US Senior Open drives booming business in Newport

NEWPORT, R.I. (WJAR) — The US Senior Open has taken over Newport, and that’s good news, not just for golf fans.

Throughout downtown Newport, restaurants and hotels have been packed with visitors.

Over 100,000 people have made their way to the city of Newport for the 44th U.S. Senior Open.

“We’ve got a couple of players staying here and a lot of the staff so that’s been a great help for us,” said Charlie Holder, the director of operations at the Gardiner House Hotel in Newport. “Business has been great it couldn’t come at a better time for us here in Newport.”

Restaurants like Wally’s Wieners are also benefiting from the tournament. The owner Brad Head tells us business is up 25%.

“Usually we’re doing about 200 covers now we’re doing about 350 and it’s been a great boost to the business,” said Head. “This couldn’t come at a better time we’ll be extremely busy with the Open in town, fourth of July falls in the middle of the week, so we’ll be extremely busy next weekend as well.”

The Mayor of Newport, Xay Khamsyvoravong, told NBC 10 that he expects the tournament to generate tens of millions in overall economic impact for the city.

“This is an incredibly big boost for the city for a couple of reasons, whenever we have a boost like this it brings tens of millions to our local economy with hostels and restaurants but more importantly it continues to put Newport on the world stage,” said Mayor Khamsyvoravong. “There’s a definite lift in the economic activity that we have in this community you can feel that energy throughout and it continues throughout the summer with all of the great events we have.”

The 44th U.S. Senior Opens continues into the weekend at the Newport Country Club with round three beginning Saturday.