Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course can't host Open due to 'logistical' issues, says R&A chief Mark Darbon

Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course can’t host The Open because of “logistical issues”, the boss of the sport’s oldest governing body has said.

R&A chief executive Mark Darbon said that problems with “road, rail and accommodation infrastructure” were preventing the resort in Ayrshire from hosting – but revealed that talks have taken place with the Trump family to explain the situation.

Turnberry hasn’t hosted a major since 2009, five years before the current US president bought the course. Last year former R&A chief Martin Slumbers reiterated the position that while “on the rota” it wouldn’t be given the championship “until we’re comfortable that the whole dialogue will be about golf”.

However, the governing body has repeatedly said that issues regarding infrastructure and transport links around the Ayrshire coast create logistical and commercial issues that prevent the major taking place at Trump’s course.

The subject became a talking point in May when it was reported that Trump had repeatedly raised Turnberry’s exclusion with the UK government and that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had asked R&A executives if The Open could be awarded to Turnberry in 2028. Downing Street later said that the decision would ultimately remain with golf’s organising bodies.

Ahead of this week’s Championship at Royal Portrush, Darbon was asked about the issue and said that the primary reason Turnberry was not currently being considered was for practical reasons and not political.

“I think we have been extremely clear on our position in regard to Turnberry,” Darbon said.

“We love the golf course but we have some big logistical issues there.

“You’ve seen the scale of the set-up here and there’s some work to do on the road, rail and accommodation infrastructure around Turnberry.

“We’ve explicitly not taken it out of our pool of venues but we’d need to address those logistical challenges should we return.”

However, he said that discussions had been held with the president’s son Eric Trump to make him aware of exactly what issues have to be resolved.

“Unless we address the logistical challenges, it’s difficult for us to go back,” he said.

“I met a couple of months ago with Eric Trump and some of the leadership from the Trump golf organisation from Turnberry. We had a really good discussion.

“I think they understand clearly where we are coming from. We talked through some of the challenges that we have so we have a good dialogue with them.”

Darbon also explained that similar concerns were the reason why Muirfield was not in the running to host The Open either.

“We love the golf course at Muirfield,” he said.

“We’re in discussions with the venue right now. There are some things we need to evolve at Muirfield, the practice ground in particular is a challenge for us with a modern Open.

“And there’s some work to facilitate some infrastructure we need, but there’s some good dialogue and we’d love to go back there in the future.”