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.
For example, he was asked whether the presidency of Donald Trump is hampering the chances of Trump Turnberry returning to the rota of courses that host the Open. Those who think they know about these matters think that it is. What Darbon said was that the R&A had recently had “good conversations with the ownership. We love the golf course but we’ve got some big logistical challenges there. You see the scale of their setup here and we’ve got some work to do on the road, rail and accommodation infrastructure around Turnberry.” Later he added it was a hypothetical question because “we’ve explicitly not taken it out of our pool of venues but we’d need to address the logistical issues.”
He was asked about a religious march to take place in Portrush on Saturday evening and the suggestion that the R&A offered £20,000 to the group have it moved to another date, an offer that was rejected.
“We’re actually contributing some incremental costs to support what I just said, the seamless operation of both events. We try and be good citizens in the communities in which we operate when we come to town. I think when you’re staging a major event … security and the safety of your guests and the experience of your guests is always a prime consideration. This is no different. That’s why that multiagency approach is so critical.”
“I think the first thing I’d say is I’ve got one venue on my mind this week and it is Portrush, given that it’s my first Open Championship and delivering what we hope will be a successful event.” – Mark Darbon
It was the success of the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush that encouraged the R&A to bring the Open back to this venue six years later. Now there is much speculation that Portmarnock, that magnificent links in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, is being considered as a future Open venue.
“I think the first thing I’d say is I’ve got one venue on my mind this week and it is Portrush, given that it’s my first Open Championship and delivering what we hope will be a successful event,” Darbon said.
“Yes, we are thinking about Portmarnock. We think it’s a wonderful links golf course and we’ve been really encouraged by the support that we’ve had in principle from the Irish government to work with us to understand whether we could stage an Open Championship there in the future. We’re knee deep in feasibility work to help us answer that question fully. We expect to have a clearer picture by the back end of this year.”
As a member of the Official World Golf Ranking board he was asked about LIV Golf’s recent application for its players to be considered for world ranking points. Again, his answer was brief, conceding an application had been made and then adding: “Sure, we actually had an OWGR board meeting yesterday. An application has been received. I think that’s a good thing. There’s a robust process that now exists that the bid will be assessed by the technical committee and then ultimately determined by the board. I think Trevor Immelman [chairman of the World Ranking board] released a statement regarding that recently and I’m sure he’ll talk about that in more detail to come.”
One of the most talked-about issues in golf concerns a scheduled rollback in the distance a golf ball flies. The R&A supports this move, which puts the governing body in conflict with the PGA Tour. “What made you [the R&A] feel it was the right decision to roll back the ball?” Darbon was asked. Again his answer was very brief. “I think the trend on distance is clear. As a governing body, it’s our job to … think about the long-term health of our sport. I think the data is unequivocal and supports the decision that was reached.”
If there was one question that caused Darbon to answer with passion, it was: What had struck him most about arriving in golf? “I learned pretty quickly that the golf industry loves a good lunch and a good dinner, much more so than the sport that I come from,” he said with a smile. “What struck me is how strong the values are in the sport of golf. Camaraderie and integrity in our game is so critical and that shines through to me really regularly.
“The other thing that’s really struck me is the health of the game,” Darbon continued. “It’s really easy for us to sit here and talk about some of the disruption that we’ve seen at the very top of the game but look at the trends that we’re seeing more broadly across our sport. Just these last few days we’ve announced some new participation figures for golf, excluding the US and Mexico which fall under the jurisdiction of the USGA, there are now 108 million people playing this wonderful game all around the world, 64 million adults, 44 million juniors, 80 percent of those juniors engaging with the sport in non-traditional formats.
“There are so many other sports around the world that crave the scale of activity that we’re seeing and the sustainable growth that we’re seeing and that gives us a strong footprint and outlook for the future.”