Turnberry will not get Open with Trump in charge

Donald Trump's controversial comments cause R&A to take action

Charlie Lemay's picture
Mon, 14 Dec 2015
Turnberry will not get Open with Trump in charge

Donald Trump’s Turnberry will not be awarded the Open because of controversial comments the US billionaire has made relating to Muslims, Mexicans, Chinese and women, according to the Independent on Sunday.

Trump, who is campaigning to lead the Republican party at the next election, hoped to attract golf’s oldest major to his Ayrshire resort, but the R&A is reported to have decided in private not to give Turnberry the green light.

Trump bought the famous layout last year, and revamped the Ailsa course after consultation with golf’s governing body.

It was previously thought Martin Slumbers, the new chief executive of the R&A, would endorse Turnberry as a 2020 Open venue.

At the weekend, Slumbers said: “It is my belief, and that of the R&A, that golf should be open to all regardless of gender, race, nationality of religion.”

The Republican frontrunner called for a “shutdown of US borders” to Muslims, made a jibe about menstruation to a female journalist, referred to “cunning Chinese” when denigrating Senator John McCain’s war record, and branded Mexicans moving to the US as rapists and drug users, among other controversial comments.

An insider at the club, which has staged the Open four times, most recently in 2009, told the Independent on Sunday: “2020 will not happen here. Turnberry will be back. But perhaps not Trump Turnberry.”

Another added: “One word was thrown around: Enough".

A petition with over 550,000 signatures has called for a ban on Trump entering the UK, after he claimed Britain had a "massive Muslim problem."