Shane Lowry delighted with Open return to Royal Portrush in 2025
The tournament two years ago attracted a crowd of 237,750 throughout the week.
Shane Lowry, winner of the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush, has expressed his delight that the event will be returning to the Northern Irish links in 2025.
As well as having a popular winner in Irishman Lowry, the tournament two years ago attracted a crowd of 237,750 throughout the week – a record for an Open outside of St Andrews.
Lowry, who is playing in the BMW PGA Championships at Wentworth this week, was among players welcoming the Open’s return to the scene of his famous victory.
“It’s great it’s going back quickly,” he said. “Obviously in my very biased opinion, it’s one of the best Opens I’ve ever played in.
“It’s great to be going back there in 2025. Look forward to it. Don’t have to worry about being in it or not. I’ll be there. It’s great it’s coming back quickly, and exciting for the people in Portrush and Ireland that we are going back there.”
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said: “We could not be more thrilled to be bringing the Open back to Royal Portrush in 2025.
The 150th Open is scheduled to be held at St Andrews next year, with Royal Liverpool and Royal Troon hosting in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
The R&A has expressed hope the Open’s swift return to Northern Ireland could deliver a tournament record for crowds.
The Open’s first outing in the region since 1951 was hailed a resounding triumph, rounded off with spectacular scenes on the 18th hole on Sunday as thousands of fans crowded the fairway to cheer Lowry home.
Buoyed by the success of the 148th Open, it is now bringing the championship back sooner than first anticipated.
Slumbers said the organisation limited ticket sales in 2019 in order to see how the venue would cope with the demands of hosting major golf after such a long absence.
“We could have sold more. There was certainly an appetite for it but we wanted to hold back to make sure that we had the right experience and we understood how all the infrastructure was going to work,” he said.
The current crowd record for an Open is 239,000 at St Andrews in 2000.
“We keep wanting to push the championship up, we are passionate that the Open is one of the world’s greatest sporting events and to do that (we need) big-time crowds,” he said.
“I don’t want to put numbers on it. We’ve got the 150th Open at St Andrews next year and that will be, based on the current indications, the largest Open ever. It would be quite interesting to see if that can be beaten here in 2025.”
