Trump’s Turnberry Golf Course Won’t Be Getting Open Championship Any Time Soon

President Donald Trump will not be hosting the Open Championship at the Turnberry course he owns in the near future, which the R&A’s new chief executive said on Wednesday was more about transportation than politics.

Turnberry is regarded as the most beautiful of the links courses on the Open rotation, set along the Ayrshire coast in Scotland across from the Ailsa Craig. It last hosted the Open in 2009, before Trump bought the resort.

Mark Darbon, who took over at the R&A this year from Martin Slumbers, stated that Turnberry had not been removed from the list of potential Open sites, but that transportation and other issues needed to be addressed.

“I think we’ve been extremely clear on our position in respect of Turnberry. We love the golf course, but we’ve got some big logistical challenges there,” he said. “You see the scale of their setup here, and we’ve got some work to do on the road, rail and accommodation infrastructure around Turnberry.”

Darbon said that the R&A met with Eric Trump and other leaders of Trump Golf a few months ago and that the talks had been constructive.

“I think they understand clearly where we’re coming from. We talked through some of the challenges that we have, so we’ve got a good dialogue with them,” he said.

Slumbers had previously said the R&A would not be going to Turnberry until it was comfortable that the focus would be on the golf and not the owner.

Turnberry hosted the Open Championship four times, first in 1977 with the famous “Duel in the Sun” when Tom Watson beat Jack Nicklaus. However, the Open is growing larger, and the roads are limited for accessing Turnberry.

There has been speculation that Trump, whose golf courses have never hosted a men’s major, might ask the British government to intercede in getting the Open back to Turnberry.

“We have an ongoing dialogue with the U.K. government, given that we’re a major event that creates significant value for the U.K. economy,” Darbon said. “We’ve spoken to them specifically about Turnberry, and I think they’ve made it clear that the decision around where we take our championship rest with us.

“I would find it difficult to predict whether there will be any discussion on the Open if the president is making a visit here.”