R&A CEO Mark Darbon gave his “state-of-the-union address” Wednesday ahead of this weekend’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, and he addressed the idea of possibly moving up tee times for Sunday’s final round if England ends up playing in the World Cup final. The R&A “expects the final putt on Sunday to drop at 6:40 p.m. local time, which should leave time for a three-hole playoff to be completed in time for the World Cup final.” But Darbon “admitted that if England does get through to the final, they’ll have more discussions.” Darbon: “I’m an England football fan, so it would be a great problem to have. But I guess also, because I’m an England football fan, we should also wait to see how the semifinal goes before we get too far ahead. Of course in the background, we’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this. ... At this stage, no plans to alter anything, but we’ll maintain that under review and finalize our position after the semifinal” (GOLFWEEK, 7/15).
Darbon also said the R&A is “getting pretty close” to staging an Open Championship outside of the U.K. for the first time, at Portmarnock Golf Club in Dublin. The R&A first revealed the possibility of Portmarnock hosting the Open in 2023, with the Irish government “announcing its support of up to” $45M. Darbon: “It’s a complicated venue because of the scale of the Open Championship. ... We’ve undertaken a big feasibility study. That work is pretty much done. We’ve confirmed that we believe we can take an Open Championship there. ... That’s the dialogue we’re in right now with the Irish Government and we’re optimistic that those discussions are heading in the right direction.” On when a decision might be made, Darbon said the R&A is “hoping to have a pretty clear view by the end of the year” (BBC.com, 7/15).
The Open is coming off of its best final-round viewership on NBC since 2022, drawing 4.1 million viewers for Scottie Scheffler’s win at Royal Portrush last year. That was up 21% from Xander Schauffele’s win at Royal Troon in 2024 and up 16% from Brian Harman’s 2023 win at Royal Liverpool (SBJ).
