Martin Slumbers leaves his place as Chief Government of The R&A at this time [December 13] after serving the governing physique for nearly ten years.
Throughout his tenure, which started in 2015, Slumbers has performed a number one position in instigating many important modifications which have positively affected not solely the inside workings of The R&A and The Royal and Historical Golf Membership, however many areas of the broader recreation, from the staging of the Open Championship and the Girls’s Open, to the multitude of initiatives which were carried out to assist develop the sport on the novice stage around the globe.
Following his choice to step down as chief govt, which was first introduced in January, Slumbers mentioned: “It has been a privilege to serve golf on the highest stage. It’s a position 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 technology to have its flip. I’m grateful to have had the honour to have been the custodian of all that The R&A and the sport of golf extra broadly represents.”
Key successes throughout his time in workplace embody the sharp development of each the Open Championship and Girls’s Open in business phrases, with prize cash for each occasions have been considerably elevated throughout his time in workplace due to an inflow of latest sponsors.
The Open has additionally grown considerably throughout Slumbers’ reign, with the championship now usually attracting over 250,000 spectators throughout the week. His choice to show it right into a pre-sold occasion, with no possibility to purchase tickets on the day, drew criticism on the time, however has since change into the accepted norm for just about all main international sporting occasions within the trendy age.
The choice to deliver the championship again to Royal Portrush, which hosted the Open in 2019 after a close to 70-year absence, and can accomplish that for the third time in 2025, was broadly welcomed, though the choice to not return to Turnberry following the Scottish resort’s acquisition by The Trump Organisation, has been a supply of debate.
“I believe we’ve moved it [The Open] on a great distance,” Slumbers says. “We’ve very a lot centered it round eager to be one of many world’s nice sporting occasions. Its dimension has grown. Its branding has grown. I believe its status has grown. And I’m very happy with The Open.”
Slumbers can also be happy with the event of the AIG Girls’s Open, beforehand often called the British Girls’s Open, which now boasts a prize fund of virtually $10m. He mentioned it was beforehand “run on a shoestring” however insists now it has became “top-of-the-line championships on this planet for girls”.
Elevating feminine affect in what has at all times been a male dominated sport is one in every of Slumbers’ largest success tales. Merging The R&A with the Women Golf Union occurred early in his reign.
Whereas the ladies’s skilled recreation is in much better state than it has ever been, Slumbers leaves his position at The R&A with the boys’s skilled recreation in an enormous state of flux, with the break up created by the arrival of LIV Golf in 2021 persevering with to drive a wedge between the principle excursions.
Chatting with the Golf Channel within the US a number of weeks forward of his departure, Slumbers mentioned that the divisions that at the moment exist on the high of males’s golf must be ‘swiftly concluded’ for the higher good of the game.
He mentioned: “We do want the skilled recreation to kind itself out in that regard and help what is a good momentum for our sport typically. The divisive place that we now have within the skilled recreation has been very damaging for golf. It’s been damaging when it comes to our status as a sport.
“I hoped that we’d have had peace by now, as a result of we have to get some stability. We have to see the sport change into financially sustainable, as a result of it can’t keep it up like this. Whether it is to have a long-term future, we have to cease speaking as a lot about cash and get again to being about values of the game. If we do this, I believe the general public will begin to watch it once more.”
Slumbers departs his position with the novice recreation in good well being, with membership membership and people experiencing the sport in all its kinds having fun with a big uptick, partly buoyed by golf’s recognition throughout and following the pandemic, but in addition by the extra welcoming and inclusive attitudes adopted by golf amenities, from golf golf equipment to driving ranges and indoor golf venues.
Slumbers has additionally been on the forefront of decreasing the influence that trendy gear expertise has on the challenges introduced by golf’s historic championship venues, with plans to restrict the space the ball travels for elite gamers attributable to come into operation in 2028. He additionally made sustainability, each of golf programs and the game in monetary phrases, a theme of his tenure.
Awarded an OBE for his companies to golf within the King’s Birthday Honours Listing in June, Slumbers mentioned: “Golf has been an enormous a part of my life and has been extraordinarily good to me over a few years. Once I took up the position at The R&A in 2015 I used to be motivated to present one thing again to the sport I like. I found an actual ardour for our sport and a need to extend its recognition and attraction. It actually has been an exquisite expertise that I’ll treasure for the remainder of my life.”
Niall Farquharson, chairman of The R&A, mentioned: “In Martin, we now have been lucky to have a CEO who has steered the organisation via a interval of development and enhanced the profile and status of our sport to make it extra accessible, interesting and inclusive.
“By way of his stature and affect on this planet of golf and sport extra broadly, and in rising the proceeds of the Open to take a position again into the sport, he has been true to the R&A’s objective of golf thriving 50 years from now and has proven transformational management. He speaks usually of reflecting historical past in a contemporary means and that will likely be his legacy to the R&A and to the membership.”
Slumbers’ substitute at The R&A is Mark Darbon, the 45-year-old former chief govt of Northampton Saints rugby membership, who boasts an in depth profession in sports activities occasion administration, together with serving on the organising committee for the 2012 London Olympics.
