Royal Portrush Announced As 2025 Open Championship Venue

Northern Irish golf club Royal Portrush will host The Open for the third time in 2025, six years after the 2019 tournament was played there

Royal Portrush 7th hole
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The world's oldest golf Major will return to Portrush for the third time in 2025, six years after the superb 2019 tournament was played there

Royal Portrush Announced As 2025 Open Championship Venue

Royal Portrush Golf Club has been announced as the venue of the 153rd Open Championship in 2025.

It will be the third time the Northern Irish club will have hosted the championship but it won't have as long to wait this time.

The world's oldest Major returned to Royal Portrush in 2019 for the first time since 1951 at the 148th Open Championship, which Shane Lowry comfortably won by six strokes over second-placed Tommy Fleetwood.

The week pulled in an incredible 237,750 fans, which was the highest attendance ever seen at an Open outside of St Andrews.

Related: How Portrush got the Open back

As well as hosting The Open twice, Royal Portrush has also been the venue of the Amateur Championship, the Irish Open, the Ladies Irish Open, and the Irish PGA Championship, among others. It's one of the best golf courses in Northern Ireland.

Shane Lowry on 2019 Open

Shane Lowry won the Claret Jug at Portrush in 2019 as the Open returned to Northern Ireland for the first time in 68 years

R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers said, “We could not be more thrilled to be bringing The Open back to Royal Portrush in 2025. There will be huge excitement among golf fans around the world to see the best men’s players facing the challenge of this magnificent links once again.

“The Open in 2019 was a massive success and showed just how much collective enthusiasm, passion and commitment there is to make Royal Portrush one of the leading venues for the Championship and to build a distinctive golf tourism brand for Northern Ireland.

"We greatly appreciate the support we have received from the Northern Ireland Executive, our partner agencies and, of course, from the Club and its members. We look forward to working with them to deliver another fantastic celebration of golf in four years’ time.”

The Old Course at St Andrews is the venue for the 150th Open Championship in 2022, with Royal Liverpool Golf Club hosting the tournament in 2023, followed by Royal Troon Golf Club in 2024.

Open Championship future venues:

2022: St Andrews 2023: Royal Liverpool 2024: Royal Troon 2025: Royal Portrush

It is expected that Royal Portrush will host The Open once more before 2040 too, though the year is unconfirmed.

Located in Country Antrim, Royal Portrush has two 18-hole links courses, the Valley Links, and the championship course the Dunluce Links.

Royal Portrush aerial image

An aerial photograph from out to sea of the par 3, sixth hole Harry Colts' in the foreground and the par 4, fifth hole 'White Rocks' behind on the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

The Harry Colt-designed Dunluce Links course is widely regarded as one of the best golf courses in the world, featuring supreme links golf and iconic views across the coastline of Northern Ireland.

It was significantly upgraded for the 2019 Open, with two new holes built in a re-design by Mackenzie and Ebert.

Related: Donald Trump calls for Open to return to Turnberry

The club was founded in 1888 as The County Club, before assuming its current name in 1895, and in 1951 it became the first host of The Open that wasn't on the island of Great Britain.

England's Max Faulkner won the Open at Portrush in 1951.

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Ryan has worked as a junior staff writer for Golf Monthly since 2021.