Open Championship Considers Ireland: Portrush ‘Will Open’ Gates

This week’s Open Championship will be the third played at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland—and the third time golf’s oldest major isn’t being played in Scotland or England.

Soon, the Open could find its way to a new country altogether. 

“The gates will open to Ireland through Portrush,” NBC Sports/Golf Channel analyst Paul McGinley told Front Office Sports on an Open Championship preview call last week.

The R&A, which organizes the Open, is considering taking a future edition of the historic tournament to Portmarnock Golf Club just outside Dublin. That would be the first time Ireland—or any nation outside of the U.K.—hosts the Open.

Portmarnock has hosted multiple editions of The R&A’s Amateur Championship, most recently the women’s in 2024 and men’s in 2019. “Clearly it’s a wonderful golf course that we think is fit to stage this championship,” R&A CEO Mark Darbon said earlier this year. 

McGinley, an Irishman who captained the 2014 European Ryder Cup team, is excited for what an Open would mean for his homeland. “There’s a lot of talk now that Portmarnock is a possibility down the road,” he said. “We don’t know any dates on that yet, but they certainly are looking at it a lot stronger now.”

The Open will be played at Royal Birkdale in England next year and St Andrews in 2027, but host sites for 2028 and beyond are to be determined. 

“The members of Portmarnock Golf Club, at a Special General Meeting held in April, voted overwhelmingly in favour of accepting the proposed changes to the Championship course that would be required to make it possible for major R&A championships to be held at the venue in the future,” the club told FOS in a statement this week.

Portrush Ready to Shine

Portrush hosted the 2019 Open—won by Irishman Shane Lowry—68 years after it hosted its first Open in 1951. Political unrest involving Northern Ireland played a large role in The R&A avoiding playing the nation, but that has since subsided.

“I thought The R&A did a brilliant job politically to set it in Northern Ireland. … It was seamless when it came here in 2019,” McGinley said. “There were no political objections. Everyone was happy to have it. We all embraced it, and of course we had an Irish winner on top of it all.”

This week, The R&A is expecting 278,000 fans to attend practice and competition rounds, which will set a new record for attendance at an Open held outside of St Andrews.

Portrush has also received rave reviews in recent years from both golf fans and course architecture experts alike, leading many to believe it will become a regular stop on the Open rota, which currently includes 10 modern courses.