Feasibility Study Will Shape Turnberry's Open Future

A feasibility study is nether measurement to found whether Donald Trump's Turnberry play people tin again big nan Open Championship, caller R&A main executive Mark Darbon has revealed.

He insisted nan main rumor is not who owns nan course, successful this lawsuit nan president of nan United States, but whether nan Ayrshire venue and municipality is equipped to header pinch nan numbers attracted to specified a world-class tournament.

The Open was held astatine Turnberry's iconic Ailsa Course for nan 4th and last clip successful 2009 and Darbon pointed retired that his governing assemblage is "blessed to person specified a awesome excavation of venues that tin shape nan Open Championship".

"At Turnberry, location are decidedly immoderate logistical and commercialized challenges that we look astir nan road, obstruction and accommodation infrastructure," he said.

"We're doing immoderate feasibility activity astir what it would look for illustration to return to that venue and nan finance that it would require."

Darbon was quizzed astir Turnberry astatine nan charismatic motorboat of this year's Open, which will return to Royal Portrush successful July for nan first clip since 2019 and will beryllium nan biggest sporting arena ever staged successful Northern Ireland.

"The past clip we were there, I deliberation we had conscionable complete 120,000 people," he said. "We've conscionable announced that this summertime we're going to invited astir 280,000 group here."

This year's Open is already a sellout, pinch 278,000 tickets sold and Darbon revealed that location will beryllium immoderate changes from nan layout from six years agone and to header pinch nan 40,000 summation successful attendance from their past visit.

Turnberry, meanwhile, has been fixed £200m of improvements since being bought by Trump successful 2014.

"A modern Open Championship is simply a large-scale event," Darbon added. "What we cognize for judge is nan play people is brilliant, truthful astatine immoderate constituent we'd emotion to beryllium backmost there.

"We consistently activity pinch our venues and their owners and operators to talk astir what an Open Championship demands and really we activity pinch them to bring that to life."