Latest news with #MartinSlumbers
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
The R&A makes big event announcement about Muirfield
One of St Andrews-based body's marquee events to be held at East Lothian venue for first time Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The R&A has announced Muirfield as a venue for one of its marquee events and it could be another step towards the East Lothian course welcoming back The Open. The 123rd Women's Amateur Championship will be staged for the first time at the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in June next year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The announcement by the St Andrews-based governing body comes on the back of a similar ground-breaking hosting by the historic club of the AIG Women's Open in 2022. Muirfield is set to stage The R&A Women's Amateur Championship for the first time in 2026 | Getty Images All that now remains to become clear is when The Open, last held at Muirfield in 2013 and won on that occasion by Phil Mickelson, will return to one of the best courses on The R&A's list for the Claret Jug event. This year's edition at Royal Portrush, where it is heading back after just six years, is being followed by a return to Royal Birkdale in 2026 before St Andrews stages the game's oldest major for the 31st time in 2027. Part of the reason why Muirfield could be facing a minimum gap of 15 years between Opens was the club's initial failure to admit women members in 2016 before a second vote the following year resulted in just over 80 per cent of the membership giving the green light to the proposal. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It was difficult discussions (after the initial vote),' admitted Martin Slumbers in one of his final interviews before stepping down as The R&A's CEO at the end of last year and handing over the reins to Mark Darbon. 'But, to their eternal credit, two or three of the past captains of Muirfield who I was dealing with were fully aware of my views and our views and wanted to go in that direction. It was a difficult moment for all of us, but I think the game is way better because of it.' 'It is too good a golf course - but changes are required' In the same interview with The Scotsman, Slumbers was not willing to give too much away when asked about when The Open might return to Muirfield. 'As I said in my press conference in July (at Royal Troon), we will have an Open at Muirfield - it is too good a golf course,' he said with a smile. But he also admitted of a venue where The Open winners include Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo (twice) and Ernie Els in addition to the aforementioned Mickelson: 'There are a number of changes that need to happen to the golf facilities at Muirfield to stage a modern Open. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'The game was very different in 2013. The practice facilities, for instance. We had a huge 80-100 foot net and they were still popping it over the top of it and landing balls on number eight and, of course, we can't have that.' Women's Amateur set for two successive stagings in Scotland The announcement about the 2026 edition heading to Muirfield means the Women's Amateur Championship is set to be held two years in a row in Scotland as this year's event takes place at Nairn next week. Meanwhile, the 131st Amateur Championship will take place next year at Royal Liverpool and West Lancashire. Craigielaw will host The R&A Boys' Amateur Championship in 2026 |Back on Scottish soil, the Girls' and Boys' Amateur Championships will be held at Craigielaw and Gailes Links respectively while the sixth season of The R&A Student Tour Series will conclude in St Andrews. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, Executive Director – Championships at The R&A, said: 'It is a priority for The R&A to reinforce the status of our amateur championships, international matches and Student Tour Series as leading events in elite amateur golf. 'We aim to attract the best players from around the world and staging these competitions at some of the game's most prestigious venues in 2026 underlines their importance.
The Herald Scotland
29-04-2025
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
The Open packs them in but sometimes less can be more
The reason for this weary pessimism is that I've not played a heck of a lot this year. It's tricky, therefore, to gauge what kind of state my game will be in and, until I muddle through the first couple of holes, I'll not know whether the round will be a complete farce or just a mere fiasco. To help us negotiate the links, the good folk at The Renaissance provide each group with a forecaddie. Given I'll likely plonk my ball nowhere near the strategic position he takes up down the fairway, we'll probably end up communicating with each other from afar with some kind of elaborate maritime flag semaphore. Having that extra pair of eyes watching affairs unravel is always handy, of course. I don't know about you but when I look up, causing an awful shot, I'll always look down again in muttering, cursing disgust at the exact moment I should actually be looking up and watching my ball if I ever want to see the ruddy thing again. Our forecaddie will be kept busy. It's going to be busy, meanwhile, over the water at Royal Portrush when the Open returns to Northern Ireland in July. Last week, the R&A announced that the total attendance for the 153rd championship will be a whopping 278,000, some 40,000 more than the last time it was held at Portrush in 2019 and the second highest in Open history behind the 290,000 souls who shoehorned themselves into St Andrews in 2022. The queue for a pint at the town's well-kent Harbour Bar will probably stretch back to the Stena Line ferry terminal in Belfast. With Rory McIlroy returning home as Masters champion and a career grand slam winner – and who knows what else he's plonked on to his mantelpiece come July – the stampede through the gates will be like something you'd see on a nature documentary about the great migration of the Wildebeest. In the eyes of the R&A, big is, indeed, beautiful. Martin Slumbers, the former chief executive of the St Andrews-based governing body, was always a fan of the phrase, 'big-time sport needs a big-time crowd.' Now, I appreciate that vast ticket sales, and the revenue it all generates, does wonders for the R&A's terrific golf-related initiatives around the world but I always thought the relentless focus on said sales in recent years was a trifle tawdry. Look at Augusta and the spectator experience at the Masters? Less is more. A hierarchy has since developed in terms of Open venues as the organisers look more favourably at hosts that can easily accommodate the 200,000-plus mark. This emphasis on how many folk they can cram in gently dunts certain esteemed courses into the margins. That's a pity for some truly outstanding venues. The fact the Open is back at Portrush for a second time in just six years – it had been 68 years since the previous visit there – speaks volumes for the R&A's mantra of size matters. Muirfield, widely regarded as the finest, purest links in the world and a host of 16 Opens, hasn't staged the championship since 2013. In that time, of course, there was the small matter of a stooshie surrounding the Honourable Company's now defunct all-male membership policy. We all know, meanwhile, about the various issues with Turnberry. Putting all the off-course stuff to one side – and it's not easy to put Trump to one side for a start - it would still be a mighty shame if the iconic majesty of the Ailsa Course never held another Open. Royal Lytham, on the other hand, hasn't hosted an Open since Ernie Els pounced on Adam Scott's excruciating collapse to pinch the Claret Jug in 2012. Encased by the railway line and residential housing, the treasured Lancashire venue is now viewed as being a bit tight for the all-singing, all-dancing Open circus. The magnificence of the links, the cherished history and the robust nature of the golfing test, though, should take precedence over logistical challenges with infrastructure or reduced attendances. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking in this highly commercial age? Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the great Bobby Jones's first Open win in the first Open to be held at Lytham in 1926. Golf loves such commemorative nods to a storied past. But next season's Open is going to that other northwest powerhouse of Royal Birkdale. Lytham will, at least, host the Women's Open in 2026. Your correspondent will be a wizened auld you-know-what by the time the Open returns there, if it ever does. In the public ticket ballot for this year's showpiece, all the briefs were just about sold out in the time it took you to gasp the word 'ballot'. Big-time crowds, indeed. Portrush, then, will pack them in. It will pack the coffers too. But a big part of an Open is showcasing the very best links courses these isles offer, not just the ones that make the most money.
