Donald Trump’s Turnberry Golf Club will not be staging The Open Championship in the near term after the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club secured the hosting rights for the 156th Open in 2028. The 2024 edition of the major will be held at Royal Birkdale, and the tournament will move back to the historic "Home of Golf" at St Andrews in 2027.
Turnberry, which has long campaigned for a place on the Open rotation, remains off the schedule because a number of logistical hurdles have yet to be resolved. "The challenge at Turnberry is a logistical challenge," said Mark Darbon, the R&A’s chief executive, in an interview with Sky Sports on Monday. He explained that the scale of a modern Open demands a robust road, rail and accommodation network, and that Turnberry’s remote Ayrshire location makes it difficult to meet those requirements without significant investment. Darbon added that the R&A maintains an open dialogue with the Turnberry owners and hopes to revisit the issue once the infrastructure concerns are addressed.
Meanwhile, another historic venue, Muirfield, has also been left out of the R&A’s immediate plans. The Scottish club last hosted the Open in 2013, when Phil Mickelson captured the Claret Jug by three strokes.
Muirfield’s exclusion is partly linked to its past membership policies. In 2016, former R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said the club would not be considered until it lifted its ban on female members.
Although the club voted in 2017 to admit women, it has still not been re‑added to the Open rota, despite a public appeal from Rory McIlroy earlier this year. The next realistic opportunity for Muirfield appears to be 2031, after the neighboring Renaissance Club has been awarded the Genesis Scottish Open through 2030. The 2028 Open will return to Royal Lytham & St Annes for the first time since 2012, when Ernie Els secured his second Claret Jug on those links.
Lytham’s roll of champions reads like a who's‑who of golf history, featuring legends such as Bobby Jones, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Sir Bob Charles, Tony Jacklin, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Lehman and David Duval. Darbon praised the venue, noting that it has been a showcase for memorable moments since Bobby Jones won the inaugural Open there in 1926.
He said the 2028 edition will "spark huge interest among fans" and celebrate the deep traditions of the sport. Tim Walker, chairman of the council at Royal Lytham & St Annes, expressed pride in being selected for the 156th Open, highlighting the club’s centennial connection to Bobby Jones’s 1926 victory and its recent Royal charter.
He looked forward to welcoming the world’s top players and a global audience to England’s coastal links. The R&A is moving the Open back to August in 2028 to avoid a clash with the Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The 2025 Open was won by Scottie Scheffler at Royal Portrush, giving him his fourth major and first Claret Jug. This year’s Open will be contested at Royal Birkdale from July 16‑19, while Lytham will also host the AIG Women’s Open from July 29 to August 2, broadcast live on Sky Sports. President Trump has long hoped that Turnberry might re‑enter the Open rotation. He purchased the resort in April 2014 and has reportedly lobbied Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to secure a future Open at the south‑Ayrshire venue.
Turnberry’s Ailsa Course last hosted the championship in 2009, when Stewart Cink emerged victorious. Over the four rounds, roughly 120,000 spectators attended. Despite its reputation as one of the finest courses in the British Isles, the R&A cites both logistical and financial concerns tied to Turnberry’s remote setting.
In 2021, the governing body warned that a Turnberry Open could become more about the U.S. President than about the sport itself. That warning came shortly after the PGA of America stripped Trump National Golf Club Bedminster of its right to host the 2022 PGA Championship. An official R&A statement read: "We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future.
We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself, and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances." In 2025, Eric Trump met with R&A officials to discuss the venue. While the conversation was largely positive, the core issue—logistics—remained. Darbon said he would "love" to see the Open return to Turnberry, but reiterated that the current infrastructure does not support such an event. He recounted a recent meeting with Eric Trump and Turnberry leadership, noting that both sides understand the challenges and are maintaining dialogue.
The Guardian reported that a government spokesperson also approached the R&A in 2025, urging a 2028 Turnberry Open, but the R&A emphasized its independence from political pressure. "We regularly engage with government and local authorities regarding venues," an R&A spokesperson told Sky Sports, adding that the logistical difficulties have been clearly communicated to officials. Ticket demand for the Open remains massive. Over one million applications were received for the 2026 Open at Royal Birkdale, and the 2025 event at Royal Portrush set an attendance record with 278,000 spectators across four days—the highest figure outside St Andrews.
Darbon summed up the R&A’s stance: "We love the golf course but we have big logistical challenges. You see the scale of their set‑up here and we have work to do on the road, rail and accommodation infrastructure." Meanwhile, the PGA Tour will head to Trump National Doral in Miami for the inaugural Cadillac Championship, the fourth Signature Event of the 2026 season, with live coverage on Sky Sports. Golf fans can watch all four rounds of the Cadillac Championship from Thursday at 4 pm on Sky Sports Golf, either via a subscription or a contract‑free streaming option.
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