The Open At Turnberry, And Why It’s An Open And Shut Case

Fair Comment; Autumn 2025

Cards on the table: I love Turnberry. It’s one of my favourites. It’s also widely regarded as a great course — and rightly so. Personally, I think it’s the best on the Open Championship rota. But here’s the rub: in the current climate there is no way that Turnberry should be back on that rota, and, certainly, not as soon as 2028.

Whatever your political hue, what can not be denied is that anything with Donald Trump connections is currently toxic to some degree. Having just about survived the LIV Golf breakaway — an internal struggle — the last thing the sport needs is to be the world focus for political protests and to be tarnished in any way with an orange brush.

Trump would want to attend. His ego would demand it. And given his Presidency does not end until January 2029, the security implications for his attendance at a Turnberry Open in 2028 would certainly place an unacceptable burden on the British taxpayer. One only has to see the reaction of the British public to a recent visit from his Vice-President, JD Vance, to imagine how vitriolic the atmosphere would be for Trump’s attendance at an Open.

The R&A is making a great play of ‘logistical issues’ as the main barrier preventing Turnberry returning to the rota, but I doubt the expense of rectifying that would bother the Trump Organization. The clear issue here is Trump himself. I agree with Mark Darbon’s predecessor as R&A chief executive, Martin Slumbers, who had said previously that Turnberry would not be reconsidered until the focus was on the golf itself and not the golf club’s controversial owner.

But that is unlikely to be the case all the time Trump is the self-appointed ‘leader of the free world’. And, if his first eight months in office are any guide, he’s still likely to remain divisive long after his second tenure is up.

Trump is no doubt putting pressure on British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to do likewise to the R&A. But the latter should stand firm and resist any pressure to award the 2028 Open Championship to Turnberry. European golf should back its firm stance. And back it vocally.

There is no way golf or any of its venues worldwide should be allowed to be used as a political tool. The focus of the world and the world’s media, in particular, should always be on the golf — that’s why we’re there; that’s why people pay top dollar to attend; and that’s why TV rights are so expensive. When the TV cameras and press pack switch to what’s happening off the playing surfaces a sport is tarnished, sometimes irrevocably. Has athletics ever truly recovered from the doping scandals? Has cycling? I would argue not — not completely.

Maybe, in the future, when Trump’s toxicity has declined to something below 11 on the Spinal Tap venom counter, Turnberry should be allowed to, once again, take its rightful place atop the Open rota. Anything carrying the Trump name will still have baggage but at least it will be smaller — the type you can put under the seat in front of you on a budget airline.

It breaks my heart not to be able to watch the Open at Turnberry, but it’s necessary to retain the dignity of the sport we hold dear.