Pakistan, July 16 -- Chief executive Mark Darbon says the R&A is "getting pretty close" to staging an Open Championship outside of the United Kingdom for the first time, at Portmarnock Golf Club in Dublin. The R&A - the governing body which organises and runs the Open - first revealed the possibility of Portmarnock hosting golf's oldest championship in 2023, with the Irish government announcing its support of up to 40 million euro (£34m) in 2024. Portmarnock has previously hosted the men's and women's amateur championships. "It's a complicated venue because of the scale of the Open Championship," Darbon said on the eve of this year's 154th tournament at Royal Birkdale. "There's been a lot of great feasibility work with the golf club ...