TROON, SCOTLAND | 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.”
He used a food metaphor to explain the way he felt about the R&A’s position. “If you think about a pie and that is the financial economic value of golf, and a part of that goes on development, a part of it goes on employing people, and a part of that goes into development of the game,” he said.
“If you reallocate incorrectly within an existing pie, there’s a real danger that the pie will shrink. That’s the way we try to model it, and I think it’s very important for the game to make sure that we think that way if we really want this game thriving 50 years from now.” – Martin Slumbers
“What we’re really talking about in the whole of this is getting the balance between particularly the prize money and the investment into the game in a way that we can ensure that the pie grows, and if the pie grows, everybody does better. If you reallocate incorrectly within an existing pie, there’s a real danger that the pie will shrink. That’s the way we try to model it, and I think it’s very important for the game to make sure that we think that way if we really want this game thriving 50 years from now.”
The Open’s 2024 prize fund of $17 million is $500,000 higher than the previous year, a small increase compared with some at other big tournaments. If this meant the R&A was falling behind and Slumbers was in a minority in trying to slow the growth of purses, then he was unconcerned. “I’m not worried about it, about being a lone voice,” he said. “Sometimes leadership is lonely. But I do think it’s important that we do say our voice, and I think there’s more people who are hearing it than not hearing it.”
Then to go with his pie metaphor, he introduced another one, this time a geometrical one. “If you look at golf as a pyramid, however strong the pyramid is at the top, it can only be sustained in the long term if the pyramid is equally strong at the base. We see that as our responsibility, and that is why we invest all of the proceeds from the Open back into the sport. We have to be careful to do that in such a way as to ensure that the recreational game is thriving and that the most talented players have a pathway to the top of the game so the professional game of tomorrow flourishes. We can’t do that if we neglect the base of the pyramid.
“While we will always offer a very competitive prize fund for the Open, our wider focus is on increasing participation and improving pathways in golf. We have to make choices about how we allocate resources and make the resources we have go as far as they can. It’s important that the R&A particularly … that we do not lose sight of that overall pyramid and the importance of the bottom and the top and helping it all grow, because without one or the other, it won’t.”
Slumbers looked polished, as he always does, a man whose stature, knowledge and general demeanour fitted the important office he held. At 63, he has a shock of full, silver hair above spectacles that add a thoughtful aspect to a face that often breaks into a friendly smile. He has developed a gravitas which was less evident when he arrived to succeed Peter Dawson in 2015.
“I feel comfortable that I’ve done my bit. I’ve enjoyed the benefits, and I’m looking forward to seeing the next decade,” he said at the end of his last press conference, his last joust with golf journalists. And he has a lot to be proud of. He has served golf well.