Muirfield will have at least five-year wait to host the Open

Muirfield will have to wait until 2023 at the earliest to welcome back the Open Championship.

Muirfield last hosted the Open in 2013. Pic: SNS

The R&A has confirmed that the 150th staging of the event will take place at St Andrews in 2021, with the one after that being held in England.

“St Andrews is the most appropriate place for the 150th playing and we are working on initiatives to mark that achievement,” said R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said in confirming the 2021 venue.

“There is something magical about an Open Championship at St Andrews and this one will be very special.

“St Andrews is such a magnetic place, it’s better for the event not to be held in Scotland the year after St Andrews, so in 2022 it will be in England.”

Muirfield last staged the event on 2013, when Phil Mickelson claimed the Claret Jug for the first time a week after also winning the Scottish Open.

The East Lothian venue was in danger of losing its place on the R&A’s rota for the sport’s oldest major after members initially voted against admitting women.

But that proposal was passed at the second time of asking just under a year ago, meaning it is just a matter of time before it hosts the event again.