This will be only the second time the Open will have been held outside England or Scotland, with Max Faulner winning 63 years ago. In the ensuing decades Portrush fell off the radar as far as the R&A was concerned. The political instability was for so long an obvious insurmountable, but even when those tensions eased it still seemed a dream too far for the revered Dunluce links in the small seaside resort in County Antrim.