More than 300,000 spectators are expected to enter the gates this week at Royal Birkdale, eclipsing the 290,000 that attended the last Open Championship at St. Andrews, in 2022. Though with golf’s oldest major heading back to the Old Course next year, it’ll be a record likely short lived.
Mark Darbon, the R&A’s chief executive, said Wednesday during his pre-championship address, that over 750,000 applicants have already entered the ballot for 2027 tickets.
That lottery has been open for a mere nine days.
“We are delighted by the demand we have for The Open Championship,” Darbon said. “It’s an event that’s clearly resonating with people all around the world, including those that want to attend and watch this wonderful championship live.”
But is The Open getting too big?
While rota stops such as Birkdale, St. Andrews and last year’s Royal Portrush have succeeded in accommodating the sheer mass of a modern Open, it hasn’t been without significant effort.
Led by the R&A’s preferred design firm, Mackenzie and Ebert, which consults at nine of the 10 Open regular venues, Birkdale underwent widespread changes for this year’s championship, including the addition of a completely new hole, the par-3 15th, and the removal of the old par-3 14th, where Jordan Spieth hit what he calls the greatest shot of his career during the final round of his 2017 triumph. A new members’ short-game area now occupies the space of the old 14th, though that and the adjacent range comprise this week’s fan village.
M&E’s recent work at St. Andrews includes shifting the 12th tee slightly to “help ease championship spectator movement.”
Before Portrush’s return to the rota in 2019, the 17th and 18th holes of the Dunluce Course were removed by M&E to accommodate a tented spectator village. As M&E said in its release on the completed project, “The goal was to increase the quality of the links for regular member and visitor play as well as to provide courses which would make it feasible for the club to host The Open.”
Surely, most architectural changes these days are done in the face of distance, but Darbon was still asked Wednesday about the growing perception that century-old Open rota venues need to architecturally change to accommodate the fan experience.
Birkdale’s new look, in particular, hasn’t been universally well received. Lee Westwood told The Telegraph, “Why mess with a Picasso?” Scottie Scheffler said, “It’s so obvious as to which holes had been redone. They look like they’re not even on the same golf course.”
“I think what I would say, first and foremost, is that these are all members’ clubs, so a lot of the decision-making is driven by the members themselves,” Darbon said. “I think where we are this week is a brilliant example of that; the changes to the golf course have been driven by the members. Given the strength of partnership that we have with our host venues, of course we’re part of some of those discussions, and where there are things that we can do together that also help us operationally, they often make sense to do to help with the staging of the championship.
“But I think it would be wrong to say that all of the changes are driven by a need to accommodate spectators. They’re ultimately decisions for the clubs and their members.”
Darbon added that “at no stage” would the R&A threaten a non-return to a venue because a club refused to change its course a certain way. Yet, as “great dialogue” continues with Muirfield for another year, Darbon did note that the Scottish gem “requires a few tweaks, both around the golf course and across the site more broadly.”
Muirfield, which hasn’t hosted since 2013 and has since rectified controversial membership policies, just hosted the Women’s Amateur, a much smaller scaled event. Darbon revealed last year that “logistical challenges” included road, rail and accommodation infrastructure, plus issues with the size of the practice range, but the Scotsman reported Wednesday that there is also a hang-up regarding the R&A’s suggestion to move Muirfield’s fifth green to alleviate a “spectator pinch point.”
“We’re excited to return an Open Championship to that venue in the future,” said Darbon, who added that the R&A is “getting pretty close” to staging an Open at Portmarnock.
The R&A has not announced its Open venues past Royal Lytham and St. Annes in 2028, but the Dublin club, which has approved its own extensive renovation in hopes of securing an Open, has long been thought of should the Open venture into Ireland.
“It’s a complicated venue because of the scale of The Open Championship,” Darbon said. “So, there’s been a lot of great feasibility work with the golf club themselves, with the local authority, with government. We’ve undertaken a big feasibility study. That work is pretty much done. We’ve confirmed that we believe we can take an Open Championship there. What we’re looking to do is build a model that opens up opportunities for the AIG Women’s Open and The Open for many, many years to come. So that’s the dialogue we’re in right now with the Irish government, and we’re optimistic that those discussions are heading in the right direction.
“Time frame – look, in the spirit of transparency, it’s taken a bit longer than I think I and we thought it may, but it’s complicated doing all of that feasibility work. We’re hoping to have a pretty clear view by the end of the year for sure.”
For now, records will continue to be broken – until 2028, of course.
Lytham, which hasn’t hosted since 2012, is one of the smaller Open footprints, which Darbon used as the example that size isn’t the only thing that matters.
“If we’re able to facilitate spectator volumes onsite, we’ll always consider that, but it’s not the primary driver for us,” Darbon said. “… There’s absolutely no way we’ll be near the volume of spectators at Lytham that we have here this week. So our choices, first and foremost, start with the underlying principle for us, which is we want to take The Open Championship to venues that will offer a true test of links golf.
“We’re not taking venues off the rotation because they’re smaller than others, but there’s a balance to be struck, too, and we think we’re getting that right.”
