Exclusive:Muirfield in 'positive discussions' with R&A over hosting The Open after Rory McIlroy endorsement

Speaking in Dubai last week, the career grand slam winner said he’d like to see the Claret Jug event back at Muirfield, where it was last hosted by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in 2013 and produced a popular winner at the time in Phil Mickelson.

With a 31st edition at St Andrews in 2027 following this year’s visit to Royal Birkdale, the next available slot on the rota is 2028, when the tournament will be held later than normal to avoid a clash with the Olympics in Los Angeles.

“It would be wonderful if it was,” said McIlroy, speaking at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on Saturday, in reply to being asked by this correspondent about the possibility of Muirfield being announced for 2028. “I'm not privy to those conversations, but Muirfield deserves to be back on The Open rota.”

After a vote to admit women members was successful at the second attempt in 2017, Muirfield hosted the AIG Women’s Open for the first time in 2022 and is gearing up for an historic staging of The R&A Women’s Amateur Championship in June.

‘It's a wonderful golf course’

“Yeah, I would say, Muirfield, they obviously rectified the issues that they had,” added McIlroy, speaking at Emirates Golf Club. “It's a wonderful golf course. It's one of the best courses on the rota and in the UK, but I think, as well, it has to commercially make sense.

“I think Mark Darbon has been brought in to make The Open Championship commercially viable. I would say Muirfield, that area, North Berwick, that would probably be one of the more-commercially viable Opens.”

McIlroy’s comments have been welcomed by Stuart McEwen, secretary of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, after he was contacted by The Scotsman.

“I was delighted to hear of his support, and approval, for The Open to return to Muirfield, and that it deserves to host again,” said McEwen. “Also, that he praised the golf course as one of the best on The Open rota, which, of course, we fully agree with. The club, HCEG, would be delighted to host another Open at Muirfield, and positive discussions with The R&A are ongoing.”

The Scotsman also contacted The R&A in the wake of McIlroy’s comments but Darbon, who succeeded Martin Slumbers last year, had nothing to add to what he said on the matter at last year’s 153rd Open at Royal Portrush.

The R&A is ‘open-minded to solutions’

“We love the golf course at Muirfield,” he said then. “We're in a discussion with the venue right now. There's some things that we need to evolve at Muirfield, the practice ground in particular is a challenge for us with a modern Open and there's some work we need to do with the venue to facilitate some of the infrastructure that we require, some cabling to enable the scale of the production that we have these days. But it's a good dialogue and we'd love to be back there in the future.”

Given that something similar has already happened at Royal Liverpool, using the practice ground next door at The Renaissance Club, where the Genesis Scottish Open is currently held, could be a possibility. “I think we're open-minded to solutions,” commented Darbon.