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Donald Trump’s team raised the possibility of the US president’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland returning as a venue for the Open Championship during Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to the White House this week.
The R&A, the administrative body that runs the Open, the oldest golf championship in the world, said in 2021 that it would not host the tournament at Trump’s Turnberry resort in the wake of the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill that year.
As recently as last November, the outgoing R&A boss Martin Slumbers said this position had not changed, saying he did not want “media noise” detracting from the game. The body now has a new head, Mark Darbon.
The US president’s team raised the R&A’s stance this week with the UK delegation when Starmer made his first visit to Washington as prime minister to discuss trade, European security and the conflict in Ukraine, according to one person close to the talks.
The White House and Downing Street did not respond to requests for comment.
The R&A has 10 courses on its roster for the championship, with Turnberry having been included since the 1970s, even after falling out of favour in 2021. Its Ailsa course has hosted Britain’s premier golf event in 1977, 1986, 1994 and 2009.
One UK minister said the Open had not been held at Turnberry for years because of logistical reasons rather than political ones. He claimed that the venue needed “tens, or hundreds, of millions of pounds of investment” to improve its accessibility by public transport and by road as well as improved hotel facilities.
Trump has been open about his desire for the venue to play host again, declaring in 2022 that “the Open wants to come back”.
“We are fortunate to have a pool of ten fantastic courses to choose from for The Open,” the R&A said, adding that venues had to “meet the huge logistical requirements of staging a major sporting event and help us to achieve our commercial goals so we can reinvest in growing golf around the world”.
“We will continue to select our venues on that basis,” the R&A said.
Golf experts said attendance at Open tournaments had risen significantly since the Turnberry event in 2009, which attracted 123,000 people.
By contrast, last year 258,174 spectators attended Royal Troon, a few miles north of Turnberry, 261,180 came to Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) in 2023, and 290,000 came to St Andrews in 2022.
Darbon, the R&A’s chief executive, told the Telegraph on Friday: “We do have some questions that we need to work through on the logistical and commercial front.”
“When we were there in 2009, we had just over 100,000 for the week. We are operating at comfortably more than double that at most of our venues today. So it’s not quite as simple as just saying ‘would we go back?’ There’s a chunk of work that’s required to investigate.”
Venues for the Open have been selected through to 2027. A location for the 2028 event, which would be the last year before Trump’s term expires in January 2029, has not been chosen.
Starmer’s charm offensive in Washington included handing Trump a signed letter from King Charles inviting him on an “unprecedented” second state visit to the UK. In the letter, Charles suggested meeting in Balmoral or Dumfries House, which are both a short distance from Trump golf courses.
The Open was first held in 1860 with Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer among the golfers to have lifted the winner’s Claret Jug.
Nic Oldham, general manager of Turnberry, wrote a public statement in July last year urging the R&A to allow the venue to host the 2027 event. However, in January, the R&A confirmed that St Andrews would host that year.
In 2022 Trump Turnberry made a pre-tax profit of £571,000, its only profit in 10 years. Accounts for SLC Turnberry the following year show it dropping back into the red with losses of £1.69mn.
Trump International Scotland, which operates Turnberry, declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Simeon Kerr
