The R&A will have a record crowd when the Open returns to Royal Portrush this summer.

The governing body announced Tuesday that 278,000 will be in attendance for this year’s championship at the Dunluce Links. It is a massive increase from Portrush’s 2019 Open, which drew 237,750 spectators, and will be the largest gathering for the claret jug outside a St. Andrews Open (as 290,000 visited the Old Course in 2022). All four practice rounds are sold out, with the R&A stating 89,000 fans will be in attendance during the early week, exceeding 2019’s total of 61,000. It is believed those numbers will constitute the largest attendance ever held for a Northern Ireland sporting event.

Additionally, new R&A chief Mark Darbon opened the tour for the Open to return to Trump Turnberry. The governing body has stayed away from the iconic resort following Donald Trump’s run for the United States presidency in 2015, with former R&A head Martin Slumbers stating the championship would not visit until the focus was on the tournament, not the owner. Darbon reiterated that claim as recently as February.

However, Darbon also stated that his biggest concern was the commercial and logistical viability of Turnberry as a venue, and that his organisation is working with Turnberry to possibly rectify these issues.

“We want The Open to be genuinely open and accessible,” Darbon said, according to Martin Dempster at the Scotsman. “We want to tell brilliant stories from what we think is a wonderful championship. Turnberry is a wonderful golf course and I think some of the recent improvements there have made it even better.

“It’s a course that we’d love to return to at some point. Given the scale of a modern Open, we have to be really thoughtful about some of the logistical and commercial challenges and opportunities that come with staging an event like this. Turnberry is a brilliant golf course and a wonderful place to tell stories about our game. Where we have some challenges is around the logistical and commercial challenges. I think the last time we were there in 2009, we had just over 120,000 people and we’re going to have close to 280,000 here this summer.

This development comes weeks after Golf Digest reported that the DP World Tour is set to visit one of Trump’s Scotland properties later this year for a European event.

The 153rd Open week begins July 13. Xander Schauffele is the defending champ.

Main Image: Matthew Lewis/R&A