R&A “fully supportive” of Portmarnock Golf Club’s bid to take The Open to Ireland
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Martin Slumbers says the R&A is backing Portmarnock Golf Club’s attempts to host The Open Championship at the famous Dublin course.
Speaking during his annual press conference at The 152nd Open at Royal Troon, the Royal and Ancient’s outgoing chief executive revealed that the Irish course has asked the Government for support in putting together a business case to take the famous Major to the southern half of the Emerald Isle.
“We are fully supportive of the club doing that, and we are actively engaged in making those assessments.”
The British Open rota currently sees it move between courses in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and will be heading back across the Irish Sea to Royal Portrush for the second time in six years in 2025. Shane Lowry lifted the trophy when the Championship was played across the Dunluce course in 2019 – the first time it had been played in Portrush since 1951.
“There’s an evaluation that has to be done by the government because we recognize we can’t do this by ourselves. It will be a matter for themselves with input from the R&A,” Niall Goulding, Portmarnock Golf Club Captain, said last year.
“If that goes well, we’ll get on to the next stage, but as things stand at the moment, we have nothing further to add except this is an investigation process. But it also declares that we are interested in it and it also clearly means that the R&A are interested as well.
“The R&A would highlight that there are significant infrastructural requirements needed. Everybody recognises that Portmarnock village is a busy place.
“In hosting these big championships there’s a lot of work to be done to consider how this works. That would be a concern for ourselves and that will be part of their evaluation process.
“It would be very much the R&A’s call as to what the next steps are but there is an evaluation process and we have no control over that. We have no certainty in terms of the outcome.”
Portmarnock, one of the best golf courses in Britain and Ireland, is bidding to host both The Open and the AIG Women’s Open, but Mr Slumbers couldn’t say when the County Dublin venue would be added to the rota for either.
“No decisions have been made because we don’t even know if it’s possible,” he added.
Realistically, the earliest opportunities would be 2028 for the women’s event, and 2030 for the men’s.
Not to be confused with nearby Jameson Links and the Portmarnock Resort, Portmarnock Golf Club sits 10 miles north of Dublin and sits on a narrow tongue of shallow duneland. It’s one of the most respected golf venues in the world and has played host to all of the big names in golf while hosting the Canada Cup, Walker Cup, and 19 Irish Opens.
One venue that definitely will host The Open again is Muirfield. The Championship hasn’t been played at the Gullane venue since 2013, when Phil Mickelson lifted the trophy. Questions had been raised over the logistics with The Scottish Open being played at nearby Renaissance Club the previous week, but Mr Slumbers had a simple solution.
“Absolutely, we’re going back to Muirfield. It’s a brilliant golf course. I’ll have a little conversation with Mr. (Guy) Kinnings (DP World Tour CEO) about maybe moving the Scottish Open from the Renaissance.”
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Outgoing R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers has backed Portmarnock's bid to host The Open.
