R&A chief says decision on LIV golfers in Open will come early in 2023, challenge awaits to ensure golf doesn’t lose values

By John Huggan
A bit like World No. 11, Viktor Hovland, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers has the sort of face that, even when he isn’t actually smiling, strongly hints that one is about to appear. But this week at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC), the Englishman is looking even happier than normal. This year in its 13th incarnation, the event, run by the R&A, the Asia-Pacific Golf Federation and the Masters Tournament, has further enhanced the game’s profile in this vast region. It is, by a distance, the most widely broadcast amateur tournament in the world.

“This event has been a huge success story,” says Slumbers, who is attending his eighth AAC. “To have the senior members of the R&A and Augusta National chairman, Fred Ridley, here this week really elevates the event, too. Their presence adds credibility and gravitas.

“I love professional golf at the top end,” Slumbers continues. “I admire the skill. But my job is mostly about amateur golf. Why do I love this event? I’m more interested in the bottom half of the field than the top. We know who the good players are, and it will be exciting to see who wins. But the cut was level par, on a tough course playing nearly 7,200 yards. That is pretty good. A few years ago, it probably would have been three or four over.”

Indeed, to Slumbers’ mind, this event is a mixture of what he calls “aspiring and attainment.” This year the former is epitomized by the fact that players from Kyrgyzstan, Iraq and Nepal played all four rounds for the first time. And the latter is in place to allow the elite players to take their final steps in the game before turning professional.

“We really care about the game becoming more popular,” Slumbers says. “The perception of the game is really important to me. We need to get away from this view that it is a game for rich white men. That’s a bad perception and not where I came from in the game. But to build that pyramid there has to be a pathway for players. Yes, at the top end there is a springboard. But there is another at the bottom, one that creates opportunities. This event does that perfectly.”

Still, as Slumbers has discovered multiple times during his seven-year tenure with the game’s ruling body outside the United States and Mexico, life isn’t always smile-inducing. Only this week, former US President Donald Trump claimed that the R&A “wanted” the Open Championship to return to his property at Turnberry for the first time since 2009.

It was a statement that no doubt produced more than a few sighs within the R&A. Early last year, Slumbers was unequivocal on the subject and nothing has changed since.

“There are no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future,” he said then. “We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself, and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.’’

“It’s not irritating,” says Slumbers now. “But we have been very clear about our position. What is frustrating is that people keep writing about this when we have been so clear. We set our position in January 2021, and it is unchanged.”

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R&A chief says decision on LIV golfers in Open will come early in 2023, challenge awaits to ensure golf doesn’t lose values

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