Donald Trump is likely to attend September’s Amgen Irish Open at his Doonbeg resort in Co Clare.
The Clare Champion reported that President Trump is earmarked to be on site at the tournament at some stage during the week as the DP World Tour and Doonbeg resort began plans for the $6 million event where Rory McIlroy will defend his title.
Trump previously visited the resort in 2019 as part of his state trip to Ireland.
Speaking at the public meeting in the Doonbeg Community Hall, Russell said: “It is likely at the moment, President Trump will attend. It’s not confirmed. Eric (Trump, executive vice president of the Trump organisation) will attend, so there will be a security presence leading up to the Open, but the size and scale of that will really depend on which Trump is coming, but at the moment the President is earmarked to come.”
Should Trump choose to attend the tournament then security presence is likely to be heightened.
“In terms of local access, I think it’s important to say that we need to understand the impact of potential VIPs – which member of the Trump family will visit,” said Chris Upson, a Senior Championship Manager with the DP World Tour.
“We are working with the local authorities in terms of what a cordon might look like.”
Work has been ongoing to deliver a successful championship with two park and ride sites being mooted with shuttle busses running to and from neighbouring towns for visitors.
“Our goal is to give this event, this region, county and community of Doonbeg an incredible week with as little disruption as possible,” said Paul Gillmon, Championship Director of the Amgen Irish Open who is excited by the potential economic benefit to the community with 70,000 fans expected to attend.
“We’ve done two economic impact studies over the last two years,” he said. “We went to Royal County Down in Newcastle and The K Club last year.
“The average economic impact over those two years is €16m, so what that means is that we are bringing and generating revenue to the local economy to the tune of €16m.”
Trump’s presence may help in encouraging some LIV golfers to attend namely Jon Rahm who won the second of his Irish Open titles at nearby Lahinch in 2019 and has previously stated his desire to return to Ireland.
Bryson DeChambeau has a strong relationship with President Trump and his presence would make the championship a blockbuster field. Tom McKibbin and Tyrrell Hatton of LIV Golf are likely to be starting.
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