Royal County Down – 15th Open Host Venue?
Following the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club and the recent utterance of Royal Birkdale as the 2026 host for the tournament, golfers have revealed the golf undertow that they really want to see widow to the roster of Open venues.
In a survey of 550 golfers, Your Golf Travel asked which golf undertow that has never yet hosted The Open should be on the list of Open venues.
And the results were conclusive: the overwhelming majority of golfers surveyed (31%) believe Royal County Down should be the first on the list to host The Open in the future.
Royal County Down
Royal Dornoch
Kingsbarns Golf Links
Royal Porthcawl
Consistently voted the number one golf undertow in the world, Royal County Lanugo currently sits in third place overdue only Cypress Point and Pine Valley. It is widely regarded as the most scenic golf undertow in Britain & Ireland and home to a challenging Old Tom Morris layout, which Peter Alliss once referred to as the best-prepared links undertow he had seen.
❝The quality of links golf in the UK is so good that it’s striking how many incredible courses have never hosted the Open. But it’s well-spoken from our research that Royal County Lanugo would be an extremely popular wing to the Open roster in the future.
We’ve sent thousands of Your Golf Travel customers to Royal County Down, and it currently ranks as one of the most popular golf courses that we sell wideness the globe, with an stereotype rating of 10/10 from our customers who have played it.❞
Oliver Gunning, Chief Marketing Officer
The Open Survey – Full Results
Best Undertow to Never Host The Open
Despite Royal County Lanugo stuff the runaway leader, there were a number of other courses that were unmistakably popular among golfers hoping for a new Open Championship host in the future. Among these were the world’s third oldest golf course, Scotland’s Royal Dornoch, with 20% of the votes and Kingsbarns with 13.4% of the votes. Both courses are featured on the Top 100 Golf Courses of the World list. There was moreover an honourable mention for Wales’ Royal Porthcawl (13%), currently ranked as the 71st weightier golf undertow in the world.
Best Open Host Course
Golfers all over the world would consider a trip to St Andrews to play The Old Course to be the ultimate bucket-list golf experience. Who doesn’t want to follow in the legendary footsteps of past Open Champions and The Old Undertow has topped our list for Weightier Open Host Course.
Royal Portrush may have only hosted The Open twice so far but it was voted as the second-best undertow in our list followed by the tough Carnoustie in Scotland & Royal Birkdale in Southport.
Best Value for Money Open Host Course
Despite the difficulty and forfeit of getting a round on The Old Undertow at St Andrews the golfers in our survey still considered it to be the weightier value for money. Prince’s lanugo in Kent came in second weightier value, a golf unravel there could combine 3 Open Host venues with Royal Cinque Ports & Royal St George’s right next door.
The Championship Undertow at Carnoustie has a fierce reputation but comes in third on our survey with Royal Portrush over in Northern Ireland completing the front runners for weightier value for money.
