The 11 a.m. Wednesday press conference with the head of the R&A has for many years been a highlight of the day before the start of the Open Championship. The late Michael Bonallack began it 40 years ago and conducted it in his rather laid-back way. He was courteous and brief. It was quite low-key.
Peter Dawson, articulate and business-like, raised the level of content at this event when he was in charge at the R&A. Continuing the tradition, Martin Slumbers, chief executive of R&A Ltd., began his last such conference at Royal Troon on Wednesday, at the time when English people talk of having their elevenses, meaning tea or coffee and perhaps a chocolate biscuit. Slumbers will leave the R&A in November.
Slumbers discussed any number of current issues in golf. He spoke of his pride in the development of the AIG Women’s Open that, he said, “… has been turned into one of the top two women’s professional events in the world …”
He mentioned how pleased he was that golf, which he said was declining in 2016-18, “… has grown more since COVID and is arguably the only sport in the world that has grown since COVID.”
He talked of growth of the game. “More than 100 million people experience the game in one form or another around the world. The latest participation figures for 2023 showed that in the countries we’re responsible for, there were 62.3 million people playing golf, which is a rise of 1.1 million on the previous year.”
He mentioned how important the R&A, which governs the game worldwide except for in the United States and Mexico, thought it was to maintain the balance between skill and technology as far as golf equipment was concerned.
But he talked longest and most passionately about money given by the R&A to the competitors at the Open and why as the R&A’s chief executive he was not the least concerned that at present nearly 30 other tournaments give out more prize money than the Open does. “There has been a massive increase in prize money…,” he conceded. “Do I think it will continue? No, I don’t.”
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