R&A chief provides fresh hope that The Open could one day return to Trump Turnberry
Top brass at the R&A have softened their stance with regards to Trump Turnberry hosting a future Open Championship.
Chief executive Mark Darbon confirmed they would 'love to return at some stage' to the famous Ailsa course.
However, Darbon measured his comments by highlighting the 'challenges' that would need to be overcome in terms of staging the Open at Turnberry, given its size, the area of the site and access to and from the venue.
His comments are, however, in stark contrast to the ones made by his predecessor, Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, back in 2021.
He previously stated: 'We have no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future.
'We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.'
At the time the statement was viewed as criticism of billionaire owner Donald Trump, who has owned Turnberry since 2014.
However, speaking at the promotional launch of this year's Open, to be staged at Royal Portrush in July, Mr Darbon, appointed to the chief executive role of the R&A last year, his response was much more favourable.
When asked if the US President's involvement with Turnberry was an obstacle to The Open returning, he said: 'I think the key issue for us at the moment is these logistical and commercial challenges. We're trying to explore ways to get around those and to mitigate for the future.
'Of course, when it comes to a championship like this, we also want the focus to be on the golf. So that's a factor, too.'
Darbon also pointed out that history will be made at The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush - after it was revealed that 278,000 fans will gather at the Dunluce links from 13-20 July for the largest Championship held outside of St Andrews.
And with those numbers in mind, Darbon believes that infrastructure will be a key consideration if the Open ever did return to the Ayrshire venue.
He said: 'Turnberry's a wonderful golf course and I think some of the recent improvements there have made it even better.
'It's a course that we'd love to return to at some point and I think when we look at our portfolio of venues, of which we're very proud, there are three or four things that inform our choices and where we go.
'We need brilliant courses that challenge the world's best golfers.
'Given the scale of a modern Open, we have to be really thoughtful about some of the logistical and commercial challenges and opportunities that come with staging an event like this.
'And we want to continue to tell wonderful stories about our championship and we have no doubt when it comes to Turnberry about the first and third of those factors, a brilliant golf course and a wonderful place to tell stories about our game.
'Where we have some challenges is around the logistical and commercial challenges. I think the last time we were there in 2009, we had just over 120,000 people. We just said we're going to have close to 280,000 here (at Portrush) this summer.
'That's really important for us because not only do we want to showcase this wonderful championship to as many people as possible, but it's important for us in terms of our commercial model because everything that we generate from the Open, we then reinvest back into the game all around the world.
'So we've got a few challenges at Turnberry. The road, rail and accommodation infrastructure presents some challenges if we wish to scale our operation there.
'But we've got a good dialogue with the ownership group and we'll continue to look at feasibility as we move forward. We'd love to return at some stage.'
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