TRIUMPHANT RETURN

Bill Elliott looks ahead to the third Open Championship at Royal Portrush in his homeland and wonders who, if anyone, can stop Scottie Scheffler adding the Claret Jug to his bulging trophy cabinet

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Royal Portrush is indeed a long way from Tipperary - 277 miles - but no doubt someone will make that trip in July. Quite a few in fact because a record crowd is expected to grace the 153rd Open Championship.

Welcome to the other Home of Golf - Northern Ireland, or ‘Norn Iron’ as those of us born there often affectionately call the befuddled wee place. I've no idea how many will fly, sail or perhaps even swim from Great Britain and beyond, but I do know it will be a record crowd.

Danny Campbell is expecting 278,000 men, women, boys and girls to tread the Dunluce Links and agrees that means an awful lot of accessible toilets, food and drink outlets and all the other paraphernalia that goes into making an Open Championship a reasonably civilised event. Even the applications for tickets rolled in for this Open Championship.

Danny, an amiable and approachable chap, is the new general manager of Royal Portrush. He has been in charge since December and he's relishing both the challenge and the fun of playing host to the oldest, most historic and, for me, far and away the most significant of the four competitions we call the Majors, to which so many of us attach such meaning. Part romance, part ordeal, part fun. Danny grew up like many of you trying to hole 3ft practice putts that were always “for The Open”. It didn’t quite work out that way in the end, but his consolation is that he currently plays off a low-single-figure handicap.

Of course, the experienced men and women of The R&A do the heavy lifting, a big heave that is highlighted by the grandstands that have to be transported across the Irish Sea with much else besides. Maybe the loos are parachuted in under cover of darkness. What seems assured is that Portrush, the club and town, should enjoy a well-earned financial bounce from staging this Open.