Martin Slumbers, the outgoing chief executive of R&A, has stated that a potential return to presidency by Donald Trump will not influence The Open Championship’s decision to return to Turnberry.
The Ayrshire course last hosted The Open in 2009 and hasn’t been considered for the final major championship of the season since Trump purchased it in 2014. The Women’s Open was the last major event at Turnberry, taking place in 2015, a year after Trump’s acquisition. However, since then, the iconic Scottish course has been sidelined by the R&A, with Slumbers confirming no plans to return in the near future.
“We will not be taking any events there until we are comfortable that the whole dialogue will be about golf,” Slumbers told Golf Channel this week. He further added, “That situation is something we’re still not comfortable with at the moment, but that could evolve in the coming years.”
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Slumbers appears determined to keep the focus on the championship itself rather than off-course politics. “When you look at the major championships, we want the whole thing to be purely about the golf course and to be purely about the players that are competing on it,” he added.
“And to make sure that there’s no sort of media noise that detracts away from the fact that this is a golf championship, the oldest and original golf championship, and that should be the single source of the media coverage. I think that’s really important if we’re going to preserve the strength of our events.”
Despite Slumbers’ remarks, it seems some of golf’s biggest stars believe the Trump course has what it takes to host The Open once more.
Martin Slumbers said Donald Trump won’t be able to influence the chances of The Open Championship being played at Trump Turnberry (
Getty)
Speaking to Mirror Sport last month, Trump Turnberry general manager Nic Oldham said: “We had Sir Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, John Daly, Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, all play it pre or post The Open.”
“And every single one of them said it was set up for an Open and could have played it in the condition it was that week. That was our intention – we had a huge number of people playing that week. The members have said they’ve never seen it play as well. And that’s our intention, week in, week out, from May until September, every year from now on.”
More than happy to play into the hands of Open bosses, he added: “We are always looking to get The Open and we will do anything the R&A want us to do. If they said they were in a position to award us The Open again then we sit down with them, as what would normally happen, and look at what needs to be changed for the modern game of golf.”
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