1 week Ago By [email protected] (Michael Scully)
Minister for Sport Catherine Martin is due to seek Cabinet approval today for a bid to host the British Open and the Women's Open at Portmarnock Golf Club. Minister Martin received approval in July from Cabinet to explore potential bids to bring the two world-renowned golf tournaments to Dublin. Initial estimates are that The Open could attract close to a quarter of a million spectators to the famous Portmarnock links.
READ MORE: Padraig Harrington says it would be "very nice" if The Open came to Portmarnock in his final year as R&A give update READ MORE: Ireland's top 25 ranked golf clubs and how much it costs to play at the top 10 Speaking in July during The Open at Troon, the Royal and Ancient's CEO Martin Slumbers revealed that talks had been ongoing between the tournament organisers and Portmarnock. “We are fully supportive of the club doing that, and we are actively engaged in making those assessments," said Slumbers. The Open will be returning to Ireland in 2025 with Portrush pencilled in to host for the third time - and for the first time since Shane Lowry's historic victory there in 2019.
Those Portrush visits are the only time The Open has been held outside England and Scotland. Analysis done by the Irish government predicts that the economic benefit to hosting three Opens and at least one Women's Open would bring in close to €350m in revenue. Speaking last year, Portmarnock's club captain Niall Goulding acknowledged that a lot of infastructural work would have to be done to make the course ready for such an influx of spectators.
"The R&A would highlight that there are significant infrastructural requirements needed," said Goulding. "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 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.
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