The members of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers have made their decision and as a result The Open golf championship will no longer be played at Muirfield, East Lothian. The club members have taken the decision based on their interests but I wonder if anybody has explained to them the economic consequences on their doorstep.
So let`s make believe Green Street is finally finished and will host the tournament and look at the impact … first, although The Open is televised worldwide for 4 days with attendances of 40-45,000, there are 3 practise days attracting 15-20,000 a day.
Accommodation for spectators, players, officials, workers for that week will fill every hotel for a 20 mile radius, plus we need houses to rent both for players and the 3,000 strong corporate market in hospitality every day. Let`s make it easy by renting out all the houses to the right of Shire Lane at an average of £16,000 for the week, those to the left need to give up a bedroom or two @ £2,000 per room? Restaurants, pubs etc should plan to be full for the week from breakfast to midnight and no dilly dallying for an hour over a latte.
We will need to close the schools that week as we need car parking but a reasonable £15 per car per day will help school funds and we`ll need the first fairway on Chorleywood Golf Club to land helicopters from the Luton and Heathrow shuttle service, one every 15 minutes @£75, as nobody can play golf that week we can hire the clubhouse out to Sky or NBC for say £75k.
Let`s hope Green Street remembers to build a ladies locker room…..
MICHAEL DUFFY
In a previous life Michael worked on the organisation of 1 Open, 1 Ryder Cup and 5 European Tour events