British Amateur for The Island and Portmarnock in 2019?
Portmarnock Golf Club
The Open Championship isn't the only big name event the R&A is bringing to Irish shores in 2019. According to our sources The Island and Portmarnock golf clubs will host the Amateur Championship in four years' time.
Both course have undergone considerable upgrade work in recent years with Portmarnock currently in the midst of the €2m irrigation improvement project.
The Island has hosted Regional Qualifying for The Open since 2013 while Portmarnock became the only club outside Great Britain to host the Amateur Championship in 1949, when Max McCready beat Willie Turnesa 2 and 1.
The big question in Irish golf remains the status of Portmarnock as a men only club as a barrier to its hosting the Irish Open on the European Tour.
Host Rory McIlroy said at the Turkish Airlines Open this week that his preference is for an all links Irish Open rota with the event fitting into a links swing before the Scottish Open and The Open.
THE BOAT USED TO TAKE GOLFERS FROM MALAHIDE, PICTURED HERE, TO THE ISLAND. PICTURE © THEISLANDGOLFCLUB.COM
In 2009 the Supreme Court ruled that the golf club was not "discriminating" against the Equal Status Act by banning women from joining, which was condemned at the time by The Irish Ladies Golf Union.
Efforts made earlier this year to sound out the membership with a view to changing the men only rule met with staunch opposition from the more senior members, leading many of younger set to surmise that a change may take more than a few years to achieve.
Portmarnock successfully hosted the St Andrews and Jacques Leglise trophies in 2012 but the 2019 Walker Cup, which Portmarnock might have hoped to land, was awarded instead to Royal Liverpool.
When asked at Royal Portrush recently if another venue on the island of Ireland was also in consideration for an Open (or a Walker Cup) the R&A's Chief Executive Martin Slumbers said: "At this point, we are not looking at any other course anywhere for The Open."
The Amateur Championship was last held on Irish shores in 2014 when strokeplay qualifying was held at Portstewart and Royal Portrush with the matchplay at the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush, where Scotland's Bradley Neil emerged as champion with a 2 and 1 win over South Africa's Zander Lombard.
An Irishman, Gavin Caldwell, is the current captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.
