Portrush to stage 2019 Open

It has been announced that Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland will host the Open Championship in 2019.

The decision to stage the sport’s oldest major in County Antrim means that the Open will be held outside of England or Scotland for just the second time in the competition’s 150-year history.

It was held at Portrush way back in 1951, with Englishman Max Faulkner claiming the spoils on that occasion, and will return to the area between July 18–21 in four years’ time.

Royal Portrush is known as one of the top links courses in Europe and the Irish Open was held at the club’s Dunluce course back in 2012, with Welshman Jamie Donaldson emerging victorious on that occasion.

That was the first European Tour event played in Northern Ireland and the first time since 1953 that the Irish Open had been held north of the border, and it was deemed a success by all who took part.

With the likes of Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke all having won a major over the past few years, there has been growing pressure for the R&A to name Portrush as an Open venue and chairman of the championship’s organising committee, John Bamber, was understandably upbeat.

“We are all extremely delighted and excited and it’s great today to see the clock ticking to the Open Championship at Royal Portrush again,” he said at Portrush on Tuesday morning.

“Very approximately, the Open will return here to Royal Portrush three times over the next 30 to 40 years and that will bring a huge economic benefit.

“Most of the independent financial surveys that are completed on the Open Championship would suggest that it brings something between £55m to £70m in the year of the Open to the wider community in the venue’s area.”