A CAN OF WORMS
R&A: Brexit chaos has turned Portrush return into nightmare
The Open would not be making its muchanticipated return to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland this July if the R&A had been able to foresee the logistical chaos caused by the uncertainty over Brexit.
That was the startling admission made by chief executive Martin Slumbers yesterday, as he outlined the nightmare caused by the political impasse in tones that laid bare the scale of his exasperation.
Portrush was selected for its first Open since 1951 long before the referendum in 2016, let alone all the shenanigans that have followed.
‘The future of the border er is our No 1 concern and d it is a significant one,’ said Slumbers. ‘We’ve got 2,000 containers to get across the Irish Sea, and we start building the infrastructure on n April 2. What do we do? o? Reschedule to bring all our containers through Dublin? ublin? Move them through Belfast? Or do we get them out now?
‘We’ve had engagement with ministers and Parliament, but who can provide us with any certainty? As a management team we have spent a lot of time looking at contingencies and what we need to do.
‘It’s one of a series of things that every businessman is sitting there worried about at the moment.
‘In hindsight, would we be wanting to do Portrush in the year that we are potentially leaving the european Union without a deal? No. I’m a great believer that it’s all about certainty and I just need to know what the rules are.
‘ Someone asked me recently whether I was looking forward to Portrush and, well, actually I will be quite pleased when it’s all over.’
The only certainty Slumbers was able to offer was the first all-ticket Open in history — which sold out in minutes — will go on regardless. While the glossg might have been taken awaya for him, he vowed to mmake the best of the trytrying circumstances. ‘For insiders it has been a lot harder than a normal Open but we’re determined that everyone else will not be able toS to notice,’ he said. Slumbers was speaking duduring his annual gettogether togetgettogether at St Andrews with the golf writers, where he confirmed Sportsmail’s revelation two weeks ago that Royal Liverpool had been bumped up the rota ahead of Royal Lytham to host the Open in 2022. he conceded there are infrastructure issues regarding Lytham’s cramped links, which has hosted just one Open since 2001.
Inevitably, he was asked about all the hoo-haa regarding the new rules and said: ‘Things have not gone as smoothly as we would have liked. But I am convinced they are the right changes to help move the game forward over the next 50 years.’