People keep mentioning access and infrastructure. And then, is there room for spectators, is an issue as well? Instead of writing off the chances of any potential newcomers to the rota what about the existing facilities?
From my recollection of the Opens I’ve been too as a spectator, access is always somewhat a compromise. After all, most of these links courses are by the sea so cant be accessed from all points of the compass and they are usually next to a small village or town, not just off a major road, so there are often bottlenecks and convoluted park and rides involved to bus people in.
Regarding room for spectators, TOC is far from ideal with viewing from one side only (and don’t forget the almost 6 hour rounds because of shared fairways and greens, but before you get excited I’m not calling for it to be removed from the rota!) where as I found RSG and Birkdale to be much better with their larger sand dunes for spectators. One thing that the R&A seem to really like is lots of room around the 18th for the large banks of grandstands (and smaller ones on most of the other holes as well, and the first tee) and all the current courses on the rota seem to have this.
Regarding infrastructure, this obviously includes many things, but one which is often mentioned is hotels and accommodation, but a possible solution hit me yesterday. I was listening to the England v Windies cricket and they were mentioning the various cruise ships that were in port and how some of the commentators were staying on these (as I assume Antigua being a small island doesn’t have too many large up market hotels?) so why not anchor a large cruise liner off shore? Would be an interesting feature for the camera men to keep zooming into and very striking (though thoughts of Canberra in San Carlos Water in 1982 spring to mind.)
Also did a bit of surfing on this subject and came across this report by the local council for their involvement in the 2003 Open at RSG:
http://www.dover.gov.uk/CPACD/CaseStudyNo14Golf.pdfThe way I see it is that most of the courses currently on the rota have been hosting the open for some time and so as the number of spectators and facilities required has grown they have been able to cope with it as a gradual increase, even if they appear to be far from ideal. To suddenley ask a course like, say Saunton, to determine and cope with all of the logistical issues first time would be a very big ask!
However, I reckon if the R&A really wanted to add other courses to the rota, and they could get the local councils on board, then it would happen, but this would take a lot of time and money.
Another factor for me is that the R&A seem to be going along the lines of protecting par, in a similar style to the way the USGA do for the US Open. I assume that this pretty much means a tough course, well over 7,000 yards. So unless the R&A change their apparent recent attitude to par some of these shorter courses being mentioned dont fit the bill, unless they bring in their own version of the "Open doctor" for some major surgery? Now surely thats more interesting to discuss than whether a small town in Britain has enough Bed & Breakfasts, and will be able to make their main road one way, once every 10 years or so...
Cheers,
James