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In an age of heralded major golf courses years and decades into the future—the 2051 US Open has already been claimed by Detroit’s Oakland Hills—R&A has done things differently. This year at Royal Liverpool. Next year in Troon and the year after in Royal Portrush. After 2025, we don’t have anything on the agenda. until Tuesday.
R&A has announced that the 2026 Open Championship will take place at Royal Birkdale, where it was last hosted in 2017. Golf fans will remember it: Jordan Spieth’s memorable touchdown and birdie flurry to beat Matt Kuchar. This memory is a quotation with three words: Go get that!
The course is located about 40 minutes north of Liverpool, and can be accessed by the same train system fans will take to/from the Open at Hoylake next week. It is ranked No. 14 in Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Courses in the UK and Ireland and No. 42 in the world.
As with all host tournament decisions, the R&A has a whole host of options, but Birkdale was perhaps the least surprising decision. It will have been nine full years since Spieth’s Invasion, and most courses with strong R&A ties don’t go an entire decade without hosting. Birkdale has hosted more open courses (10) in the past 70 years than any other course not named St Andrews. The Old Course, which routinely hosts an open field every 5-7 years, has only received a small profit (14).
Our prospects for open hosts now jump from country to country across the bunch of countries over the next few years.
2023: Royal Liverpool, England
2024: Royal Troon, Scotland
2025: Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland
2026: Royal Birkdale, England
Does this mean Scotland could be next? maybe. There is often a balance between the countries of the United Kingdom. But the chances of hosting in Scotland have diminished a bit due to decisions the R&A has made (or been forced to make, depending on your reading) in recent years.
Many people consider Trump Turnberry one of the best tournament quizzes on the planet, but the name that precedes Turnberry has become a turn-off for R&A. “We have no plans to stage any of our tournaments at Turnberry and won’t for the foreseeable future,” he said. said Martin Slippers In the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. “We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the track itself, and we do not believe that this can be achieved in the current circumstances.”
In a completely separate ruling, the R&A has not hosted the Men’s Open at Muirfield since Phil Mickelson’s victory in 2013. Muirfield’s membership has notoriously excluded women for centuries and failed to gain approval by a two-thirds majority in early 2016. At that point, Slippers made their point clear. His view: “The World Open is one of the greatest sporting events in the world, and going forward we will not stage the tournament in a venue that does not accept women as members.”
When a vote was taken one year later, the supermajority had been achieved. Twelve female members were added in 2019 and that number has now exceeded 20. But R&A has continued to avoid Muirfield for their opening for future men. The first Women’s Open was held at Muirfield last summer. Can the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers earn hosting duties for 2027? May be back in Rota.
The 2023 Open Championship kicks off next week in Hoylake on the west coast of England. We could definitely see an additional 2027 Open host announcement during Slumbers media availability next week.