Unlike the U.S. Open, where we know venues until 2051, the British Open keeps its cards closer to its chest. Following this year’s championship at Royal Birkdale, the game’s oldest major will return to the Old Course at St. Andrews next year and Royal Lytham in 2027. And that’s all that’s official
Unofficially, we do know a little more. Portmarnock seems very likely to host The Open for the first time in the not too distant future, per comments from R&A CEO Mark Darbon last month at Birkdale. Royal Portrush will, too, after successful championships in 2019 and 2025. And it’s safe to assume the R&A will return to regular rota sites Royal St George’s, Royal Troon and Royal Liverpool in the next decade.
But what about Muirfield?
David Cannon/R&A
The Open hasn’t been held at East Lothian since 2013, when Phil Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes to win the claret jug. Before then, it was played at the famed Scottish course in 2002, Ernie Els the champion golfer of that year. (The R&A did hold the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield for the first time in 2022.)
By the time 2029 rolls around—the next open date for an Open—it will have been 16 years since Muirfield, the third ranked course in our World’s 100 Greatest Courses List, hosted a men’s major championship. When you consider the fact that The Open has been played at Muirfield at least every 13 years since 1929, it raises the question:
Why is Muirfield being passed by?
Darbon speaks to the media once or twice a year and is often asked about future venues. If you look back at his comments about Muirfield, the mystery isn’t too hard to solve.
“We love the golf course at Muirfield.” he said, sitting at Portrush in 2025. “We’re in a discussion with the venue right now. There’s some things that we need to evolve at Muirfield, the practice ground in particular is a challenge for us with a modern Open.”
It’s true that the members’ range at Muirfield is small for a major championship. Measuring just 290 yards long, with the eighth fairway beyond it, it did host the practice area in 2013 but required the installation of a large net at the back of the range to prevent balls invading the course and for safety.
Ross Kinnaird/R&A
Positioned in the middle of the course layout, it is a convenient place for players to warm up, however there is an easy solution. Renaissance Club, home to the Genesis Scottish Open since 2019, is Muirfield’s next door neighbor. It’s one of more than a dozen courses in East Lothian, and its range and practice area is located just beyond a dividing wall that separates the course from Muirfield.
When you consider that the R&A used the neighboring Hillside Golf Club range at this year’s Open at Royal Birkdale—in order to use the Birkdale range as a spectator village—it’s logical to think the Renaissance range could solve that part of the puzzle.
But maybe that’s not the real issue?
Asked again this year at Birkdale, about the Open returning to Muirfield, Darbon gave a slightly different answer. “It requires a few tweaks both around the golf course and across the site more broadly,” he said, without elaborating on what those might be. “But it’s a good dialogue with the club and one that we’ll maintain.”
Tweaks to the course? Previously it was an issue with the range or perhaps cabling needed around the site, now we’re talking about making tweaks to the course?
So what are those course changes?
The central focus of the proposed changes relate to this corner of the course.
David Cannon/R&A
It’s an area that features the par-5 fifth green, the sixth tee, the 11th green and 12th tee. All within just a few paces of each other.
You can see here, from photos at the 2013 Open, just how close the two greens are to each other.
David Cannon/R&A
It’s believed that because of fan flow around the course and the close proximity of the greens, there’s a proposal from MacKenzie and Ebert, the design firm the R&A has used for the majority of renovation work on rota courses, to move the fifth green left of its current position.
This would create a new putting surface in the bottom-right area of the image here below. That area is owned by Muirfield, used mainly as a turf nursery as well as some parking during larger events.
David Cannon/R&A
I asked Martin Ebert for his comment on the proposed changes and the reasoning. He first said he would prefer not to comment, to let the club comment first, then replied saying he had been told by the club not to comment now.
I reached out to members and the club themselves. It was clear there was some tension amid the parties involved.
Starting with the club, a spokesperson for Muirfield replied to my question about potential changes to the course with one line: “The club has not received any proposed changes; therefore we are not in a position to comment.”
However, this is what Mackenzie and Ebert wrote in the company’s 2025 annual review, which is publicly available, about the design firm’s work with Muirfield.
“It was exciting to be appointed to advise The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers on fine-tuning Muirfield for member play. … A set of sympathetic proposals has been drawn up and presented to The Honourable Company for consideration.”
David Cannon
So I referred this information to Muirfield. And then soon received this.
“The Club instructed M&E to carry out a review of the golf course for Club/Member purposes, not for Championships,” I was told. “This is good/standard practice for all Clubs to have carried out every 10/15 years. The Report is for information purposes and for the Club to decide whether they wish to implement any of the recommendations contained within the Report. It will be up to the R&A to decide if they wish to have a similar review carried out for Championship purposes.”
That’s what the club said, but what about the members? I reached out to several Muirfield members to ask them if they were aware of the changes and what they thought of them, offering them the chance to speak with anonymity in order not to jeopardize their membership with the club.
“There is certainly a lot of talk following the M&E review,” one told me. “It’s not been popular with members. I think the circus that comes with the Open would not in this day and age be popular with members either.”
Let’s be clear, this is not simply a Muirfield issue. Ahead of The Open returning to Royal Portrush in 2019, two new holes were added. The R&A said that the new seventh and eighth holes would “replace the current 17th and 18th holes on the Dunluce Links, freeing up that land to be used to accommodate the Spectator Village and Championship infrastructure.”
David Cannon
New holes also were created ahead of the Open in 2023 at Royal Liverpool, and this year at Royal Birkdale. While each tweak and redesign has its own motivations, it’s clear that the large footprint of a modern major championship is a challenge at historic links venues.
Keep in mind that more than 300,000 spectators attended the Open this summer. That is more than double the number Muirfield hosted in 2013.
And as Joel Beall reported in his story about the balance the R&A tries to keep with modernizing the championship and maintaining its traditions, the idea of the governing body maximizing spectator income during each Open week is understandable.
This isn’t a rant against commercialism for its own sake. The R&A is transparent that Open week funds nearly everything the organization does the rest of the year. Grassroots grants, course-access programs, sustainability research, the amateur game, women’s and girls’ initiatives. It’s money that reaches well past St. Andrews, into municipal courses with no connection to major championships. The R&A is not a private equity fund extracting value. It’s a good steward putting the money to good use. The more this week makes, the more work it can do the other 51.
With that in mind, will we see the Open returning to Muirfield soon?
The jury, for now, is out. We do know this is the proposal that is on the table for Muirfield and likely the major sticking point for the R&A in committing to an Open Championship returning to East Lothian.
However, if it is truly a change for the members that will require their approval, it is questionable whether the majority within the club will adhere to what is on the table.
For now, we will just have to continue to wait and see if and when the Open will next return to Muirfield. It could be a while.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
