Darren Clarke once thought it “foolish” to think the Open could ever come back to Royal Portrush but the 2011 champion was bursting with pride as 2019 was yesterday confirmed as the year the championship will return.
The R&A yesterday confirmed that the 148th Open will be staged at the famous Dunluce Links on the Antrim coast for the first time since 1951. The championship will be staged on July 18 to 21 for only the second time outside Scotland and England.
Clarke, whose replica Claret Jug is in a display cabinet within the Portrush clubhouse and has lived near to the town for many years, was resigned like many in Northern Ireland to the belief that the province’s political problems would always prevent the Open returning.
“I played a lot of my golf here, I lived here and was a proud member here, but to think would we ever get through the dark times Northern Ireland has had, to get to this stage where we have the biggest and best tournament in the world, I’d be very foolish to say yes,” the European Ryder Cup captain said.
“Nobody could foresee that coming through in the bad old days, but to see how far we have all come, how far our politicians have moved this part of the country on, it’s been brilliant.”
The political will from the Northern Ireland Executive to bring the championship to the province was considerable but it helped greatly that Portrush had such prominent advocates in golf as Clarke, native son Graeme McDowell, twice Open champion Padraig Harrington and 2014 champion Rory McIlroy agitating R&A officials on the merits of their home course.
McDowell, whose brother Gary works on the greens staff at the club, said: “As a local, when the day comes it’s going to be a great moment. I will be turning 40 that year but I will be expecting to be there and to win a Claret Jug in my home town would be dream stuff.”
McIlroy, who shot the Portrush course record of 61 as a 16-year-old, added: “To hear that the Open is going there in 2019 is a dream come true. I never thought I would be able to play an Open Championship at home, so I’m really excited.”
Portrush has not hosted a major championship since the 1951 Open, but the Senior Open had been successfully staged there and the return of the Irish Open in 2012 resulted in huge crowds.
Peter Unsworth, R&A championship committee chairman, said: “We are very much looking forward to bringing The Open to Royal Portrush in 2019 and believe it will be a tremendous venue for the Championship.
“We know there is great anticipation throughout Ireland at the prospect of welcoming the world’s top golfers and it promises to be a hugely memorable week. We are delighted with the progress being made on the course preparations and they will undoubtedly enhance the challenge presented by these historic links.”
The Open is expected to be the biggest sporting event ever held in Northern Ireland and could generate up to £70million for the local economy.
Changes to the famous Harry Colt design, which will involve the construction of two new holes close on land out at The Strand and conversion of the present 17th and 18th holes for infrastructure, got overwhelming support from club members last year.
Martin Ebert, of Mackenzie Ebert architects and also presently engaged in the refurbishment of Turnberry for Donald Trump, has converted the course not only with the new holes and lengthened the course to 7,337 yards, but also a sceptical Clarke.
“I wasn’t sure about some of it but Martin took me round and explained them and I saw where he was coming from,” he said. “There’s a difference between making it tougher and making it better. He’s making it better and there’s a big difference.”
Ebert studied the original plans by Colt and discovered that the course had originally stretched right up into the town and the present 8th and 9th holes were only added in the 1930s.
“The Harry Colt heritage is something that is very important to the club members, so we’ve been very careful to recognise that,” he said. “I think if Colt had to design the course with the clubhouse where it now stands rather than the original one in the town itself, he’d have used some of the best dune scapes I think there are anywhere on the Open rota as we have now.”
Only three bunkers have been added to bring the total to 62, still the lowest number on any Open course, and over 120 fewer than another Colt design on the rota, Royal Lytham.
“It just shows what an architect he was, adapting to different settings in a way that suited them,” added Ebert, who is recreating the most famous trap, the enormous “Big Nellie” bunker on the 17th, out at the new 7th hole.
“It’s not really in play on the 17th for elite standard players but the new version will certainly be in play,” he said.