R&A chief Martin Slumbers, in surprise move, to step down by year’s end

After serving because the R&A’s CEO and secretary of the Royal and Historic Golf Membership at St. Andrews for 9 years, Martin Slumbers will step down from his position by yr’s finish, the R&A stated Wednesday.

The announcement, which comes at a time when the world of males’s skilled golf is at a deeply unsure crossroads, got here as a shock to most observers outdoors the partitions of the R&A’s St. Andrews headquarters, although The Guardian did report that Slumbers had deliberate to remain within the put up for not more than a decade.

Slumbers, 63, is credited with seeing the governing physique by way of a interval of development, particularly with regard to the Open Championship and the Ladies’s British Open. His major initiatives included making the sport extra accessible and inclusive.

Below Slumbers’ management, the R&A elevated its monetary dedication to the sport and created new worldwide novice championships for girls and golfers with disabilities.

“In any profession, there’s a time to permit the subsequent era to have its flip,” Slumbers stated in a press launch. “I’m grateful to have had the distinction, for almost a decade, to have been the custodian of all that The R&A and the sport of golf extra broadly represents.”

Slumbers’ tenure included oversight of many main adjustments, together with the 2019 modernization of the Rules of Golf, the introduction of the World Handicap System in 2020 and the Distance Insights course of. Most not too long ago, the R&A, in partnership with the USGA, introduced plans for a golf-ball rollback.

Earlier than stepping down, Slumbers will oversee the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, the 2024 AIG Ladies’s Open at St. Andrews and the 2024 Curtis Cup match at Sunningdale.

An govt search agency has already been appointed to seek for Slumbers’ successor.

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