Open 2025: Portrush tee times could be changed due to Orange Order Parade
This comes as the Portrush Sons of Ulster plan their parade in the coastal town on the Saturday evening. Over 60 bands are expected to participate, with the procession set to kick off just after play ends, coinciding with the exit of countless golf enthusiasts.
Months of negotiation to resolve this clash haven't led to any change as requests to delay the parade were turned down.
The RandA's worries revolve around the logistical headache of accommodating the influx of spectators for the two simultaneous events, with the Open traditionally wrapping up by 8pm and the parade slated to begin a mere quarter of an hour later.
According to The Guardian, the RandA is contemplating an earlier commencement of Saturday's play at the prestigious tournament, resulting in an earlier conclusion on the legendary links course, reports Belfast Live.
In a press release, the RandA stated: "We are working on plans to minimise disruption for our fans leaving the championship due to the event taking place in Portrush."
However, one potential hiccup could be the live US television broadcast, which might be affected if even a minor tweak is made to the start time along the North Antrim coast.
Royal Portrush is poised to host the 153rd Open starting July 17, with an unprecedented number of spectators expected to converge on the famous Dunluce links.
The RandA has confirmed that a staggering 278,000 spectators are set to swarm the north coast for what is shaping up to be the largest sporting event ever held in Northern Ireland.
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Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
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Irish Times
2 days ago
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Golf stars return to Portrush for Open, but it's a different set-up to 1951's £300 prize and pick of parking spaces
I would pay good money to see how my late granny, a former Portrush bed and breakfast landlady, would react to the idea of paying up to £50,000 (€58,000) to stay for a week in her beloved Co Antrim seaside town. When the Open first casually rolled into Portrush in 1951, many of the top players found lodgings in boarding houses around the town. More than seven decades later the difference in the price of accommodation, prize money, spectator numbers and media coverage is inconceivable. In 1951, the total purse amounted to £1,700 (€1,970) with the winner receiving £300 (€350). Royal Portrush Golf club proudly announced the installation of 16 new telephones for the use of the press covering the event and the post office installed a mobile facility so that, over the three days of the tournament, the 7,000 spectators could send postcards from the course. 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I suspect that he also thinks that, as one of the few people who will have been to all three Opens held in Portrush, he shouldn't really need a ticket at all. In his debut professional tournament that summer of 1951 in Portrush, the late, great Peter Alliss recalled dancing at Barry's ballroom and swaying, not only to the music, but to the gentle swells of the Atlantic Ocean, merely a hop, skip and a twirl away. In 1951, Portrush was a bustling, fashionable holiday destination, which could already boast a long and successful relationship with the game of golf. More than five decades earlier, on a summer's evening in 1899, unsuspecting visitors to the popular resort would have noticed the centre of the town was unusually busy. Hundreds of people had gathered around the railway station to give a rapturous welcome to a teenage golfing sensation. 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She remained president until the Open was held for the first time at Royal Portrush in 1951. A portrait of her by artist Harry Douglas, commissioned by the club to celebrate her success, still hangs in the Portrush Ladies clubhouse. Seventeen-year-old May Hezlett caused a sensation in Portrush in 1899 when she arrived just won the British Ladies Open Championship and the Irish Ladies Open Championship back to back She died in the winter of 1978 at the age of 95. Little could she have known when she arrived on the platform of Portrush train station eight decades earlier that she would go on to carve her name in the annals of golfing history. As the Open returns for the third time to Royal Portrush, it's entirely fitting that the club recently unveiled an Ulster History Circle Blue Plaque in her honour, cementing her illustrious place in the history of the women's game. And how she would have relished the oldest and most prestigious golf tournament in the world returning to the scene of so many of her victories. She watched the Open when it was first played in Royal Portrush 74 years ago and, no doubt, in 2025 as in 2019, her spirit will be felt keenly by Royal Portrush Ladies watching proudly as the world's best golfers try to tame this mighty links. More than a century ago, behind many great golfing men, there was at least one even greater golfing woman. And so, it will be with a great sense of pride that I, along with my father, the three-time Portrush Open champion spectator, will find a place near the first tee on the first day of the 153rd Open on Thursday to cheer on the finest 21st century exponents of the game. As in 2019, there will be a collective hope among locals that a home-grown hero might just do it again. 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Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Irish Examiner
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