Portrush to welcome record-breaking crowd for Open outside of St Andrews

This week’s 148th Open at Royal Portrush is officially the most attended Championship staged outside St Andrews with the R&A announcing on Wednesday that there will be a record-breaking crowd of 237,750 for the tournament starting on Thursday.

The R&A’s decision to bring The Open back to Northern Ireland and Royal Portrush for the first time since 1951 has been vindicated by the record sales, which surpasses the 235,000 who attended Royal Birkdale in 2017 and makes this year’s event the second largest Open ever, 239,000 having attended the 2000 tournament at St Andrews.