Open Championship could return to Portrush by 2019

The Open championship trophy at Royal Portrush Golf Club. Picture: Getty

The Open was last held at the Northern Irish links course in 1951, the only other time the major championship was held anywhere but England and Scotland, and could be played again at the venue as early as 2019.

“I suppose this is just about the world’s worst-kept secret,” R&A chief executive Peter  Dawson told a news conference after making the much  anticipated announcement.

“We couldn’t be more  excited about bringing the Open back here to one of the world’s truly great links courses. There is a rich heritage here. It will give the game here and the whole  region huge exposure.”

The R&A said the club’s members would now be asked to ratify the proposal. Dawson said 2019 would be the earliest it could be held, but it may have to wait a further year or two with course enhancements and infrastructure developments needed.

Royal Portrush, in the hometown of major champion Graeme McDowell and which also counts 2011 Open champion Darren Clarke as a member, has played host to the Senior British Open in recent years and hosted the Irish Open in 2012.

McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, said on Sunday that he was delighted that years of “gentle ribbing” of R&A boss Dawson by him, Clarke and fellow Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy was set to pay off.

Dawson said the trio’s words of encouragement did not prove influential but their performances and the return of the Irish Open to Portrush two years ago was an eye-opener for the fan base of golf in Northern Ireland and Ireland.

He added that it would be premature to discuss any other potential new venues for the Open, which is rotated among venues and will be played at the Royal Liverpool course next month.

The Open will be the latest in a series of high-profile events to come to Northern Ireland which was beset by three decades of violence that cost the lives of 3,600 people before a peace deal largely ended the bloodshed 16 years ago.

The British province  successfully hosted the G8  meeting of world leaders last year and thousands long starved of big sporting events packed the streets when the Giro d’Italia set off from Northern Ireland last month.

Sporadic sectarian violence still persists in parts of Northern Ireland though, and often breaks out when marches are held by rival communities.