Major setback for Portrush

Royal Portrush’s hopes of staging an Open Championship in the near future have received a massive setback in the wake of comments by R&A chief executive Peter Dawson yesterday.

The bubble of optimism that had been growing for the return of major championship golf to the revered Antrim links for the first time since the 1951 Open did not receive a fatal puncture yesterday during an R&A press conference at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

Yet in spite of the record-breaking crowds of more than 110,000 that contributed to the success of this year’s Irish Open around the Dunluce Links course three weeks ago, Dawson’s words on the eve of the 2012 Open suggested the chances of the R&A’s flagship championship returning to Irish shores were contingent on Royal Portrush finding solutions to his organisation’s logistical concerns and the considerable resources to implement them.

“It’s a favourite of mine, a wonderful golf course, a wonderful challenge, and it’s great to see how successful the Irish Open was and particularly the enthusiasm from the spectators in that part of the world,” Dawson began before delivering a detailed analysis of Portrush’s problems.

“Compare it with what we’re doing here, we’re talking 20,000 grandstand seats here, I doubt they had 2,000 at the Irish Open.

“You’re talking about a tented village here I would estimate 10 or more times the size it was at the Irish Open. And the crowd size at the Irish Open, whilst it was very good, was only as good as perhaps the lowest crowd we expect at an Open venue, i.e. Turnberry.

“Where would you have the 72nd hole? Where would you put the big grandstand complex? The practice ground would need a lot of work at Portrush, in my own estimation. And as I say, we don’t have a finishing hole that would have the grandstands around it. So we’re not really there and there would be much work to do for an Open to go to Portrush. We have been there before. It’s always been, to an extent, on our radar. And our Championship Committee will continue to evaluate it. But don’t expect anything imminent, that’s for sure.”

Nor would Dawson reveal even a time scale for the evaluation but instead added: “A great deal and a huge amount of money would need to be spent to make Royal Portrush a sensible choice. That’s not a criticism of Portrush; it’s a wonderful golf course. But the commercial aspects of it are quite onerous. And obviously The R&A would need to be sorting those things out as well as just simply the logistics of the affair. It’s going to take some time to come to a view, and the view may be no. We’ll just have to wait and see. I can’t give you a time scale.”

Asked if his response put the onus back on to Royal Portrush to find the solutions to problems which included, he said, drainage, facilities for tented villages, electrical and fibre-optic cabling, Dawson replied: “We always work closely with Open venues in partnership rather than one side pushing against another. And obviously in Northern Ireland it would be a tripartite thing with the R&A, the club and possibly the government and local authorities if they really want it to happen. But it’s a very big and very involved subject.”

Most telling, though, was Dawson’s addendum to his response: “We don’t feel short of Open venues now, let me say. We’re not rushing to look for more; we don’t feel that pressure.”

Portrush’s Graeme McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion who did so much to bring the Irish Open back to his hometown and the links on which he learned the game as a junior member of the Rathmore club, said he remained optimistic that the right decision would be made on Royal Portrush’s bid for The Open.

“We know the shortcomings of Royal Portrush so I sort of expected Peter’s answer but they are minimal,” McDowell said having read Dawson’s comments.

“I always keep saying to the guys that we are going to Merion next year for the US Open, and that’s going to be basically an all-seater tournament.

“There is not going to be much room around the golf course, so there are ways around it.

“So if they want to go back to Royal Portrush badly enough, they will go back there. There is a lot of factors involved and I have a huge amount of respect for Peter Dawson... I know he will make the correct decision.”