The R&A would not be proposing to take the Open Championship to Royal Portrush if it had any misgivings about the security situation in Northern Ireland, chief executive Peter Dawson has said.
The club that administers golf’s oldest major championship was confirming that they had invited the host of Ireland’s only Open 63 years ago to return to the championship “rota”, in 2019 at the earliest, with 2020 also a possibility.
One of the historic stumbling blocks to bringing the Open back to Northern Ireland for the first time since 1951 is that the championship’s annual date in July clashes with Ulster’s “marching season”, which has spilled over into violence and disruption in recent years, most notably last year.
However, Dawson said he believed there was no security problem with bringing the Open back.
“The history here has caused some reputational damage over time, I think everyone knows that,” he said.
“We’re very happy that’s in the past. Like every other Open venue we work closely with the police, we take their advice and behave accordingly. It’s a prime consideration for us that the championship is conducted safely for everyone. We’ll continue to work with police here to that end.
“Put it this way: if we thought there was a security problem here, we wouldn’t be making this announcement.”
Dawson was flanked at yesterday’s press conference at Portrush by First Minister Peter Robinson and Depute First Minister Martin McGuinness, from opposite sides of the political spectrum in Northern Ireland but singing lustily from the same hymn sheet.
“We need to pay tribute to our golfing superstars who put us on the golfing map,” said Robinson, referring to major champions Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke.
“We have a very troubled past here in Northern Ireland and there’s reputational damage because of that past.
“This shows people what peace and stability looks like. This wouldn’t have happened, these men wouldn’t have dreamed of coming here 20 years ago.
“This shows the new Northern Ireland, confident in the new era.”
McGuinness said that it was “an out of the world announcement”.
“There’s no bigger tournament on the planet and it’s a great honour the R&A have bestowed on us,” he said.
“Just last month we had an event (early stages of the Giro D’Italia cycle race) with 430,000 people watching and there wasn’t a single incident.
“The political and security transformation has sent a very powerful message to the world and to the R&A of our ability to handle these kind of occasions.”
Portrush will undergo several millions pounds of investment from the R&A and NI executive in infrastructure and changes to the course, which are thought to involve the creation of two new holes, with the current 17th and 18th being used for tented village purposes.
These will first have to be cleared with the club’s membership and the local authorities, and although both are likely to be formalities, it means the Open won’t come until 2019 at the earliest.
“Much work is required here before the Open returns,” said Dawson.
“We’ll not be able announce a date for the first event until all these are in place. 2019 is the earliest it can be but it may be we have to wait a year or two longer than that.”
Dawson admitted that the successes of the leading Northern Irish players in winning majors, plus the record crowds that came to the Irish Open in 2012, had been an “eye-opener”.
“Their performances on the course and the staging of the Irish Open showed the strength of the fanbase for golf in Northern Ireland and Ireland altogether,” he said.
“Then there is the wonderful golf course here and the great support and welcome we received from the NI executive and the club. A lot of things were taken into account.”
The tipping point, however, was when architect Martin Ebert produced plans for Portrush that convinced the club it was a possibility to bring the Open back.
“First of all, it was the support for the Irish Open here, but there was also the day with Martin at the course when we discovered `yes, we have a way we can do this’.”