Bridgend County Borough Council will contribute funding and officer support towards the Senior Open Championship when it visits Porthcawl in 2023.
It was announced last year that the Senior Open – Europe’s only senior major championship golf tournament – would return to the Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in 2023.
The tournament first visited Bridgend county borough in 2014 and saw more than 43,000 visitors travel to Porthcawl to watch Germany’s Bernhand Langer, the most successful player in Senior Major Championship history, triumph by an incredible 13 shots ahead of Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie.
Today, Cabinet approved a £50,000 contribution towards the event which will cover, as considered appropriate by the European Tour, the costs associated with factors such as hiring a playing field for use as an overflow car park, provision and distribution of cones to line any roads and all costs associated with local promotion and marketing, including local school initiative in partnership with Wales Golf.
A target for the 2023 event is to generate at least £3m of net additional spending into the Welsh economy, and a range of national and international media coverage including at least 600 hours of global TV broadcast coverage.
We are delighted to be welcoming back the Seniors Open to Bridgend county borough for the third time in a decade.
The significance of this event to Porthcawl and Bridgend County Borough is exceptional and it will showcase our county borough to millions of viewers worldwide.
A great deal of work now has to be done to ensure that the event is a success and that it delivers as many benefits for the local area as possible. We are looking forward to working closely with partners such as Royal Porthcawl Golf Club, Welsh Government, The R&A and PGA Tour Champions.
Council Leader Huw David
