On a perfect day at Royal Porthcawl, with the Bristol Channel in the background, it’s easy to imagine The Open being played there. Yet a Welsh Open Championship feels a long way off.
On paper, it feels overdue. Wales boasts a coastline sculpted for links golf, as well as a roster of historic clubs that offer the ideal golf trip.
Aberdovey, Royal St David’s, and Conwy are a number of highly respected Welsh links courses. But in its 166-year history, not once has an Open Championship set foot on Welsh soil. Why?
Well, speaking on the latest NCG Top 100s Podcast, hosts Tom Irwin and Dan Murphy believe the scope and size of a modern Open is simply too much.
Although their courses have the pedigree, the gap between the possibility and practicalities of staging an Open Championship anywhere in Wales seems to have grown wider.
“There’s only really one contender which is Royal Porthcawl,” Murphy believes. “It has successfully held senior opens and AIG Women’s Opens.
“I have spoken to people there who say it’s possible, it’s doable that the infrastructure does exist. I’m not sure I can see it based on the R&A’s desire to get so many people in there.
“I also think it would be quite a dangerous precedent if they said, ‘we’ll go here because it’s the right thing to do’.
“I just think there’d be a few other (venues) that would be questioning why they wouldn’t be going to them.
“That’s not a slight on the golf course or the club, or anything like that. I just think it’s a bit too remote, and I’m not sure it is set up to host a modern Open.”
Unfortunately, the reality is that the best links courses are often found in the more remote locations. It’s no different in Wales.
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That’s part of their charm, but it is equally their biggest problem.
“The other venues in Wales are outsiders in the truest sense,” Irwin said. “The nature of the geography means to get to a Royal St Davids’ or an Aberdovey or even a Conwy, you’ve got a long way around the coast.
“The in-and-out is difficult. All of these places are also isolated towns.
“Aberdovey is an amazing place to go on a golf trip. The town is just the right size, there’s a curry town, pubs and all the rest of it.
“But it’s not going to be able to host a quarter of a million people, is it?
“So, these are great golf courses that are ticking lots of boxes in terms of the venues themselves, but they’re not necessarily in the right place.”
There is no doubt that places like Royal Porthcawl will likely continue to stage elite events, just not the biggest one.
Unless there is a shift in the quality of infrastructure or a change in how The Open is staged, it’s hard to see a Welsh visit anytime soon.
“It (Royal Porthcawl) does seem to get frequent visits from other R&A events,” Irwin noted. “It’s had the Seniors Open, it has had the Women’s Open, it has had the Walker Cup.
“So I think it feels like that is a ‘you can’t have The Open, but here are loads of other things you can have’. Rather than these are not test cases for potentially getting an Open in the future.
Listen to the NCG Top 100s Podcast
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NOW HAVE YOUR SAY
Do you think a Welsh venue should host The Open Championship at some point in the future? In an ideal world, which Welsh golf course would you want The Open to be held at? Let us know by leaving a comment or by getting in touch with us on X!
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