The Open Championship looks unlikely to be held at Turnberry again while it remains under the ownership of outgoing US president Donald Trump.
A statement issued by Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A, which oversees the championships, said that there were no immediate plans for The Open to return to Turnberry for a fifth time, although he made no reference to the ownership of the resort, which Trump bought in 2014.
Just hours after the PGA of America cancelled plans to host its 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National in New Jersey, the R&A issued a statement regarding its own future tournament venue plans, saying: “We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so 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.”
Turnberry has hosted the Open Championship four times, most recently in 2009. It is traditional for the Championship to return to the same venue within a gap of a dozen years at most, but with the next four Opens being held at Royal St George’s, St Andrews, Royal Liverpool and Royal Troon, the earliest Turnberry could host the Open is 2025, which would be a 16-year hiatus.
