"If they want to go back to Royal Portrush badly enough, they will go back there."

Graeme McDowell with the key line and final (for now) word on Royal Portrush's dimming Open Championship hopes following Wednesday's Team Polo R&A Press Conference.

From an unbylined Belfast Telegraph story:

He added: "I always keep saying to the guys that we are going to Merion next year for the US Open and that's going to be basically an all-seater tournament.

"There is not going to be much room around the golf course, so there are ways around it. So if they want to go back to Royal Portrush badly enough, they will go back there."

And we now know, they don't want to go back to Portrush badly enough.

Though after today's lovely 75-minute, 4-mile drive to Royal Lytham from the media hotel, all caused by the lack of local police support manning important intersections. So the R&A certainly cannot claim the current host is functioning at the highest level.