Muirfield needs 'a few tweaks' for The Open to return to East Lothian venue

The East Lothian course, where the world’s oldest major has been staged 16 times, is still waiting in the wings after Royal Lytham was announced earlier this year as the venue for the 2028 edition.

It is believed that one of the issues at Muirfield is a proposal that the green at par-5 fifth be moved to alleviate what The R&A talk about as a “spectator pinch point”.

Speaking at Royal Birkdale on the eve of this week’s 154th edition, Darbon delivered his latest update on where Muirfield stands in terms of The Open.

“As I've said to you many times, we've got a great dialogue with Muirfield,” he replied to a question from The Scotsman. “We've just staged a really successful Amateur Championship there for the women. We're excited to return an Open Championship to that venue in the future.

“It requires a few tweaks both around the golf course and across the site more broadly, but it's a good dialogue with the club and one that we'll maintain.”

In a follow up question, Darbon was asked to give his view on whether it was right that time-tested courses like Muirfield need to be tweaked to accommodate the fan experience, with a new hole, for example, having been created at Birkdale for this week’s event by The R&A’s course architects.

“I think what I would say, first and foremost, is that these are all members' clubs,” he said. “So a lot of the decision-making is driven by the members themselves. I think where we are this week is a brilliant example of that. The changes to the golf course have been driven by the members.

“Given the strength of partnership that we have with our host venues, of course we're part of some of those discussions, and where there are things that we can do together that also help us operationally, they often make sense to do to help with the staging of the championship.

“But I think it would be wrong to say that all of the changes are driven by a need to accommodate spectators. They're ultimately decisions for the clubs and their members.”

Darbon revealed that things are “getting pretty close” in terms of Portmarnock, which would be a new addition to the rota, being announced as a future venue.

He also spoke openly about the prize fund for this week’s event being raised by just $775,000, taking it up to $17.75m, with the winner getting $3.2m compared to $3.1m last year.

“We are big believers in recognising and rewarding the players. They're the icons of our sport. They have a disproportionate impact on the status and standing of the game,” he said.

“We look at prize money as part of a broader package that we offer here at The Open Championship. So prize money is but one component of that comparison. At the same time, we're trying to find a model that gets the balance right. We have a relatively unique model at The R&A.

“We invest the proceeds that we generate from this Open Championship back into the sport. That's really important for us, and we think we're finding the right balance.”

A record 300,000 fans will be in attendance at Royal Birkdale this week, with another whopping crowd being lined up for next year’s event at St Andrews. The ballot for it opened recently, with Darbon revealing that 750,000 applications were made in the first nine days. “We’re seeing demand continue to grow,” said The R&A chief.