The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
St Andrews ‘unofficially’ confirmed as venue for 150th Open
R&A: No official announcement, but breaking of five-year cycle means 2021 return to Old Course
The 2020 Open has been confirmed for Royal St George’s – meaning that the 150th staging of golf’s oldest championship is certain to be back at St Andrews in 2021.
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers yesterday confirmed that the Open will go to the Sandwich links in Kent for the 15th time, and first since Darren Clarke’s emotional victory in 2011. Royal St George’s remains the R&A’s only Open venue in the south of England.
But the decision to break up the custom of holding the Open at the Old Course in St Andrews every five years clearly indicates that the R&A are holding off a year to stage the 150th championship – it was first played in 1860 – at the Home of Golf.
Slumbers said yesterday that there would be no official announcement on 2021 “possibly until next year” but he did say that Scotland “might be a good guess” and St Andrews “maybe an even better guess”.
The Open has been played at the Old Course every five years since 1990, and was last held there in 2015, when Zach Johnson won a play-off to take the Claret Jug.
However the R&A’s preference for some time has been to host the 150th Open there with attendant festivities, including the Champions’ Challenge event they’ve scheduled on the Old Course on the eve of the Championship since 2000.
In the meantime Slumbers indicated that Muirfield, taken off the Open rota last year after host the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers voted against women members, will likely go straight back on to the rota if a second vote falls in favour of admitting women in the next month.
“I am very pleased with their having a second vote,” he said. “I think Muirfield is a wonderful golf course, a great Open venue, and I’m very pleased that they’re going through that process.
“We’ll wait and see the outcome of the result, which will be, I’m led to believe, sometime before the end of March but we would reconsider and make an announcement very quickly if that comes through positively.”
He said he has been in close and regular touch with HCEG officials despite Muirfield’s removal from the rota.
“We believe golf should be open to all, regardless of gender, sex, religion or nationality, and so I think it created quite a lot of disappointment around the world with some of the best players when Muirfield was no longer going to be on the rota,” he said.
“But it’s completely for the club to make that decision, but the more the game is open, the more the game is looking at families, the more the game is looking at encouraging younger people, the better.
“We were very, very clear very quickly (after the Muirfield vote) last year, and because The Open is one of the world’s greatest sporting events, we hold it at a level that is representative of that aspiration.”
Meanwhile, there are still no plans to return the Open to Turnberry, owned by the new President of the USA Donald Trump, and nothing had changed as a result of his election win, said Slumbers.
“Turnberry remains absolutely as one of our nine golf courses,” he said. “I also said last year that it’s clear in 2020 and 2021 did not involve Turnberry in that discussion, and we will be thinking about 2022 not for at least another year.
“What we focus on for the Open is making sure that we have the success of the championship and security of our players and our spectators, and we will work within that on making sure that, wherever we put on the Open in our nine courses, that we are successful in the Open and we have excellent security for people.”
He admitted that having such a prominent and polarising figure as the owner of one of the Open venues was “uncharted territory”.
“I think it’s very important that we’re clear about what our business is, which is making sure that the Open Championship is one of the world’s greatest sporting events and staying out of politics,” he said.
“We’ve never had this in our game. Sitting presidents have attended US Opens but we have not had a sitting President of the United States at an Open Championship. We’ve had royalty but most people never know that royalty are there when they are there.
“We’re all learning as we go through this. But I think it’s important for us that we understand where the game is and make sure we keep to that, without ignoring all the other factors that go around it.”
Slumbers admitted that the other political phenomenon of the past year – Brexit – would inflict on the Open Championship due to the weakness of the pound affecting prize-money levels.
“It’s a significant issue, the exchange rate has gone from $1.50 to $1.25,” he said. “I’m very conscious that the Open is the only one of the four majors outside of the United States, and of making sure that it’s viewed as one of the world’s great sporting events.
“Prize money is one of the factors. We’re very aware of where all the prize money is for the majors and for the other events. We’ve always announced our prize money in pounds, which makes the issue a little bit more complex.”
It may be that Open prize money is given in US dollars for the first time instead of sterling, he agreed.