Crowd figures not a worry for officials

TOURNAMENT officials have played down fears crowd numbers at this week’s Open Championship could be significantly lower than usual. A combination of the recession and the difficulty of travelling to, and securing accommodation near Turnberry had led to predictions that the attendance would be badly hit.

But David Hill, director of championships for the R&A, said yesterday: “Contrary to what you might be thinking, the numbers look as though they will be up on Turnberry in 1994.

“We’ve had a huge number of last-minute requests through the internet and it’s looking very good. We had 114,000 people here in 1994 and, given fair weather and a good leaderboard, I think we’ll be well over 120,000 at the end of the week, which is pretty good given the current economic climate.