BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Is Trump A Turnberry Turn-Off?

This article is more than 4 years old.

Is it the 2009 Open or the 2015 Women’s British Open which has left Turnberry out in the cold and without a date in the diary to next host a major championship?

The perception is that the R&A’s quest to annually attract 200,000 spectators to its show-piece event is key because Turnberry got nowhere near that tally 11 years ago, but might the real cause be memories of course owner Donald Trump’s appearance six years later?

At a media briefing earlier this week in St Andrews the R&A’s chief executive Martin Slumbers was clear about the organization’s aims.

“We internally have a desire for The Open to be one of the world’s greatest sporting events and I have said a number of times that I think that a big-time sports event need a big-time crowd,” he said.

“We’re heading to Royal St George’s in just five months,” he added. “The previous record of crowd attendance at Royal St George’s was 183,000, and we will be through 200,000 come July. We’re fully sold out from the Saturday, with Friday and Thursday is getting pretty full, as well. So we are looking where we can get larger crowds.”

The 2021 Open will head to The Old Course, then Royal Liverpool in 2022 and Slumbers revealed that the 2023 championship will be hosted by Royal Troon.

On the one hand, this allows the tournament to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its first visit to the Ayrshire course.

On the other, it was an unexpected return ahead of either Muirfield or Turnberry, and it is now glaringly obvious that the latter is, despite a course renovation project that has drawn widespread respect, very low in the Open rota pecking order.

Given the R&A’s desire to fund its extensive, and growing, developmental work around the world the magic figure of 200,000 is deemed not only helpful but critical.

The event 11 years ago drew a mere 132,000 spectators and yet, whilst this must be an issue, insiders also suggest that Turnberry’s hosting of the 2015 Women’s British Open casts a shadow over any future plans.

At the time, Trump was merely a potential Presidential runner and two weeks before, at the Open no less, the PR team from Trump Aberdeen were keen to stress that he would not be in attendance at Turnberry, lest he direct attention away from the field.

However, he arrived by helicopter on the first day, took in an aerial view of the action prior to landing and drew all media activity from the course by hosting a press conference midway through the action, during which he frequently directed questions toward his political ambitions.

Speaking off the record to Forbes two observers involved in that tournament have no doubt that the experience would make the R&A very wary of taking the Open to the venue anytime soon.

Open partners and contractors have recognized that the R&A has increased its control of the championship.

In the modern world this makes absolute sense, but it is revealed in tight command of details and there seems little doubt that the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of Trump’s methods would be viewed with distinct trepidation.

These R&A specifics protect the integrity of the championship and Trump’s notions of detail may cause some in the home of golf to shudder.

He utilized the 2015 event to direct the focus of attention toward himself, one example being that he not only ordered the largest Saltire flag in Scotland to be flown from the pole by the first tee, but repeatedly boasted about it, a vanity at odds with those who run the game in the U.K.

There is also the question of political distraction.

An Open hosted at Turnberry would inevitably draw considerable protest from opponents of Trump’s other activities in Scotland (his controversial Aberdeen project) and also critics of his Presidency.

The course is famous for the 1977 showdown between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, a head-to-head christened The Duel in the Sun. The prospect of an ugly sequel between a President and jeering hordes would weaken even the hardiest of souls.

There’s surely no doubt that the absence of 70,000 people poses a problem, but the presence of one might be the greater obstacle to the Open’s return to Turnberry.