10 January 2024, St Andrews, Scotland – Martin Slumbers, CEO of The R&A and Secretary of The Royal and Historical Golf Membership of St Andrews, is to step down by the top of 2024 after what will likely be 9 years within the function. Mr. Slumbers, 63, introduced his intensive international enterprise expertise and a ardour for golf to the organisation. He has led The R&A as the worldwide governing physique of golf world wide (outdoors the US and Mexico) and as Secretary of the long-lasting golf membership, which dates from 1754, he has supported its committees in serving its worldwide membership. He’ll oversee The 152nd Open at Royal Troon, the return of the AIG Girls’s Open to St Andrews and the forty third Curtis Cup match at Sunningdale earlier than relinquishing his function by the top of the 12 months. Niall Farquharson, Chairman of The R&A stated, “In Martin, we’ve been lucky to have a CEO who has steered the organisation by a interval of development and enhanced the profile and popularity of our sport to make it extra accessible, interesting and inclusive. Via his stature and affect on the earth of golf and sport extra broadly and in rising the proceeds of The Open to speculate again into the sport, he has been true to The R&A’s goal of golf thriving 50 years from now and has proven transformational management. He speaks usually of reflecting historical past in a fashionable means and that will likely be his legacy to The R&A and to the Membership.” Martin Slumbers stated, “It has been a privilege to serve golf on the highest stage. It’s a function that I’ve been proud to hold out on behalf of The R&A’s staff, the members of The Royal and Historical Golf Membership and all our international companions. In any profession, there’s a time to permit the following era to have its flip. I’m grateful to have had the honour, for practically a decade, to have been the custodian of all that The R&A and the sport of golf extra broadly represents.“ Throughout his tenure, Mr. Slumbers has led a modernisation of The R&A’s actions, which included the merger with the Girls’ Golf Union and its subsequent integration to allow The R&A to signify golf for males, girls, girls and boys on the elite stage. In 2018, as a part of his strategic strategy to The R&A’s actions, its first Playbook was developed, explaining the aim of the trendy R&A: ‘To make golf open, accessible and inclusive and guarantee it’s thriving 50 years from now’. This stage of readability has led The R&A to double its monetary dedication to golf, with higher emphasis on girls and ladies; set up a strategic business-driven strategy to golf improvement; and proactively search to enhance the notion of golf pretty much as good for you, good for society and good for the surroundings. He had oversight of the 2019 modernisation of the Guidelines of Golf, the roll-out of the World Handicap System in 2020 and the Distance Insights course of, the end result of which was introduced in December 2023. He has served on the boards of the Official World Golf Rating, the Worldwide Golf Federation and the LET. A paradigm shift within the strategy to the industrial affairs of The R&A, primarily at The Open, and the extent of experience within the govt group has enabled The R&A to considerably enhance its funding into newbie golf world wide and, with companions, has enabled the AIG Girls’s Open to develop right into a world class championship. In 2023, Mr. Slumbers delivered a four-year undertaking to create the ground-breaking new golf facility, Golf It!, in Glasgow. This family-centred facility primarily based locally creates a chance for extra individuals to benefit from the unbound pleasure of golf and for members of the area people to realize work, volunteering and coaching alternatives. 2023 additionally noticed the launch of the G4D Open for the world’s most proficient golfers with disabilities and in 2024 a brand new Africa Beginner Championship will be a part of elite newbie occasions in Asia-Pacific and Latin America. These embrace the Girls’s Beginner Asia Pacific championship and the Girls’s Beginner Latin America championship, each launched by Mr. Slumbers. An govt search agency has been appointed to help within the seek for his successor.
