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R&A chief government Martin Slumbers introduced he is resigning from the place by the top of 2024, ending a nine-year run as the top man of the governing physique.
Slumbers, who may also resign because the secretary of the Royal and Historic Golf Membership, made the announcement through press launch.
“It has been a privilege to serve golf on the highest degree,” stated the 63-year-old Englishman. “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 Historic Golf Membership and all our international companions. In any profession, there’s a time to permit the subsequent era to have its flip. I’m grateful to have had the consideration, for practically a decade, to have been the custodian of all that the R&A and the sport of golf extra broadly represents.“
Slumbers has been an incredible advocate for girls’s golf, initiating a merger with the Women’ Golf Union to deliver advocacy for elite and aggressive golf underneath one roof. The R&A has sought to develop golf ideas that differ from a conventional 18-hole, full-length course, with many new packages designed to get extra folks taking part in the sport, together with Golf It! in Scotland.
The R&A has taken over operating the AIG Ladies’s Open, and in that span the purse has elevated dramatically, from $3.25 million in 2018 to $9 million in 2023. The G4D Open was created for all-abilities golf, and Slumbers has labored with the European Tour Group to increase aggressive alternatives for adaptive golf. A brand new Africa Newbie Championship will debut in 2024 to go alongside the Asia-Pacific and Latin America novice championships.
As well as, Slumbers led the R&A in working with the USGA to modernize the Guidelines of Golf in 2019 and introduce a singular World Handicap System.
He has modernized the enterprise operations of The Open, discovering new revenue streams and likewise new methods to attach with followers. The R&A has long-term rights offers in place for The Open, which affords monetary stability for the group.
Slumbers has additionally been on the head of the R&A for one of the tumultuous eras in golf historical past. He was the top of the group for the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the cancellation of the 2020 Open Championship that precipitated a delay of the a hundred and fiftieth Open at St. Andrews.
He, together with USGA CEO Mike Whan, have been probably the most public figures within the twin governing our bodies’ announcement of a deliberate, common golf-ball rollback — which has been lauded and dragged, relying on the nook of golf that is reacted to it.
Slumbers has additionally been not directly dragged into the skilled golf wars involving the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LIV Golf and the Saudi Public Funding Fund. Slumbers has talked about in search of some funding within the grassroots leisure recreation from the Saudis — a notion supported by Rory McIlroy.
An government search agency has been employed to search for the subsequent R&A chief government.
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