Troon Lands '23 Open As Trump-Owned Turnberry Waits Again

The Open Championship today announced it will return to Royal Troon in '23 to "commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Open on the western Scottish links," meaning the President Trump-owned Turnberry "will have to wait" at least one more year to host the event, according to Doug Ferguson of the AP. Turnberry last hosted the Open in '09, before Trump bought the property, but R&A CEO Martin Slumbers said that the course "remained one of the 10 links on the Open rotation." He said that the delay in returning "had more to do with the size of the crowd Turnberry gets more than anything to do with Trump." Slumbers: "This is our ambition, to grow the importance of the Open. When we get to Turnberry, it's difficult on an infrastructure basis." He estimated the crowd at Turnberry in '09, when Stewart Cink beat Tom Watson in a playoff, was around 130,000. By comparison, Slumbers indicated that Royal St. George's, which is hosting this year's Open, is "expected to draw more than 200,000 fans" (AP, 2/25). GOLF DIGEST's Joel Beall notes holding the Open at Turnberry "could become a politically charged event" under Trump's control, a "situation the R&A would like to avoid until his presidency is complete" (GOLFDIGEST.com, 2/25).

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