The Open’s Great Untapped Treasures: Why Golf’s Finest Courses Remain Locked Out of the Majors

After 35 years covering professional golf—and having walked the fairways of nearly every Open venue worth mentioning—I’ve come to appreciate one of sport’s great paradoxes: some of the planet’s best golf courses will likely never host its most prestigious championship. It’s not a tragedy, exactly, but it is worth examining.

The article highlighting seven world-class links courses worthy of The Open got me thinking about the invisible gatekeepers that determine which venues get their moment in the spotlight. And here’s what strikes me most: the R&A’s selection process, while thoughtful and often brilliant, has created an almost impenetrable barrier that has less to do with golf architecture than with infrastructure, logistics, and—let’s be honest—commercial viability.

The Infrastructure Bottleneck

In my experience caddying for Tom Lehman back in the ’90s, I learned quickly that championship golf requires more than great holes. It requires roads, hotels, parking, merchandise villages, and the ability to move 40,000 spectators safely through a course in a single day. Royal County Down—ranked number one in the world—remains the poster child for this frustration.

“Royal County Down is without doubt the best course not to have held The Open, probably also a Major. Having not played here before I played here last summer and it went in comfortably as my new No. 1.”

That’s an extraordinary endorsement from someone with impeccable credentials. The Mourne Mountains backdrop, the approach-shot architecture, the front nine that plays like a symphony—it’s everything The Open should celebrate. Yet it will almost certainly never host the championship because County Down sits in a relatively remote part of Northern Ireland. The logistics would be nightmarish. The R&A would have to essentially rebuild infrastructure around one of golf’s treasures, and the financial calculus simply doesn’t work.

What frustrates me isn’t the decision itself—I understand the constraints. What troubles me is that we’ve allowed commerce and convenience to obscure golf’s first principles.

The Welsh Anomaly and Scotland’s Romance

Royal Porthcawl presents a different case study entirely. Here’s a course that has proven it can host championship golf at the highest level. It’s staged The Senior Open three times since 2014, with Bernhard Langer winning twice. Last year it held the Women’s Open. The Amateur visits regularly. By any objective measure, Porthcawl is ready for The Open Championship.

“This is comfortably Wales’ No. 1 course and is often talked about as a possible Open venue, every few years there’s a new thrust to make it happen but logistics always seem to get in the way.”

That line captures the Sisyphean frustration perfectly. Every few years, Welsh golf advocates dust off their proposals. Every few years, the same logistical objections emerge. What’s being said between the lines, I think, is that while Porthcawl is excellent, it’s not quite excellent enough to justify overcoming those obstacles. It’s good. But is it St. Andrews good? Is it Carnoustie good?

Meanwhile, Royal Dornoch—tucked away in the Scottish Highlands—gets romantic treatment. And rightly so. There’s something about Dornoch’s isolation that actually enhances its mystique rather than diminishing it. Maybe the difference is that courses in remote locations benefit from a narrative of pilgrimage. Travel to Dornoch becomes an adventure. But Porthcawl? It’s close enough to reach by car, which somehow makes its exclusion feel more arbitrary.

The Ireland Question and Portmarnock’s 2030 Possibility

Here’s where things get genuinely interesting. According to the R&A’s outgoing chief executive Martin Slumbers, the organization would support a club petitioning the Irish Government to host The Open outside the United Kingdom—potentially as soon as 2030. Portmarnock is the obvious candidate, and I think this matters more than casual observers realize.

“As things stand we have Birkdale this year, then St Andrews in 2027 and then there’s nothing with Muirfield and Turnberry keen to get back on the calendar.”

That scheduling vacuum isn’t accidental. It’s strategic positioning. The R&A is essentially holding space for something significant to happen. Taking The Open to the Republic of Ireland for the first time would be momentous—a genuine watershed for the championship. Portmarnock, ranked 24th globally, sits on a fair and natural links with a closing stretch made for championship drama.

What intrigues me is the diplomatic choreography on display. Martin Slumbers didn’t declare that The Open would go to Ireland. He didn’t announce it. He simply said the R&A would be “supportive.” That’s how institutional golf works—quietly, carefully, leaving all parties the ability to save face while moving steadily toward predetermined outcomes.

The Courses Worth Dreaming About

Ballybunion, Kingsbarns, North Berwick—these are golf courses that exist in that sweet spot between world-class and perpetually overlooked. Kingsbarns only opened in its current form in 2000, which technically disqualifies it from certain heritage conversations, yet it’s hosted the Women’s Open and appears annually in the Dunhill Links. We’ve seen it at its autumn best, but rarely at its championship potential.

What all seven courses share isn’t just excellent architecture—it’s authentic links golf. No gimmicks, no forced drama. These are courses that let the game speak for itself, which is precisely why they’ll likely remain outside The Open rotation. The championship has evolved into something that requires more staging than these courses can provide.

In my three decades covering the tour, I’ve learned that golf’s greatest frustrations often stem from mismatches between purity and pragmatism. The best courses aren’t always the venues that get major championships. Sometimes, the best venues are simply the ones that can handle the logistics of 40,000 spectators and a global television audience.

That’s not a failing of the R&A. That’s just the economics of modern professional golf. But it’s worth acknowledging what we’re missing every time another great course remains sidelined while we debate the merits of the same rotation of traditional venues.