PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland –– One of golf’s worst kept secrets is now official. Royal Portrush will host the 2019 British Open.
It is an announcement that the town’s favorite son never thought would be made.
Darren Clarke, the 2011 British Open champion, was on hand at a packed, standing-room-only press conference in the Royal Portrush clubhouse to welcome the game’s oldest major back after a 68-year absence.
Royal Portrush first staged the British Open in 1951, when Max Faulkner took the title. The course's absence from the British Open rota since then can be put attributed to “The Troubles,” the sectarian conflict from 1968-1998 that split Northern Ireland apart for nearly four years.