You can blame Brexit on everything, from the tumbling value of the pound to the fact that you can’t remember where you put your spectacles. Look, there they are, on your head. Bloomin’ Brexit. For organisers of the Open Championship, the knock-on effect of the UK’s retreat from the European Union continues to create uncertainty on the prize money front. The purse has developed considerably since a £10 fund was first introduced at the Open in 1863 and last year’s championship was worth £6.5 million. Across the pond, the Royal & Ancient’s American counterparts, the USGA, recently announced that this season’s US Open would boast record prize money of $12 million. Using the present rates, the Open is worth around $8 million and Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A, is well aware of the financial pressures. “It’s a significant issue,” he said. “We’ve gone from $1.50 to $1.25 (value of pound). I’m very conscious that the Open is the only major outside the US and I’m very conscious of making sure that it’s viewed as one of the world’s great sporting events. I'd hate to see the Open not have prize money at the top end and an option, clearly, is to move to (paying) US dollars.”
Talking of paying out, Slumbers has made it clear that bookmakers would continue to be absent in the grounds of the Open Championship. “People can do it with their online accounts but we just don’t want to have it inside the ropes,” he said. “There’s a danger in all sport of inappropriate betting. I’d hate to see crowds getting overly involved in their enthusiasm for a particular player or hole or shot because of their betting position. For the first time, in 2016, we actually became part of a sports monitoring service that was looking at all the betting going on at the Open and any potential dangers, which there weren’t any.”
On the playing front, meanwhile, the R&A’s crusade to speed up the game will see the Ready Golf policy adopted in the strokeplay sections of their various amateur championships throughout the season. Instead of sticking to the time honoured ‘farthest from the hole plays first’ doctrine, Ready Golf attempts to cut down on ploddings and plooterings by allowing players to simply play when ready. Having collated the findings of the Time for Golf seminar in 2015, the R&A issued a hefty manual of recommendations aimed at improving pace of play and Ready Golf was very much to the fore. “It’s part of our bit to help with setting an example,” said Slumbers. “We’ve been talking about it (pace of play) extensively over the last 12 months. The more evidence I’ve seen, the more I’m going to continue talking about it because it is increasingly important to the development of the game.”
With the European Tour trialling the World Super 6 event last weekend, and the Golf Sixes tournament now added to the schedule, Slumbers expressed an enthusiasm for golf to try new things. While the R&A’s Brazil Nut Cup stableford won’t be featuring fireworks or piped in razzmatazz anytime soon, Slumbers has welcomed innovation. “Getting it slightly different and getting people talking about it is important,” he said. “Good news breeds good news and excitement breeds excitement. For everyone who loves golf, the blue riband way of doing it is 72-hole strokeplay but some variety in there is exciting. Keith (Pelley (the chief executive of the European Tour) has a view about being in the content and entertainment business. We all have our part to play.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here