The annual R&A press conference is always one of the more enlightening exchanges ahead of The Open as the chief executive Martin Slumbers addresses a number of topics of how the game might shake out in the coming years.
Last year, the 150th anniversary of the game’s oldest Major, this was dominated by talk of LIV Golf; this time around there were a number of topics discussed. Here are the main talking points.
R&A open to potential sponsors
Slumbers began the sit-down by distancing the R&A – ‘To be clear, we're not party to the agreement’ – from the proposed agreement by the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF but welcomed the possibility of putting an end to the general disruption in the men’s professional game.
When asked if there was a possibility of the PIF becoming a title sponsor of The Open Slumbers was adamant that this wasn’t a possibility, so much so that he repeated himself, but that the opportunity to be a partner/patron in the coming years might be feasible.
“I’m very open, we are and continue to talk to various potential sponsors. We have a number of large corporate partners that help us make this thing happen. I think the world has changed in the last year. It's not just golf. You're seeing it in football. You're seeing it in F1. You're seeing it in cricket. I'm sure tennis won't be that far behind,” Slumbers explained.
“The world of sport has changed dramatically in the last 12 months and it is not feasible for the R&A or golf to just ignore what is a societal change on a global basis. We will be considering within all the parameters that we look at all the options that we have.”
'We have to balance the prize fund'
The winner of this year’s Open will receive $3m, up $500,000 from last year, with a total purse of $16.5m, another huge jump of $2.5m from 2022.
Slumbers spoke very passionately about the need for a balancing act, as ‘custodians of the game’, in terms of rewarding the men’s best as well as furthering the game elsewhere. The R&A are on track to invest £200m into the game over a 10-year period, which is double what was invested the previous decade, and with The Open being its key asset, Slumbers is keen to use the purse strings properly.
“We have to balance the prize fund at The Open with ensuring the appropriate investment in grass-roots and new golf initiatives, ensuring pathways are in place from elite amateur golf to the professional game, and most importantly, promoting women and girls' golf, both amateur and professional.
There's no doubt that our ability to achieve this has been impacted by the much more rapid acceleration in men's professional prize money than we had anticipated or planned for.
“If you want to know what I really care about, it's the financial sustainability of professional golf. It's ensuring that golf is thriving in 50 years' time, but really importantly, that we maintain and do not forget the values around our game.”
The distance debate..
We are in the middle of a five-month ‘comment period’ over whether to introduce a Model Local Rule and reduce the distance that the golf ball travels, so Slumbers was sensitive to saying too much. He did point out though that he saw this happening in ‘elite golf’ as well as the men’s professional game.
“It's really important that people understand it's not professional golf, it's elite golf. I've always felt that elite golf is starting at pretty well under 18 boys' level golf where we're seeing the same growth in distance, and it's that piece that we're now working forward to it.”
A LIV route to The Open
And so to LIV Golf and the possibility of it providing a pathway to a place in The Open. Slumbers pointed out that there were four places available at this year’s Hong Kong Open as well as 19 spots at Final Qualifying as opposed to the usual 12.
We saw the likes of Sergio Garcia head to West Lancs while 16 LIV players are in this week’s field.
“If you remember last year, I said we're not banning anybody, and we haven't. And two, we will review our qualifications and exemptions. That is exactly what we did.”
As for a place at Troon through any LIV money list... in a word, unlikely.
“That's one of the options that we have. It's not the option that is top of my list at the moment but it would be one of the options that is available.”
Porthcawl and the Open rota
Next week Royal Porthcawl will host The Senior Open and Slumbers was asked whether the Welsh classic might make it into the pool of courses to become the first from the Principality to host an Open.
“The simple answer is no. It's an element of the importance about the size of a championship and what is needed. There's no doubt Royal Porthcawl is absolutely world class. It's a great joy to play. But we need a lot of land. We need a lot of infrastructure. At present, that is just not possible.”
Then the subject of Turnberry was revisited where Donald Trump’s ownership and influence continues to hamper its chances.
“Until we're confident that any coverage at Turnberry would be about golf, about the golf course and about the championship, until we're confident about that, we will not return any of our championships there.”
The new 17th to bring the drama
It took over half an hour to bring up the new 17th, the short par 3 that has been the talk of the course. The reasoning is to create more drama over the closing stretch of holes after some feedback from the last two Opens here.
“It was actually the club who came to us and said, do you know, with a lot of talk being around flipping around what was 15 up on to the dunes, and we came and looked at it, and we thought, yeah, that could really add some drama.”
He added, interestingly, that the green at the 17th is bigger than the 12th at Augusta.
Now we will have a closing run of holes that measure 620, 461, 136 and 609 yards and which should equal the anticipated drama.
“Whether it's a great hole or a really great hole, I'll wait until Monday morning.”
The Just Stop Oil protests
Slumbers revealed that last year The Open, and notably a senior player, was targeted by an environmental activist, something that was reported to the R&A by a journalist. This year there has been no ‘direct intelligence’ though the R&A remains wary of any concerns.
“We have significant security procedures in place. We work clearly with the law enforcement agencies, and we'll wait and see what happens. We advised the players, please don't get involved, and I stand by that. We have enough things in place to be able to deal with it.”
