It's Official - Royal Portrush to Host British Open

The Royal & Ancient confirmed rumors that Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland will host the organization's flagship event, the Open Championship. The fabled seaside links in County Antrim will hold the year's third major at a future date, but during its Monday press conference the R&A didn't identify the year.

R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said at Monday's announcement, "I suppose this is just about the world's worst-kept secret, but on behalf of the R&A, I am absolutely delighted to confirm that we have invited Royal Portrush Golf Club to again become a host venue for the Open Championship."

The first available date is 2019, but Dawson was noncommittal on whether it'll take place that year or soon after. Dawson said it could be ''a year or two longer than that.''

The only time the British Open has been held in Northern Ireland was 1951. Max Faulkner won the claret jug that year on the famed links bordering the North Antrim coast.

''It has been more than 60 years since the Open was played here, and it's been too long,'' Dawson added. ''And we're very excited to be coming back.''

Before the R&A signs off on a final agreement, it would like to see some changes made to the Dunluce course, one of two regulation-length 18s at Portrush. The other is Valley.

To bring the course up to modern standards, the R&A has recommended using the golf architecture firm of Mackenzie & Ebert to create new 17th and 18th holes. Royal Portrush club members would have to agree to the proposal, though that is likely a formality.

''That perhaps reflects the time gap,'' Dawson said of the course alterations. ''It's over 60 years since the championship has been here. The requirements of a modern championship are very different from what they were then. But it's something that's manageable.''

Royal Portrush has been promoted as a legitimate British Open candidate by some of golf's biggest names, all Northern Irishmen. Ulstermen Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke - each a major champion - have been lobbying for the course the past several years.

The announcement was made on the first day of the British Amateur, which is being held at Royal Portrush and nearby Portstewart. In attendance were Dawson and various dignitaries from the club and the Northern Ireland government. Here's a transcript of the press conference.

MALCOLM BOOTH: Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and welcome to Royal Portrush Golf Club. My name is Malcolm Booth. I'm the director of communications for the R&A, and good morning and good afternoon, also, to those dialing in from the United States, from the United Kingdom and from around Europe. Before we open up to questions today, we're going to hear some prepared statements from the top table, and first, from the chairman of the R&A championship committee, Peter Unsworth. Peter?

PETER UNSWORTH: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Royal Portrush Golf Club, where we are very proud to be hosting the 119th Amateur Championship this week. My name is Peter Unsworth, and I am chairman of the championship committee of the R&A. Firstly, I would like to welcome the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson; the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, and the Enterprise Trade and Investment Minister, Arlene Foster. I'm also delighted to be joined by Simon Rankin, the captain of Royal Portrush Golf Club, and Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R&A. Thank you for joining us here today as we make this historic announcement for the Open Championship and golf in Northern Ireland, for which I will turn the floor over to Peter Dawson.

PETER DAWSON: Thank you, Peter. First Minister, Deputy First Minister, Minister Foster, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, I suppose this is just about the world's worst kept secret, but on behalf of the R&A, I am absolutely delighted to confirm that we have invited Royal Portrush Golf Club to again become a host venue for the Open Championship. We couldn't be more excited about bringing the Open back here to one of the world's truly great links courses, and we have every confidence that Royal Portrush will prove to be an excellent venue in absolutely every way.

Golf enjoys passionate support in Northern Ireland, and indeed throughout Ireland, and we expect there will be huge interest in the championship from the many thousands of golf fans here. I'd like to thank Royal Portrush Golf Club for its willingness to host the Open. There's a rich golfing heritage here with the club having famously hosted the Open in 1951, when Englishman Max Faulkner lifted the Claret Jug, and since then he has played host to the Irish Open just two years ago and the Senior Open on six occasions. Royal Portrush is also hosting the Amateur Championship for the third time this week.

I would also like to pay a very special tribute to the Northern Ireland Executive for its support and its great enthusiasm for bringing this major sporting event to Northern Ireland. On each occasion it is played here, the Open will generate an estimated £70 million for the Northern Ireland economy, and it will certainly give the game here and the whole region huge exposure, as television images are beamed around the world.

Much work lies ahead to prepare for the Open's return. There are planned course enhancements and infrastructure development which will require ratification by the club's members and by the planning authorities, and so we will not be able to announce a date for the first event until these permissions are in place.

2019 is the earliest it can be, but it may be that we have to wait a year or two longer than that. This is a wonderful golf course which will challenge the world's top golfers. It's been more than 60 years since the Open was played here, and it's been too long, and we're very, very excited about coming back. I would now like to ask Simon Rankin, captain of Royal Portrush Golf Club, and then the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister to say a few words. Thank you.

SIMON RANKIN: First Minister, Deputy First Minister, Minister Foster, ladies and gentlemen, as the captain of Royal Portrush Golf Club, it gives me great pleasure to welcome this event to the club today. Small groups of very devoted people in each of the organizations represented have worked extremely hard to allow this day to come about. That day has now arrived, and it is my great honor as captain to be able to thank the R&A for this formal invitation to return to the Open rota and host the Open Championship.

I would also thank the Northern Ireland Executive for their understanding, belief and support of what we hope will be the largest sporting event ever to be held in Northern Ireland.

The members of Royal Portrush fully realize the magnificence of this golf course and its precious place in the golfing world. It is considered to be a natural masterpiece. The Open Championship was played here in 1951, and we have rested on those laurels for too long. The successful staging of the Irish Open here showed us how we could begin to cope with the staging of a large event, but also showed us in the most dramatic fashion the incredible enthusiasm amongst the Irish golfing population to witness the highest level of championship golf on this links.

At Royal Portrush, we recognized many years before this the need to maintain our position on the upper levels of world golf venues. We began the active process of seeking to once again host major amateur and professional golfing events. This was well before our great local golfers began their amazing rise to glory in winning major championships and Northern Ireland became known as the home of major golf champions.

Graeme McDowell, who won the U.S. Open, picked up many junior trophies not so very long ago in this very room. Rory McIlroy owns his outstanding course record here as a 15 year old. Darren Clarke won the greatest of them all, the Open Championship, and brought the Claret Jug back to this club in 2011.

We have played each shot of their major triumphs with them, and they in turn have been vocal in their praise of Portrush and their wish that the Open should, if at all possible, return to this venue.

Through these times there has been an ever increasing tide of goodwill towards this place and a want to see it reestablished in championship golf. I would now have to say publicly that the R&A have worked tirelessly over the last number of years to achieve this. One of the reasons it has taken so long has been working out how appropriate and sympathetic course changes can be made that will allow major championship golf to return. The Council of Royal Portrush believe this is now possible, and we will now take these plans to the members who are the caretakers of this course, and we will work with the R&A and their architect Martin Ebert to manage this in the most respectful way.

This is a truly great day for world golf. We have wished this for many years, and now we are being given the chance to bring this wonderful course back to the Open rota and show it to the world.

For generations to come, this will bring huge benefits both in golfing and economic terms to this beautiful North Coast, to Northern Ireland, and to Ireland and to tourism in Ireland as a whole. Royal Portrush Golf Club is honored to accept the invitation of the R&A to join the Open rota. We look forward to the preparation ahead, and we are delighted to bring this event back to Royal Portrush Golf Club, the North Coast, and Northern Ireland. Thank you.

PETER ROBINSON: Thank you very much indeed. Good afternoon, everyone. It's a huge pleasure to be here and to welcome our friends from the R&A. The R&A as you know is based at St. Andrews, so in many ways this is a second St. Andrews agreement for Northern Ireland. I believe this is going to be absolutely fantastic for Northern Ireland.

We managed to get very considerable momentum following the European Tour visit to Royal Portrush here, and there was certainly a growing hope within the community that we would be successful in bringing what as Simon indicated was the greatest tournament in golf here to Northern Ireland and to Royal Portrush. We're delighted that that has been possible. It is fantastic in golfing terms. I think we do need to pay tribute to our golfing superstars, who very much put Northern Ireland on the golfing map.

The job that Martin and I have to do, because we come from a very troubled past here in Northern Ireland, there's reputational damage because of our past. We want people to think of Northern Ireland and immediately then think of golf. Those are the positives from a Northern Ireland point of view. The potential it has for our tourist industry, the Northern Ireland tourist board chief is walking around here with a smile on his face like a cheshire cat because of the potential that it provides, not just for the immediate span, but you've got almost 100 million people that will be watching by the time we have this tournament on television, and they'll see the absolutely spectacular views that you have around the course, and we booked this weather for the tournament. It's a fantastic tournament for us, so my thanks go to the R&A for taking this decision, whenever it happens to be, and of course to the people who have the foresight at Royal Portrush to see the real potential, not just for Northern Ireland as a whole but quite particularly for the club here.

I've played this course. I wouldn't like to tell anybody how many over par I went round the course, but it's a challenging course, and it'll be challenging for the world's best golfers, as well. I really do look forward to the occasion when the Open does come here.

Again, thanks to my colleague Arlene and to the tourist board for the work that they have done in terms of the negotiations. All of us will pitch in when it comes to the preparations. The one thing that we have proved in Northern Ireland is that we can handle big events. We did it with the G8, which turned out to be the most peaceful G8 that they'd ever had. We did it for the World Peace and Fire Games, which turned out to be the friendliest that they'd ever had. We did it for the Giro d'Italia Grande Partenza, which the organizers claimed to be the best that they'd ever had, and if we can get the most peaceful, the best, and indeed I would have hoped in terms of The Open one of the real festivals of sport throughout the world for Royal Portrush, whenever it comes here, I think we'll all regard that as being a considerable achievement and of benefit to Northern Ireland. So thank you very much indeed.

MALCOLM BOOTH: Thank you, First Minister. Deputy First Minister?

MARTIN McGUINNESS: Well, like Peter, I'm absolutely delighted to be here for this very important announcement. Wonderful to be here with Arlene, with Peter, Peter and Peter. (Laughter.) My confirmation name is Peter, so we have a lot of Peters at the podium. For Peter on the right there, unfortunately today I'm deaf in both ears due to a sinus infection which I've been battling over the last week, but I wouldn't have missed this occasion for anything. This is an out of this world announcement for us.

There is no bigger golf tournament anywhere else on the planet, and it is a great honor that the R&A have bestowed upon all of us, and it is also, I think, a tremendous vote of confidence, coming after the successes that Peter spoke about, the World Peace and Fire Games, the G8, the Giro d'Italia, and of course the weather at the G8 was fantastic and the weather today is fantastic, and we can guarantee everybody that no matter what the weather is like, whatever the date that is selected, the crowds that will turn out here will be far and away beyond the crowds that came here in 2012 for the Irish Open.

The fact that the Irish Open is going to happen in 2015 and 2017, that this is going to follow on all of that sends a very powerful message about how important golf is on the island of Ireland, how golfers like Graeme and Rory and Darren and Padraig Harrington have and the successes that they have had winning majors further put us on the world map.

Apart from all of that, what it will do for our tourist potential is going to go through the roof, not just for Portrush or for this county, but for the whole of the north, including, of course, County Donegal, Sligo, and this is going to be good for the whole entirety of Ireland, and of course it will be beamed right across the world. People will be watching it in the hundreds of millions, and I think that's a tremendous success story for all of us.

So we are very, very excited. I know that Simon and everybody here won't be able to see 2019 or 2020 come quick enough, but when it comes, we'll be ready. Whatever has to be done will be done. The investment we will make in this will be returned seven, eight, nine, 10 times fold, and I think that all of us can look forward to very, very exciting times ahead. Again, thanks to the R&A, to all of those here at Royal Portrush. Our golfers, our own ability to host these majors events to make them possible. It's something to be really, really proud of. It truly is an out of this world announcement. Thank you.

MALCOLM BOOTH: Thank you, Deputy First Minister. We'll now open up to questions from the floor and from the telephones.

Q. For Peter, Peter or Peter really, what was the key to this happening, and can you go into detail on the permissions and licenses that have to be put in play?

PETER DAWSON: Well, this has been going on for quite some time. We've been asked many times and gone along what's happening at Portrush, what's happening at Portrush, and we haven't been able to give positive answers because there have been so many balls in the air, if you like, about it. First of all, looking at the golf course, which is a wonderful, wonderful links course, but of course it's a long time since 1951, and the game has moved on, and like all of the other Open venues, we've had to look at the course to ensure that it provides the sort of test that an Open Championship should provide, and the course can certainly do that with some alterations, both not just from a playing point of view but also the whole infrastructure surrounding an Open Championship takes up a lot of ground, and having been able to site that.

The fact that the 18th green here is difficult from a grandstand point of view, and all of these things are in the mix. So getting all that right in design, and we've been very much helped by Martin Ebert of MacKenzie and Ebert in this, golf course architects, and also the infrastructure required in terms of television compounds, contractors' compounds, road systems and so on. It's a lot of work to eventually get to the point where you feel you can make an announcement, you feel the club subject to its members' approval likes the idea of the whole thing, and that the support we're receiving from the Northern Ireland Executive all had to come together, and just like any other Open venue, we have to have the members of the club be happy with what's going on and the local planning authorities happy with what's going on. So all of these things have had to come together, and it's taken some time. It has been leaked to a degree as we've been going along. We realize that, but it's just delightful to be able to confirm what everyone has hoped for today.

Q. Peter, Hoylake was brought back to the rota, back again this year, but how does this venue compare with Hoylake in terms of reintroduction of a structure in terms of an Open? I know the Irish Open was here two years ago, but it will require large amounts of infrastructure change.

PETER DAWSON: I think the answer to that is it's quite similar, slightly more here I would say just because of the layout, but we had a lot to do at Hoylake for the first time, and we've done a lot more for the second event that's coming back this year. But no Open venue is immune to the march of time, the spectator requirements, the contractors, the television. They all move on and they all have to keep up, so this isn't any different from that except it hasn't had an Open for a long time.

Q. Peter, there's been much joking from the significant Irish golfing folks badgering you to get the Open back. How effective was their intervention in this announcement?

PETER DAWSON: Well, I don't think their badgering had any great influence, although we had the craic, as they say, several times about it. I think their performances on the golf course and the return or the staging of the Irish Open here was something of an eye opener in terms of just the strength of the fan base for golf in Northern Ireland and in Ireland altogether. And I think that certainly was part of it as well as the wonderful golf course here and the great support and welcome that we've been receiving from the Northern Ireland Executive and indeed the club. So it's a lot of things coming together.

Q. You've already told us of your estimates for the amount of money that this may generate whenever it returns to Portrush. Would it be possible to give us an idea how much is being invested by the R&A, by the local club, and particularly by the Executive, to bring us here today?

PETER DAWSON: Well, our estimates of what we will be investing run, without wanting to go into huge detail, but we will be spending several million pounds in bringing the golf course and the infrastructure up to where we need it for the Open, and we're delighted to do so.

PETER ROBINSON: From the Executive's point of view, obviously the R&A have partners, so the agreement signed with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the R&A's commercial in competence, sufficient to say it is millions, but we expect to get a return something tenfold perhaps.

Q. Mr. Dawson, I was wondering when you were in your deliberations to bring the Open back here, was the political situation here and also the potential for disorder in some parts of Northern Ireland during July, was that a factor that you had to weigh up?

PETER DAWSON: Well, as the First Minister said, the history here has caused some reputational damage over time. I think everyone knows that. But we are very happy that that's in the past. Like every other Open venue, we've worked closely with the police. We take strong advice on security matters and behave accordingly, and it's obviously a prime motivation for us to make sure that the championship is conducted safely for everyone concerned, and we'll be continuing to work with the police here as we do everywhere else to that end. Other than that, I have nothing to say about it. If we thought that there was a security problem here, we wouldn't be making this announcement.

Q. Peter, I was hoping to ask you if you could perhaps give us a flavor of how extensive these proposed course changes are going to be. I know you've touched on the 18th green having a particular issue with getting the grandstand going, but are you going to have to perhaps build a new 18th green? Just an idea of what you're proposing.

PETER DAWSON: I think we'll be making more detailed announcements about the course changes that are proposed here once the club members have had the opportunity to study them, look at them, and I very much hope support them, and it would be premature for me to say anything more than that. I think in terms of the spend, it will be significant, but of course we've spent significant sums at other Open venues, as well, to keep them up with the standard of play of the modern era, and that's what we'll be doing here. But I'd rather let the members have a look at these things in detail before we go into that too much in public.

Q. Peter, great news today about Royal Portrush, but does this indicate that you may be looking to extend the Open rota still further, looking at other courses to join that rota?

PETER DAWSON: You're not from South Wales, are you?

Q. Well, possibly you could say so, Peter. Not far away, of course, that we'll host a major of sorts this summer.

PETER DAWSON: Yes, we'll be there the week after the Open for the Senior Open Championship. He's referring to Royal Porthcawl if you didn't know. We have been looking at Royal Porthcawl at the club's request. I think that's well known, and we're going to be very interested to see how the Senior Open is conducted there this year, but any talk of any other venues being added to the list is certainly premature and at a very, very early stage, if at all. We're very happy with the list of venues we have, but we're always open to looking at others, as we've proved from time to time, not least today. But nothing to announce about Porthcawl at present.

Q. Peter, even though the elements or obstacles are different, I wonder if you could compare the task ahead for Portrush to returning to Turnberry since '94 and returning to Hoylake for the first time in nearly 40 years.

PETER DAWSON: I think in terms of the amount of physical work that has to be done, it is a bit more here. I think that perhaps reflects the time gap, over 60 years since the championship was last here. This is a fantastic links course, but the requirements of a modern championship are very different now to what they were then. I think we are going to have to see a little bit more done here, but something that's very manageable, and we have detailed plans. But to answer your question directly, it is a little more.

Q. Peter and Martin, could I just ask you to address the whole issue of money? I know you won't tell us how much you're investing, but what do you say to the non golf fan out there, what's going to be in it for them? And Peter Dawson, this has been quite a journey. Was there a tipping point? What was the moment where you thought, yes, we can do it, we can bring it back to Royal Portrush after all these years?

PETER ROBINSON: Well, first of all, I'm not sure what the collective term is for Peters is, but as long as we don't "peter" out before the press conference is over. I think that there are a number of features obviously which benefit Northern Ireland, obviously in financial terms we will get many times the return into our economy, and the wider sphere, having 80 to 100 million people on television over a prolonged period of time looking at Royal Portrush and the surrounding scenery, you couldn't buy that in Northern Ireland tourist terms, so it's fantastic from that point of view.

But we are a society that's being transformed. This provides people with the knowledge of this is what peace and stability looks like. From an executive point of view, this just wouldn't have happened. These men wouldn't have dreamed of coming here 20 years ago. This shows the new Northern Ireland, a confident Northern Ireland and a new era, and this I think provides people with the hope of what normality looks like. From that point of view, it is beneficial, as well.

As someone who has been known to swing a club from time to time, look at the opportunity it is for the wide base of golf fans that there are in Northern Ireland. The European Tour had its largest ever attendance when it came to Royal Portrush. The opportunity is there for us, for those of us who are not only spectators is immense, but look at the young guys that are out on the course today, the amateurs. By the time this comes around, many of them could be featuring on the players' list, as well. It's an opportunity for people in Northern Ireland who are dedicated to golf to be able to, in their own home course, be able to show what they are capable of. There are so many fronts where it is beneficial to us.

MARTIN McGUINNESS: Well, I'm not a golfer, I'm a fly fisherman, but I take great pride in the fact that the Open is going to come to Royal Portrush, and I think I'll be joined by the overwhelming majority of people who will also take great pride. It's such a prestigious event, a world event will take place here on our very doorstep. Just last year in our own city, less than an hour from here, we had an event which attracted something like 430,000 people, and there wasn't one incident during the course of it. And I think that the changes that have happened, the political and security transformation of recent years, has certainly sent a very powerful message to the world and to the R&A about our ability to handle these sorts of amazing occasions.

So I have no doubt whatsoever that the investment that we put into this will be supported by the people and that the return will be, as Peter has said, tenfold, and going way into the distance. I'm delighted to be able to say that this event is happening here, and I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the vast overwhelming majority of the people in not just the north of Ireland but the whole of Ireland will take great pride. I've heard from some friends in the south in recent days in the aftermath of the leaked report, and they were saying things like if you think that the Ireland Open was big with 130,000 people turning up, this is going to be astronomical, and I think that's right, because the people here on the island of Ireland love their sport. They love golf. But of course even those who aren't golfers are going to come to see the world names: Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, and of course our own golfers, to see if in the year one of them could actually pull it off.

PETER ROBINSON: Maybe because the BBC made the announcement, they would like to contribute, as well.

ARLENE FOSTER: I think that's a very fair point. In fact, I've allocated them some funding.

PETER DAWSON: They used to have the contract for the Open, as well.

Q. Peter, that second question, the tipping point, if there was one factor when you thought this was going to happen, what was it?

PETER DAWSON: Before I answer that, you mentioned non golfers a minute ago. One of the things that we're hoping the Open Championship will achieve by coming here is to convert some of these non golfers into golfers. There's good evidence to show that that has worked in other areas of the United Kingdom, and we very much hope that that will happen here. The tipping point question I think was two things for me, and this is just a personal view. One was the success of the Irish Open and the evident strength of the fan base for golf in Ireland. And secondly, it was the day with Martin Ebert, the architect here, that we finally thought this is how we can do this, and I think those were the two tipping points for me, both from a golf perspective and an event perspective.

MALCOLM BOOTH: First Minister, Deputy First Minister, Minister Foster, captain, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for joining us, and we look forward to a great event when the Open comes here in a few years' time. Thank you.

The transcript for the above interview is courtesy of ASAP Sports.

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