The Open: Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland to return as hosts of 2025 contest
Royal Portush has previously hosted The Open in 1951 and most recently in 2019, where Shane Lowry enjoyed major success; St Andrews, Royal Liverpool and Royal Troon are the next three venues for The Open.
By Ali Stafford
Last Updated: 08/09/21 6:10pm
The R&A has announced that The Open will return to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for the 2025 contest.
The famous links, situated on the northern tip of County Antrim, became the first course outside Scotland and England to host The Open in 1951, when Max Faulkner clinched his only major title.
The tournament was the venue of The 149th Open in 2019, where Shane Lowry delighted record crowds to secure a maiden major title, with the venue set to host the Championship for a third time from July 17-20, 2025.
Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A, said: "We could not be more thrilled to be bringing The Open back to Royal Portrush in 2025. There will be huge excitement among golf fans around the world to see the best men's players facing the challenge of this magnificent links once again.
"The Open in 2019 was a massive success and showed just how much collective enthusiasm, passion and commitment there is to make Royal Portrush one of the leading venues for the Championship and to build a distinctive golf tourism brand for Northern Ireland."
The Open generated more than £100m for the economy of Northern Ireland two years ago, attracting a record attendance for the Championship outside of St Andrews of 237,750 fans throughout the week.
Royal Portrush joins a formidable line-up of venues for The Open in the coming years with The 150th Open being played at St Andrews in 2022 and then Royal Liverpool and Royal Troon hosting the following two editions.
First Minister for Northern Ireland Paul Givan MLA said: "Following the outstanding success of The Open at Royal Portrush in 2019 I am thrilled to welcome the return of the championship in 2025.
"It has been a key aim of the Executive to bring The Open back to Northern Ireland quickly and as we start our preparations to host the championship again, I am certain that it will provide a platform on which to build a global golfing destination brand for Portrush and Northern Ireland to complement that of St Andrews and Scotland."
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Lowry also welcomed the news and is already looking forward to returning to the scene of his major success.
He said: "It's great it's going back quickly. Obviously in my very biased opinion, it's one of the best Opens I've ever played in. But no, without taking the win out of it and all that, I think anybody you talked to, the American players and the other players that played, they really enjoyed the venue and thought it was one of the great Opens that they played.
"It's great to be going back there in 2025. Look forward to it. Don't have to worry about being in it or not. I'll be there. It's exciting for the people in Portrush and Ireland that we are going back there."
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