Could your club host the Open? What about a Tour event?

With the announcement that Portrush is joining the Open rota, it got me thinking about what would be needed for my home club to host the Open. I'm thinking about changes to the course to lengthen it and toughen it up, space for grandstands, improvements to practice areas, space for tented village, media, hospitality etc.

I quickly came to the conclusion that no way is there is enough space for the Open. However, we have a large practice ground, a spare field which could accommodate a tented village, and with a bit of investment in new tees the course could be lengthened from 6,500 to 7,000 yards. So perfectly adequate for a European Tour event.

What changes would your club need? Are any of you members of courses that host tournaments? What is the impact? Is it positive or a hassle?

We have held a couple of Jamega tour events which went well. Winning scores were something like -6 for 2 rounds so I expect a 4round ET event would see winning totals of 20ish under par

Course is 6800 off the whites and we always talk that they could make it a beast if they wanted..
Could put:
30 yards on the Par5 1st
30 yards on Par 4 2nd
30 yards on Par 3 5th which would take it up to around 225
50 yards on Par 4 9th
50 yards on the 12th (which rather than a 4iron off the tee and 8 iron over the lake to the green would become a beast of a hole where you would need a good drive and mid iron.
50 yards on the par 5 14th which would make it over 600 yards.

That would take the course to about 7200 off the whites and make it an even tougher test!!

However the club knows it caters to a large membership of average golfers - there are something like 8 or 10 of us who play off less than 5.

I don't think the extra length would actually make it too much harder for Cat1 golfers (as most of those holes are ones where at present decent players use an iron off the tee for position) It would just mean that you would have to hit driver or at least a good 3wd to leave yourself the clubs in that you can now leave with a 2/3 iron

Nope. Not a chance. Short, hemmed in by roads etc no real development space in the structuring of the course, no areas for required hospitality etc.

But by god/incredible spaghetti monster it'd be amusing if the show did rock up.

Mine did host pga events from the 1920s to the 1980s.

There is enough space but no appetite to pay the sort of sums needed to attract an event these days. Not that there are many events in the uk now. It seems the european tour would rather stage events almost anywhere but where people play golf.

George,
They play golf in Ireland, from what I've heard, but look at the dismal turn-out this week . . . . . . . .

Being 90 miles from the nearest set of dunes I think the Open could be safely ruled out!! It has held a few Jamega Tour events in the past. Also it did host a decent Pro-am 7 years ago. Howeller Casey, McDowell, Fisher and quite a few others turned up which meant sizeable crowd (circa 5000). We have 27 holes so the 9th of the 9 hole was used as a car park.
For a tour event. the 1st on the 9 hole could be used for a tented village. There would be ample space to the left and behind the 18th for grandstands.
Length-wise its only 6366 off the whites. There is scope for lengthening some holes easily taking it up to 6800ish (par 71), to make it any longer would require some major reconstruction though.