PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND | “It was not his first rodeo.”
“He was very polished.”
“He kept his answers to a minimum.”
“He didn’t say very much but at least he said it quickly.”
“He dealt with the Trump and Turnberry issue smoothly.”
“He looks very young.”
These were some of the comments made after the appearance of Mark Darbon, the R&A’s new chief executive, at his first of the traditional Wednesday-of-Open-week press conferences. These have now become as much a part of the last major championship of the year as the naming of the first player to tee off on Thursday morning (it’s Ireland’s Padraig Harrington this year) and the ceremony of the defending champion returning the Claret Jug to the care of the R&A for the few days remaining before a new champion is named.
Other observations: Darbon, a tall, slim figure, is 46. He could pass for 10 years younger, carrying his years and any worries he might have lightly. Like Martin Slumbers, his predecessor, he was not a member of the R&A before becoming chief executive. Like Slumbers, he is a good golfer with a current handicap index of 2.9, which is the lowest it has been. And unlike any of the men who have gone before him in occupying the chief executive’s large, handsome office overlooking the first tee and 18th green of the Old Course at St Andrews, Darbon is certainly the first to sport a fashionable stubble.
Darbon’s time in the corporate world and his senior role in the organising committee of the 2012 Olympic Games in London before joining the R&A gave him expertise in answering most questions with brevity and any tricky questions with even greater brevity. There was little of the chumminess with his audience that had been a noticeable feature of his predecessors.
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