Rory McIlroy's public campaign for Muirfield to host the 2028 Open Championship has come up empty.

The R&A confirmed in late April that the 156th Open will instead return to Royal Lytham & St Annes, closing the door — at least for now — on the East Lothian links McIlroy had spent months talking up.

"It’s one of the best courses on the rota and in the UK,” McIlroy said at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic back in January, per Today's Golfer.

"I think [new R&A chief executive] Mark Darbon has been brought in to make The Open Championship commercially viable. I would say Muirfield, that area, North Berwick, that would probably be one of the more commercially viable Opens."

Muirfield has hosted The Open 16 times, but not since 2013, when Phil Mickelson closed with a 66 to win by three shots. That absence has as much to do with politics as logistics.

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers voted against admitting women members in May 2016, a decision that prompted the R&A to strip Muirfield from the rota.

Muirfield reversed the course rules less than a year later. A second ballot in March 2017 allowed women's membership, and the R&A reinstated the club as a future host in principle.

"It would be wonderful if it was [there]. I'm not privy to those conversations, but Muirfield deserves to be back on the Open rota," McIlroy added back in January 2026.

"They rectified the issues they had. It's a wonderful course. It's one of the best courses on the rota and in the UK. As well, it has to commercially make sense."

Golf Digest currently ranks Muirfield third (previously sixth) on its list of the World's 100 Greatest Golf Courses. So quality was never really the argument against it. Everything else was.

The R&A, however, has said the practice ground at Muirfield is a real challenge for a modern championship, and that some on-course infrastructure still needs work.

Roughly 142,000 fans attended in 2013 when the course hosted the event. But recent Opens have drawn far bigger crowds, with St Andrews pulling around 290,000 in 2022 and Royal Portrush close to 280,000 last year.

Darbon has been careful not to close the door, though.

“We love the golf course at Muirfield. We’re in discussions with the venue right now. There are some things we need to evolve at Muirfield, the practice ground in particular is a challenge for us with a modern Open,” he said, per Today's Golfer.

“And there’s some work to facilitate some infrastructure we need, but there’s some good dialogue and we’d love to go back there in the future.”

Rory McIlroy's Haunting Memory at Muirfield

McIlroy's advocacy for Muirfield is a little ironic given what happened there the last time he showed up to play the Open Championship.

In 2013, a 24-year-old McIlroy arrived as one of the favorites and left after 36 holes. He posted +12 across his 36 holes and later called  it “could have been the lowest point of my professional career.” 

He won The Open the following year at Royal Liverpool, and has added six more top-10 finishes at the championship since, including a third-place run at St Andrews in 2022 after leading through 54 holes.

"I've won an Open since then," McIlroy told reporters in Dubai. "2013 feels like a lifetime ago."

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Written by

Md Saife Fida