CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (PA) -- Padraig Harrington's Open Championship victory will not be followed by the Open being played in Ireland in the foreseeable future, Royal and Ancient Club officials said.
Max Faulkner won the 1951 title at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, but every other staging of the event since its launch in 1860 has been in England or Scotland, and that is the way it is likely to remain.
David Hill, the R&A's Director of Championships, is from Portrush himself and makes no secret of how much he would love the Open to return there. But he played down those chances in the aftermath of the Open at Carnoustie.
"Portrush is a fantastic course and I looked at it in great detail about five or six years ago," he said. "It would be a fantastic venue, but only for about 15,000 people a day."
More than twice that figure watched Harrington beat Sergio Garcia in a playoff to become Ireland's first winner of the title since Fred Daly in 1947, and Europe's first since Paul Lawrie at Carnoustie in 1999.
The K Club, near Dublin, was, of course, the first Irish venue to stage the Ryder Cup last September, but Hill added: "It's also referred to as the Open Championship played in Great Britain.
"That's where it lies at the moment," he said, "but it's never a closed book."
Royal County Down, also in Northern Ireland, will host the 2007 Walker Cup in September, but a 10,000 daily maximum attendance figure has been put on that.
"The Championship Committee would love to find new venues, but there would have to be an amazing investment to consider taking it back there," stated Hill. "The Seniors Open was at Portrush and with 6,000 people we were struggling.
"I was talking to Padraig and he would love the Open to come back to Ireland, but somebody would need to approach us about the level of investment involved," he explained. "It would have to be an amazing amount to consider taking it back to Portrush -- it's jammed with normal holiday-makers as it is."
Carnoustie's final attendance figure of 153,000 was slightly down on the 1999 event, but the bad weather was thought largely responsible for that.
"If it had been perfect, we might have got 170,000," added Hill. "All the niggles we had in 1999 -- traffic management, tented village, mobile phones -- were ironed out very successfully."
The championship itself was deemed a huge success as well, producing as it did almost as dramatic a conclusion as when Jean Van de Velde triple-bogeyed the last hole eight years ago when three clear.
"What a fantastic week it has been," said Championship Committee Chairman Martin Kippaz. "It was wonderful to see Padraig Harrington win, but our sympathies go to Sergio for putting up such a wonderful fight.
"I've been involved in 13 Open Championships and the presentation of the course was the best I've ever witnessed," he said. "The most important thing is what the players think and to a man we have had wonderful plaudits for the course.
"The finish has to be the hardest of any Open venue we use," he added "It's massively challenging, but the players love it absolutely love it."
"The 18th is just built for drama with the burn, the out of bounds, then the burn again. It's staggeringly good," added R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson.
As for the end to the eight-year wait for a European winner, Dawson believes Harrington's victory will mean a great deal for European golf.
"There has been a question over why we are successful in team events, but not in majors -- is there a weakness in our psyche or our system?," he said. "I hope this heralds the beginning of many European champions. There's no shortage of talent and it's wonderful that Padraig has made the breakthrough."
The weather might even help get the conveyor belt running.
"After Wimbledon, you see more kids wielding tennis racquets," he said. "I am sure we had more kids watching than normal because of the weather."
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