One of The Open’s most famous venues, Muirfield, hasn’t hosted the Major for almost 13 years, but Rory McIlroy believes it’s time it was reinstated to the rota.
Currently, only the next two venues for The Open have been confirmed, with Royal Birkdale hosting it for the 11th time this year, before it heads to the Old Course for the 31st time in 2027.
However, it is thought that Muirfield, which ranks fourth in Golf Monthly's top 100 courses in the UK & Ireland 2025/26 and hosted the 2022 AIG Women's Open, could be in the running for a slot beyond 2027, and McIlroy hopes that’s the case.
Speaking after the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic, McIlroy said: “It would be wonderful if it was. I’m not privy to those conversations, but Muirfield deserves to be back on the Open rota.”
Only two courses, the Old Course at St Andrews and Prestwick Golf Club, have hosted The Open more often than Muirfield.
However, it hasn’t added to its 16 editions since 2013, partly due to disappointing attendance figures that year and partly because it only began allowing women members in 2017, but McIlroy believes now is the time to give it another look.
He added: “They rectified the issues they had. It’s a wonderful course. It’s one of the best courses on the rota and in the UK.
“It has to commercially make sense. I think Mark Darbon [CEO of The R&A] has been brought in to make the Open Championship commercially viable. I would say Muirfield, that area, North Berwick, that would probably be one of the more commercially viable opens.”
McIlroy’s desire to see Muirfield back on The Open rota comes despite a disastrous performance at the course at the 2013 Open.
Back then, McIlroy missed the cut after finishing on 12 over, a year before making amends by lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool. However, he insisted that harrowing experience feels like a long time ago.
He said: “Could have been my lowest point in my professional career. I’ve won an Open since then, I’ve played well in the Open. Yeah, 2013 feels like a lifetime ago.”
McIlroy also isn’t convinced we’ll see Royal Lytham & St Anne return to The Open rota in the near future.
The Lancashire venue last hosted the event in 2012, but with this year’s Open coming from a similar area, he believes that could affect its chances of being selected for the 2028 edition – although it may get its chance in the years to follow.
He explained: “With Birkdale this year, it would be very early to bring an Open back to that region in 2028. The Women’s Open is at Lytham this year. Usually when the women’s is somewhere, then the men’s seems to follow pretty soon after. That could be the case.”
While questions over future Open venues will be addressed in due course, of more immediate concern was whether McIlroy could finish strongly at the Dubai Desert Classic, having left himself a mountain to climb to claim his fifth title at the event, 11 behind leader Patrick Reed with a round to play.
In the end, Reed cruised to victory by four, with McIlroy completing a final round of 73 to place T33, ending a remarkable run of 11 successive top 10 finishes at the tournament.
