The former President of America, Donald Trump owns multiple golf courses—16 to be exact. Five years after it last staged golf’s oldest major, Trump purchased Turnberry golf resort in 2014. While Trump has been vying for his Ayrshire venue to be host again, R&A, Open Championships organizers, was pretty blunt about its lack of plans to stage championships there in 2021. Come 2023, Trump claimed to have spent millions of dollars to revamp the course, following the advice from Peter Dawson, former chief executive of R&A.
Upon the latter’s recommendation, he sought help from architect Martin Grant Hawtree. This goes to say that Trump has been lobbying to be on the good side of R&A since the start. Yet, hosting the 2023 British Open now seems like a far-fetched dream as his golf course stays blacklisted. And R&A has its reasons.
R&A looks the other way for the “foreseeable future”
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The Trump Turnberry golf resort in Scotland was all ready to host the Open Championship from July 16–23. Just last month, in fact, Trump announced his excitement for the matter. He enthusiastically stated, “Everybody wants to see the Open Championship here”. In an interview with GB News, Trump added, “We’re going to make a couple of little minor adjustments but it’s fantastic. Everybody wants to see the Open Championship here – the players, it’s their favorite course, it’s the No 1-rated in Europe.” However, R&A doesn’t think so.
Report: Turnberry golf course won't host British Open while owned by Donald Trump https://t.co/z3EKvCq2jP
— Golfweek (@golfweek) June 2, 2023
The R&A has now barred the much-anticipated Open Championship at the Trump-owned resort, citing security reasons because of its association with Donald Trump as the cause for the abrupt venue cancellation. An R&A source told Telegraph Sport, “We have no plans to stage any of our championships there in the foreseeable future and will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself.”
Had the Turnberry course successfully hosted the major this year, it would have been Trump’s first course to host a major championship! Despite the fact that the former POTUS will have to wait longer for that thrill, his links course near Aberdeen will host the PGA Seniors Championship. Further, 2023 will see his courses staging three of the LIV events as well.
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The Turnberry golf course’s history with the Open Championship four-times
The Turnberry course has been the host of major championships on four occasions in the past. The first was in 1977 when Tom Watson beat out Jack Nicklaus for the win. And the last time came in 2009 when Stewart Cink won his first and only major championship.
In a statement to The Telegraph, Eric Trump (the executive vice president of the Trump organization) added, “We are incredibly proud of this historic icon and remain deeply committed to the Open Championship whenever the call is received.”
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With Turnberry out of the discussion, it has paved the way for another serious question. With less than 2 months to go, who will now be announced as the host for the season’s final major? Where do you think it will now be played? Let us know in the comments below.
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