Breaking: Portmarnock to seek government help to host The Open and AIG Women’s Open
Portmarnock Golf Club is to approach the Government to seek its support for a formal approach by the club to The R&A to host the AIG Women’s Open and The Open at Portmarnock Golf Club at some point in the future.
Commenting, Niall Goulding, Captain, Portmarnock Golf Club said: “The Club has had informal contact with The R&A regarding the possibility of hosting the AIG Women’s Open and The Open at Portmarnock in the coming years.
“Without a detailed survey, it is not possible to verify the ability of the property to act as host to a major championship, given the significant infrastructural requirements of such an event.
The Club has determined that Government support would be critical for a project of this magnitude and, consequently, will now approach the relevant Government authorities to establish their position on providing support for a formal application by Portmarnock to The R&A to host a major championship.”
There is no timeline in place for hosting the events though the R&A has announced world-class venues for the AIG Women’s Open with St Andrews to host in 2024 and Royal Porthcawl in 2025.
As for The Open, it will be hosted at Royal Troon next year and Royal Portrush in 2025.
Given the infrastructure challenges, should the R&A award both events to Portmarnock, it could be 2028 before the women’s event is staged there and 2030 for The Open itself.
“There definitely no timeline,” Mr Goulding added. “We are writing to the government to work out what the infrastructure requirements are externally because everybody knows that the roads are quite difficult to navigate.
“So there's definitely an evaluation process required and we need to do work on that. So because of that, it's just not possible to speculate on on times. It’s pretty early stages. There's no certainty in terms of the outcome either. That’s absolutely a fact.”
Portmarnock’s status as a gender neutral club and a successful host of previous R&A events is key to its good standing with the organisers of the men’s and women’s championships.
“I think that's fair,” Mr Goulding added. “The Amateur Championship in 2019 probably just created awareness that there is a huge demand among the golfing public for supporting golf. That was very clear then.
“We’ve changed our gender status as well, so we're at a stage now where they we appear to be viewed very favourably.
“We've been hosting championships now for over 100 years and we are hosting the Women's Amateur next year. This is what we've had a long the history of doing or been certainly seeking to do.”
When a decision is made on Portmarnock’s bid depends on the R&A.
“There's an evaluation that has to be done by the government because we recognize that this is we can't do this by ourselves. It will be a matter for themselves with input from the R&A,” Mr Goulding said.
“If that goes well, we’ll get on to the next stage, but as things stand at the moment, we have nothing further to add except this is an investigation process. But it also declares that we are interested in it and it also clearly means that the R&A are interested as well.
“The R&A would highlight that there are significant infrastructural requirements needed. Everybody recognises that Portmarnock village is a busy place.
“In hosting these big championships there’s a lot of work to be done to consider how this works. That would be a concern for ourselves and that that will be part of their evaluation process.
“It would be very much the R&A’s call as to what the next steps are but there is an evaluation process and we have no control over that. We have no certainty in terms of the outcome.”
Royal Portrush will host The Open for the third time in 2025 and Mr Goulding recognises the Co Antrim club set a high standard when it hosted it in 2019, when Shane Lowry triumphed.
“I think it's probably fair to say this if this happens it's exciting for the whole country,” he said. “Royal Portrush has done an amazing job and set a very high bar. If it ever came to pass it would be very exciting. But we are just taking the next step. There is a long way to go.”
As for McIlroy’s enthusiastic support for Portmarnock as a potential venue for at The Open, he added: “We certainly read those comments and they were very favorable. It was nice to see.”
