Golf's Hot Topics

Fergus Bisset meets with R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers to discuss equality, The Open, the environment, the new rules and more...

As chief executive of The R&A, Martin Slumbers has played a pivotal role in enhancing The Open Championship’s position as one of the world’s foremost sporting events. Since he took the helm in 2015, Slumbers has overseen a significant increase in the tournament’s commercial capacity, enabling The R&A to re-invest more extensively in the development of golf in this country and internationally.

He has also been instrumental in pushing forward important changes within the game and looking towards greater inclusivity and equality. During his tenure, we have seen a dramatic overhaul of the rules, the establishment of the Women in Golf charter and a path towards a World Handicap System.

Last year, I talked to Slumbers at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) in Singapore and was impressed with his progressive vision for golf and his passion for growing the game. I met him again at this year’s AAC in Shanghai, China, where I wanted to find out if he felt progress had been made over the last 12 months.

We also talked on wider issues concerning The Open, slow play and golf’s image in an increasingly environmentally conscious world.

What are the next steps towards equality between the sexes in golf?

Most of my views on this come back to The R&A’s objective of ensuring golf is thriving 50 years from now.

One hugely important thing if we’re to achieve this is for golf to embrace the family. That means we need more women playing golf, we need more women working in golf and we need the game to be more open and reflective of a modern world. Hence our commitment to the Women in Golf charter.

Has the charter been a success?