Editor’s note: “In Case You Missed It” is a GGP+ feature that highlights a story from Global Golf Post’s Monday magazine.
When President Trump was handing out those hefty tariffs of his a few weeks ago, he reasoned they were not as high as they could be because he liked to be kind.
Now if, as we have been hearing, he is so obsessed with holding the Open Championship at Trump Turnberry in 2028, a bit of this brand of kindness-cum-cunning might be the answer.
Because a well-respected R&A member has emphasised that the governing body’s championship wing will never call an Open venue by anything other than its own name, the U.S. president could try removing the “Trump” from “Trump Turnberry.” He would still be free to tell the world at large that he has been kind enough to let the R&A have their way and the R&A, for their part, would not have to do anything other than rejoice in holding their championship at what is now a truly outstanding links.
It was in 2023 that Trump delivered the line, “Everybody wants to see the Open back at Turnberry.” Gary Player supported him when he told Bunkered magazine that it would be cruel and wrong not to put Turnberry back on the Open rota. And it was only last week that The Times reported that Sir Keir Starmer, in his anxiety to stay on Trump’s right side, had asked his Department for Culture, Media and Sport to tackle the R&A on the subject of giving Turnberry the event.
The British prime minister had also discussed things directly with Trump who, according to The Guardian, may yet find himself in trouble for breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause – a clause which prohibits federal officials “from accepting benefits from foreign or state governments without congressional approval.” Downing Street officials, meantime, are on the ball as far as their situation is concerned with regard to the tête-a-tête among the two leaders. They have stated that the decision of whether the Open goes to Turnberry in ’28 is in the hands of the R&A.
In which connection, Mark Darbon, the new CEO of the R&A, has added that choosing Turnberry for the Open would require public investment because of the logistic and commercial challenges. Accommodation and traffic would be the major problems.
That a modern Open needs 60,000 beds for a start tells us that the 103 renovated rooms in Trump Turnberry Hotel are barely a beginning. What is more, most of them would be given over to the R&A for distribution among the players, their own R&A hierarchy, and corporate folk. For other hotels of that magnitude, people would need to stay in Glasgow, with the time it would take to drive down to Turnberry depending on who you ask. Turnberry members reckon it would be an hour and a half; others suggest that two and a half hours would be more like it. Trains would be a possibility, though fans would need to be bused the last five miles in from Girvan Station along some very minor roads.
Back in 2009, when the Open was last staged at Turnberry, Rory McIlroy thought of tackling the travel from his home in Ireland by helicopter. He decided against it on that occasion but said it was something he would consider at the next time of asking.
Now for more of the upside of another Open at Turnberry. Speaking to the media recently, the aforementioned Darbon described the links as “brilliant” and laced the comment with an encouraging, “At some point we’d love to be back there.”
Trump, however, is bound to want the biggest and the best Open there’s ever been, while the R&A, as they are always saying, will want to carry on making as much money as they can towards growing the game.
The Turnberry members are of the same opinion, only they want it to happen as soon as possible. They are keen to show off their course and are currently swooning over the new seventh hole. The green, they say, is practically on the beach, while all along the hole’s right side there is a mound which would serve as a favoured stopping point for spectators. Well worth a mention is the fact that the mound does not consist of a couple of fake dunes such as the ones which contributed to Trump International Aberdeen losing its status as a site of scientific interest.
Meanwhile, Ayrshire folk at large will tell you that opinions are divided. In keeping with The Guardian’s report, some are adamant that sport and politics should be kept apart, and that it was not for Starmer to be asking for favours from the R&A in the first place. The Ayrshire fraternity have also returned to how Martin Slumbers, the previous CEO of the R&A, ruled out Turnberry hosting the Open following the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021. And to that recent incident in which activists daubed red paint across the Turnberry clubhouse and painted one of the greens with the words, “Gaza is not for sale.” The vandalism delayed the planned May 1 reopening of the Ailsa Course until June.
They worry that there could be more of such goings-on in an Open context and the cost of security to prevent further happenings would be steep.
For another worry, the number of spectators in ’28 will be way up from what it was in 2009 when 120,000 watched Stewart Cink’s playoff victory over 59-year-old Tom Watson.
Muirfield, in their early talks with the R&A about their next Open, were not happy when they learned that the governing body wanted 240,000 at their club as against the 140,000 that attended the last time Muirfield hosted in 2013. “One hundred thousand more sounds a lot to me,” said Stuart McEwen, the Muirfield secretary. “Our members like to get close to the action.”
So, in fact, do the rest of us.
Trump, however, is bound to want the biggest and the best Open there’s ever been, while the R&A, as they are always saying, will want to carry on making as much money as they can towards growing the game.
Which makes you wonder if both parties might need to consider whether they are in danger of making the Open a less attractive proposition.