Clarke: Portrush Beats This!

Derek Lawrenson talks to Darren Clarke about the prospects of a Portrush hosted Open after seeing it answers all of the same questions Turnberry faced.

But, as Clarke drily points out: 'Turnberry answers all the accommodation questions, does it? With the new road (to Portrush), you're no more than 40 minutes from Belfast, where there's plenty of accommodation. There's plenty of room around the course for tented villages and so on, while the new tees mean that the course is plenty tough enough.'

Hill believes the venue could not cope with more than 15,000 people walking round it each day but Clarke doesn't buy that argument either.

'The bottom line is we're talking about a links course as good as any in the world, where the arguments against are less strong than they are for the return of Turnberry,' he said.

Comments

[Brad Ford]

I played that course two days after the British Seniors Open concluded. It made me cry and curl up in the fetal position.

[KS]

The IRA is proably more on the minds of the R&A than the number of accomodations available.

[Colin P.]

I love Portrush and would like to see The Open there, but there's no denying that there are several tight spectating areas on the Dunluce Course. Attendance would have to be limited, but that's a small price to pay once in a while. Similar to what the USGA has done in scheduling Merion.

[DBCooper]

Eliminate Lytham and Troon from the rota and add Portrush.

Stop this business about every 5 years playing at the OC. Carnoustie runs circles around the OC.

Then, since it is insisted that it be called the "Open Championship", add Royal Melbourne and a couple of other international sites to the rota.

[ArdmoreAri]

How long til we see Royal County Down on the Open roster?

[Farmingdale]

Colin,

There are a number of tight spectating areas at Bethpage Black as well. Matter of fact, the clubhouse side of the road is basically a complete clusterf*ck at all times. Same for the 9-green/10-tee/11-green/12-tee area.

[Colin P.]

AA, with regard to spectating areas, road access, and accommodation, RCD is far more problematic than Portrush Dunluce.

Farmingdale, I could see that, and I so pitied the mudsters.