Trump’s Turnberry made to wait for British Open return as Royal Lytham gets 2028 edition

The long wait to stage the British Open again will soon be over for Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

It goes on and on for President Donald Trump’s Turnberry course.

The R&A announced its host for the 2028 edition of golf’s oldest major on Monday, with Royal Lytham given the honor for the 12th time — and first since 2012.

That year, Ernie Els lifted the claret jug after a shocking collapse by Adam Scott, who made bogey on his last four holes to finish one shot behind.

For Royal Lytham, it will be the second-longest gap between hosting Opens. Some 26 years elapsed between its first — won by the great Bobby Jones in 1926 — and second.

“This is one of golf’s most cherished and historic venues,” R&A chief executive Mark Darbon said, “and the Open’s return to these famous links will spark huge interest among fans to be part of one of the world’s great sporting events and celebrate the rich traditions of golf’s original championship.”

Turnberry hasn’t experienced that since 2009, when Tom Watson — at age 59 — lost excruciatingly in a playoff to Stewart Cink. Five years later, Trump bought the resort set along the Ayrshire coast in Scotland across from the Ailsa Craig and the R&A has opted not to go back there, with its former CEO, Martin Slumbers, saying it wouldn’t until it was comfortable the topic would be about golf and not the owner.

Last year, Darbon met with Eric Trump and other leaders of Trump Golf and held what the R&A chief described as constructive talks, but said transportation and other issues like infrastructure had to be addressed.

Also shunned for 2028 was Muirfield, among the most historic of the links on the rotation and most recently the British Open host in 2013 when Phil Mickelson won.

To host the Open, size matters

Size clearly matters for the R&A, which has preferred larger Open venues in recent years like the Old Course at St. Andrews — the most regular stop on the rotation — and Royal Portrush, which hosted in 2019 and again in 2025 when nearly 280,000 spectators came to the course on the tip of the island of Ireland to watch.

The Open will be played at Royal Birkdale this year and is back in 2027 at St. Andrews, which holds the record weekly attendance of 290,000 in 2022.

The 2028 edition at Royal Lytham will be held later than usual in the year — Aug. 3-6 — so it doesn’t clash with the Olympic tournament at Los Angeles Games that summer.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf