US President-elect Donald Trump has suffered a major blow with the news Turnberry will remain off The Open rota.
The famed Ayrshire links bought by the American businessman and politician in 2014 has not hosted golf’s oldest Major championship for 15 years. It was struck off the schedule due to the controversy surrounding Trump.
But with the 78-year-old preparing to return to the White House it had been hoped by Trump Turnberry officials the course would again hold The Open. But R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers has torpedoed Trump’s dream, warning The Open won’t return there until the “media noise” has been silenced.
Slumbers told The Golf Channel: “We are in a position at the moment with respect to Turnberry where we will not be taking any events there until we are comfortable the whole dialogue is about golf. That is still a situation we are not comfortable with at the moment but that could evolve in the coming years.
“I think Turnberry is a fantastic golf course. A lot of people know that it is my favourite links course. So, I think that position is clear and I think there is a path forward if that situation changes.”
Asked what it was about Turnberry that Slumbers wasn’t comfortable with, he said: “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.
“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.”