The R&A, which administers the Open Championship and governs the game worldwide except for in the U.S. and Mexico, announced an after-tax profit of nearly £8.5 million (about $11.15 million) in 2023 after having recorded a loss in the previous year.
According to the R&A’s 2023 annual review, last year’s Open, won by American Brian Harman at Royal Liverpool in England, attracted the event’s second-largest crowd ever and helped boost revenue to £151.6 million ($168 million). Improved investment results drove much of the R&A’s better financial position for the year ended December 31.
The R&A invested £24.1 million ($26.7M) in its various worldwide initiatives and paid a dividend of £6 million ($6.6M) to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, the ancestral “home of golf” where the R&A is planning to build a new headquarters as a central location for its staff. READ MORE
TAP-INS
Topgolf Callaway Brands will spin off its top two businesses – the Topgolf entertainment division and the Callaway equipment manufacturer – into separate standalone companies, the Topgolf Callaway board announced. Callaway, a golf equipment and apparel business, first invested in Topgolf in 2006, then bought the company outright in 2021. The move is expected to be completed by mid-2025. READ MORE
Al Hamra Golf Club in the United Arab Emirates will host the 2025 Bonallack Trophy and Patsy Hankins Trophy amateur matches. The January 8-10 events – Bonallack for the men and Hankins for the women – pit the European Golf Association against the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation. READ MORE
James Gaddis, the self-described “ethical whistleblower” who leaked a proposal by Florida officials to build golf courses and other amenities in state parks, has been fired from his job as a cartographer with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, he told The Palm Beach Post. The proposal, which was met with widespread opposition across the state, was quickly abandoned. READ MORE
A handwritten letter outlining racism in golf sent from an 18-year-old Tiger Woods to an Indiana teen in 1994 sold for $25,620 at auction, and the proceeds were donated to the Tiger Woods Foundation, seller Chad Jones told the U.K.-based golf publication Bunkered. READ MORE
The family of a Pennsylvania club pro who was killed when a tree fell on him while he sought cover in a cart barn during a June 2020 storm was awarded a $9.1 million settlement, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Justin Riegel, 38, the director of golf at Philmont Country Club in Montgomery County, left a wife and a son who was born weeks after Riegel’s death. READ MORE
Want to be on the grounds at Augusta National Golf Club for the 2025 Masters and don’t have a ticket? There’s another way. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon