ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) -- Turnberry in Scotland will host the British Open for the fourth time in 2009.
The 138th edition of the major will be played from July 16-19, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club said Thursday.
Turnberry, a links course on the west coast of Scotland, first hosted the British Open in 1977. That tournament became known as the "Duel in the Sun," when Tom Watson beat Jack Nicklaus after both birdied the 72nd hole.
Greg Norman won at Turnberry in 1986 thanks largely to a second-round 63 after opening with a 74, while Nick Price won in 1994 after a great battle with Jesper Parnevik.
Since that year, the demands of hosting the British Open had "substantially increased," the R&A said.
"There has never been any doubt that the Open would return to Turnberry, one of our very best links courses," R&A Director of Championships David Hill said. "But before reaching that decision, we had to be convinced that every aspect of our forward planning process was in place."
Construction of a new road to the course has been approved and new traffic management implemented, Hill said.
"One element of that planning process was the implementation of a traffic management scheme to ease congestion," he explained. "And since South Ayrshire Council have commenced construction of a road link, essential to the scheme, we now have in place the final piece of the jigsaw."
Next year's British Open will be played at Royal Liverpool, England. In 2007, it will be at Carnoustie, Scotland, and, in 2008, Royal Birkdale, England.
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