R&A confident of handling ‘McIlroy mania’ when Open returns to Portrush in July

By David Young, PA

The organisers of the Open Championship have expressed confidence they can manage ‘McIlroy mania’ on the tournament’s return to Northern Ireland in July.

The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush is set to become the second-best attended in history, with almost 280,000 fans having snapped up tickets for the final major of the year.

The event was already a complete sell-out before home favourite Rory McIlroy completed the career grand slam with his dramatic Masters victory at Augusta National.

Almost 1.1 million people applied in the public ticket ballot last year, with 278,000 securing tickets across the practice days and four tournament days.

That is around 41,000 more than attended the Open when Shane Lowry triumphed at Royal Portrush in 2019. That year marked the first time the Open had been played in Northern Ireland since 1951.

While the tickets for this year’s tournament were allocated long before the nerve-shredding conclusion at Augusta, recently appointed R&A chief executive Mark Darbon acknowledged the prospect of McIlroy teeing off on home turf as a Masters champion had added to the excitement around the Open’s third hosting in Northern Ireland.

“I think it’s brilliant for the sport of golf, not just our own championship,” Darbon said. “It was an amazing, emotional win.

“We’re delighted to see Rory etch his name in the history books.”

The record attendance at an Open came in 2022 at St Andrews when 290,000 attended the 150th staging of the tournament.

Asked if the hype around McIlroy would present crowd management issues at Portrush, Darbon said he was confident the understandable spectator desire to catch a glimpse of the five-time major winner could be managed.

“I think you’re always thinking through how do you manage the crowd effectively, how do you get the experience right for spectators and other groups that we look after at one of these big events,” he told the PA news agency.

“I think it’s important to realise that the Open is more than just a golf event.

“It’s clearly one of golf’s majors, but it’s one of the biggest and best sporting events in the world, and so we spend a lot of time in planning and thinking through how we orchestrate movements of crowds and other groups around the golf course. And this will be no different.”

The Open’s return to the island of Ireland comes as the R&A continues to scope out the feasibility of holding a future Open at Portmarnock, near Dublin.

“We’re going through a big feasibility study exercise right now, with support from the local authorities and the (Irish) Government,” he said.

“We’re really getting under the skin of whether and how and when we can stage a championship at Portmarnock. Clearly, it’s a great golf course, and so we’re optimistic for the future.”

As for whether Turnberry will host an Open while it remains owned by President Donald Trump, Darbon reiterated the R&A’s stance that the focus of any Open must be solely on the golf and also voiced concerns around the infrastructure around the Ayrshire course.

“The golf course is magnificent,” Darbon said. “If anything, it’s better now than it ever has been, given some of the improvements that have been made to the course.

“But there are some challenges around the road and rail network, some of the accommodation provision in the surrounding area, and so we’re working on what a model could look like for the future.”