R&A chief provides Turnberry Open update

No sooner had Royal Liverpool been confirmed as the host venue of the 2022 Open Championship than a familiar question resurfaced – when will the event be going back to Turnberry?

The championship was last staged at the Ayrshire resort in 2009, when Stewart Cink denied Tom Watson what would surely have been one of the most remarkable victories in the long and storied history of the Claret Jug.

That was the fourth time The Open had been contested over the famous Ailsa links.

However, since then, the venue has been purchased by US president Donald Trump and controversy surrounding his premiership has led to repeated suggestions that it will be dropped from the Open rota whilst he remains its owner.

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The R&A has consistently maintained that this is not the case. However, with no date confirmed for its return, questions persist.  

Meeting some members of the media yesterday, the organisation’s chief executive Martin Slumbers, pictured below, answered them again.

According to the Golf Channel, Slumbers said: “We have ten courses that we look to stage the Open Championship on, of which Turnberry is one of them.