Portrush has set ‘new standard’ for The Open, says Paul McGinley

Paul McGinley in action at Royal Lytham & St Anne's. Picture: Jan Kruger/Getty

The tournament’s much-anticipated return to the County Antrim venue after a 68-year gap attracted a sell-out crowd of 235,000, making it the second biggest after the record 237,000 at St Andrews in 2015. The huge success of the event, which produced a home winner in Shane Lowry, has led to speculatation that it could return as early as 2024, which, if it happened, would probably be at the expense of Royal Lytham.

“That’s the new standard,” said McGinley, speaking at the Lancashire venue after signing for a second-round 69 to comfortably make the cut in the Senior Open, of last week’s event. “That’s what every venue has to aspire towards. I saw that in the Ryder Cup and I saw that in hosting the Irish Open. You look for ways of trying to improve it.”

Asked if he felt venues like Lytham, which is landlocked, could, as a consequence of Portrush ticking so many boxes, be in danger of losing the Claret Jug event, the 2014 Ryder Cup captain: “I wouldn’t say putting pressure on other venues, but what it does is it raises the bar. Whatever you are doing, you want to continuously be raising the bar. I think what we saw last week was a significant raising of the bar by Ireland.”

Two new holes were built at Portrush and McGinley, left, believes that changes should also have been made at Royal St George’s, which is staging next year’s event. “I may be going on to dodgy ground here, but there are a couple of holes at Royal St George’s that we know are unfair, they (the R&A) know are unfair, but they are not changing them,” added the Irishman.

“There is nothing wrong with modifying a golf course. I don’t mean radically changing it. I mean doing it in keeping with the original design. There are a couple of mounds I am thinking of on the first and 17th at Royal St George’s than can be softened to make them a little bit less unfair.”