th holes of the Dunluce Course were removed by M&E to accommodate a tented spectator village. As M&E said in its release on the completed project, \u201cThe goal was to increase the quality of the links for regular member and visitor play as well as to provide courses which would make it feasible for the club to host The Open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surely, most architectural changes these days are done in the face of distance, but Darbon was still asked Wednesday about the growing perception that century-old Open rota venues need to architecturally change to accommodate the fan experience.<\/p>\n

Birkdale\u2019s new look, in particular, hasn\u2019t been universally well received. Lee Westwood told The Telegraph, \u201cWhy mess with a Picasso?\u201d Scottie Scheffler said, \u201cIt\u2019s so obvious as to which holes had been redone. They look like they\u2019re not even on the same golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what I would say, first and foremost, is that these are all members\u2019 clubs, so a lot of the decision-making is driven by the members themselves,\u201d Darbon said. \u201cI think where we are this week is a brilliant example of that; the changes to the golf course have been driven by the members. Given the strength of partnership that we have with our host venues, of course we\u2019re part of some of those discussions, and where there are things that we can do together that also help us operationally, they often make sense to do to help with the staging of the championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think it would be wrong to say that all of the changes are driven by a need to accommodate spectators. They\u2019re ultimately decisions for the clubs and their members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darbon added that \u201cat no stage\u201d would the R&A threaten a non-return to a venue because a club refused to change its course a certain way. Yet, as \u201cgreat dialogue\u201d continues with Muirfield for another year, Darbon did note that the Scottish gem \u201crequires a few tweaks, both around the golf course and across the site more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muirfield, which hasn\u2019t hosted since 2013 and has since rectified controversial membership policies, just hosted the Women\u2019s Amateur, a much smaller scaled event. Darbon revealed last year that \u201clogistical challenges\u201d included road, rail and accommodation infrastructure, plus issues with the size of the practice range, but the Scotsman reported Wednesday that there is also a hang-up regarding the R&A\u2019s suggestion to move Muirfield\u2019s fifth green to alleviate a \u201cspectator pinch point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to return an Open Championship to that venue in the future,\u201d said Darbon, who added that the R&A is \u201cgetting pretty close\u201d to staging an Open at Portmarnock.<\/p>\n

The R&A has not announced its Open venues past Royal Lytham and St. Annes in 2028, but the Dublin club, which has approved its own extensive renovation in hopes of securing an Open, has long been thought of should the Open venture into Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated venue because of the scale of The Open Championship,\u201d Darbon said. \u201cSo, there\u2019s been a lot of great feasibility work with the golf club themselves, with the local authority, with government. We\u2019ve undertaken a big feasibility study. That work is pretty much done. We\u2019ve confirmed that we believe we can take an Open Championship there. What we\u2019re looking to do is build a model that opens up opportunities for the AIG Women\u2019s Open and The Open for many, many years to come. So that\u2019s the dialogue we\u2019re in right now with the Irish government, and we\u2019re optimistic that those discussions are heading in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime frame \u2013 look, in the spirit of transparency, it\u2019s taken a bit longer than I think I and we thought it may, but it\u2019s complicated doing all of that feasibility work. We\u2019re hoping to have a pretty clear view by the end of the year for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, records will continue to be broken \u2013 until 2028, of course.<\/p>\n

Lytham, which hasn\u2019t hosted since 2012, is one of the smaller Open footprints, which Darbon used as the example that size isn\u2019t the only thing that matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re able to facilitate spectator volumes onsite, we\u2019ll always consider that, but it\u2019s not the primary driver for us,\u201d Darbon said. \u201c\u2026 There\u2019s absolutely no way we\u2019ll be near the volume of spectators at Lytham that we have here this week. So 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not taking venues off the rotation because they\u2019re smaller than others, but there\u2019s a balance to be struck, too, and we think we\u2019re getting that right.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at tee times and groupings for the opening round of the 154th Open Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 300,000 spectators are expected to enter the gates this week at Royal Birkdale, eclipsing the 290,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-766555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}