After an unusually lengthy process, the R&A has awarded the 2028 British Open to Royal Lytham & St Annes, bypassing again two premier venues in Scotland.
This English layout where Ernie Els prevailed in 2012 is not far from this year’s venue Royal Birkdale. Located on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, it is the northernmost of the English Open venues.
The Open was first played at Royal Lytham in 1926, when Bobby Jones won the championship. But the footprint of the property and other logistical concerns had made its return questionable. It will host the Women’s Open later this summer.
In going to Royal Lytham, the R&A is skipping other possible candidates in Muirfield and Trump Turnberry, both looking to return after long absences.
Muirfield has not hosted the Open since Phil Mickelson’s victory in 2013, a year after Els won at Royal Lytham. The Open has been played at Turnberry just four times, the last Stewart Cink’s playoff win over Tom Watson in 2009.
The R&A has said previously that it was disappointed with attendance at both places. And in the past, leadership has expressed concern about President Trump’s ownership of the Turnberry course, although access and a remoteness have been cited as bigger reasons for not going back.
“We love the golf course at Muirfield,” said R&A CEO Mark Darbon at last year’s Open. “We're in a discussion with the venue right now. There's some things that we need to evolve at Muirfield, the practice ground in particular is a challenge for us with a modern Open and there's some work we need to do with the venue to facilitate some of the infrastructure that we require, some cabling to enable the scale of the production that we have these days. But it's a good dialogue and we'd love to be back there in the future.”
As for Turnberry, Darbon said: “I think we've been extremely clear on our position in respect of Turnberry. We love the golf course but we've got some big logistical challenges there. You see the scale of their setup here (at Royal Portrush last summer) and we've got some work to do on the road, rail and accommodation infrastructure around Turnberry.
“We've explicitly not taken it out of our pool of venues but we'd need to address those logistical challenges should we return.”
There are currently 10 courses in Open rotation, with five in Scotland, four in England and one in Northern Ireland.
This year’s tournament at Royal Birkdale marks a return for the first time since Jordan Spieth’s victory in 2017. Next year the Open returns to its most popular venue, the Old Course at St Andrews.
Royal Lytham is unique in that it has a par-3 opening hole.
The 2028 tournament will be played Aug. 3-6, nearly three weeks later than usual, to accommodate the playing of the Olympic Golf Tournament at Riviera in Los Angeles.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Royal Lytham Will Host 2028 British Open as Two Iconic Venues are Snubbed.
