The Open chief holds contrasting positions on Donald Trump and Saudis
The Open Championship would think about future sponsorship from Saudi Arabia after the PGA Tour and LIV Golf agreed to work collectively to unify the game. But the historic main event seems unlikely to return to Turnberry whereas Donald Trump remains to be the proprietor of the Scottish course, in line with the R&A’s Chief Executive.
The 151st version of the showpiece occasion will get underway tomorrow at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, in Hoylake, Wirral, with 16 gamers from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour in attendance, together with the defending champion Cameron Smith.
The announcement final month that the PGA Tour was ready – alongside the DP World Tour – to bury the hatchet with LIV Golf’s Private Investment Fund backers inevitably led to questions at Royal Liverpool over simply how far Saudi involvement might turn out to be built-in into The Open itself. And the reply offered by the R&A’s Chief Executive Martin Slumbers was completely clear.
Speaking at a pre-tournament press convention, he stated: “I think the world has changed in the last year. It’s not just golf. You’re seeing it in football. You’re seeing it in F1. You’re seeing it in cricket. I’m sure tennis won’t be that far behind.
“The world of sport has changed dramatically in the last 12 months and it is not feasible for the R&A or golf to just ignore what is a societal change on a global basis. We will be considering within all the parameters that we look at all the options that we have.
“If I’m very open we continue to talk to various potential sponsors.”
The Open remains to be resisting the monetary temptation to have a title sponsor however stays in pursuit of company backers to maintain the occasion in keeping with the present hikes in prize cash on provide the world over of males’s golf.
“We had expected prize money to rise over a five-year period and it’s probably risen three years earlier than we expected it to, so there is a significant change,” stated Slumbers.
“I think you’re seeing the change in the entire business model of men’s professional golf and that’s a significant challenge for us when you take into account our desire to keep growing the game and investing all the proceeds we make into the game.”
But whereas dealings with Saudia Arabia for sporting issues look like very a lot on the desk, the identical can’t be stated of Donald Trump, who has been pushing for The Open Championship to return his Turnberry Golf Course in Scotland, which he has been of the proprietor of since 2014.
When pushed on the matter, Slumbers stated: “Until we are confident any coverage at Turnberry would be about golf, about the golf course and about the championship, we will not return any of our championships there.”