Pirate's Cove

They just keep trying to scare us, eh?

Report: Future Open Championship venues could be threatened by climate change

The Open Championship celebrated its 146th edition last summer at Royal Birkdale. The rotation of 10 different courses has been mostly the same for the last few decades, but a recent report noted that the event might not make it 146 moretournaments with the current venues.

According to the BBC, which reviewed a report by the Climate Coalition, various courses on the coasts of the UK are in peril because of climate change and a rising North Sea.

Sea-level rise poses the greatest long-term threat to golf in the UK. More than one in six of Scotland’s 600 golf courses are located on the coast — including the Old Course at St Andrews, Royal Troon and Montrose Golf Links in Angus. ‘Links’ are the oldest type of golf courses, developed in Scotland, and located on the coast on ‘links land’ — characterized by dunes, sandy soil and fine-textured grassland. 

The R&A, the governing body for golf outside the USA and Mexico, recognizes the risk, while only a small increase in sea-level rise would imperil all of the world’s links courses before the end of the century. Along with the damage they can do to course playability, increased rainfall and storms — exacerbated by climate change — are posing participation challenges.

Every single gauge in the U.K. shows minimal sea rise, well below what would be expected for a Holocene warm period. Lerwick actual shows a minimal decrease. In fact, every Atlantic and northern country for Europe I’ve checked shows way less than an expected 1 foot per century. They’re all pretty much Holocene average, when they should all be much higher. But, facts do not matter, because this is about scaring people.