R&A chief executive Mark Darbon confirmed Wednesday he recently had a “really good discussion” with Eric Trump about hosting a future Open Championship at Turnberry, owned by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The course in South Ayrshire, Scotland, owned by Trump’s organization since 2014, has hosted the Open four times but not since 2009.
“It’s a somewhat hypothetical question in that unless we address the logistical challenges, it’s difficult for us to go back,” Darbon told reporters at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, site of this week’s 153rd Open.
Darbon said he met with Trump’s son, Eric, and representatives from Turnberry “a couple of months ago.” Logistical issues include the fact that only 120,000 spectators attended the last Open at Turnberry, compared to the 280,000 expected this week and the 250,000 at Royal Troon in Scotland in 2024.
“We had a really good discussion,” Darbon said. “I think they understand clearly where we’re coming from. We talked through some of the challenges that we have so we’ve got a good dialogue with them.”
Meeting with a member of the Trump family continues the thaw in what had become a testy relationship between the R&A and the current occupant of the White House.
After Trump’s supporters stormed the United States Capitol in January 2021, then-R&A boss Martin Slumbers said there were no plans to restore Turnberry to the Open rotation “in the foreseeable future.”
“We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances,” Slumbers said at the time.
That stance has softened since Trump’s election to a second term in November. Darbon, who replaced Slumbers in July 2024, said in April that he “would love” to see the tournament return to Turnberry.
“I think we’ve been extremely clear on our position in respect of Turnberry,” Darbon said Wednesday. “We love the golf course but we’ve got some big logistical challenges there. You see the scale of their setup here and we’ve got some work to do on the road, rail and accommodation infrastructure around Turnberry.
“We’ve explicitly not taken it out of our pool of venues but we’d need to address those logistical challenges should we return.”
Darbon also said the R&A has had an ongoing dialogue with the UK government about staging a major at a Trump-owned property.
“We’ve spoken to them specifically about Turnberry and I think they’ve made it clear that the decision around where we take our championship rests with us,” he said.
–Field Level Media
