Royal & Ancient, boss worried about the future

As he enters the final stages of his tenure at the R&A, Martin Slumbers has issued what appears to be a wake-up call to local authorities responsible for public golf courses around the world, particularly in Europe. The number of these courses, which are crucial to access to golf for the majority, is declining.

“Work with us” was the message in essence from Martin Slumbers, the R&A boss who will step down in November, to the authorities who manage public golf courses around the world. His message follows a question put to him before the start of The Women’s Open.

A number of journalists asked him to respond to the likely disappearance of public courses in Dundee, Scotland’s fourth largest city.

Royal & Ancient, statements

“It worries me a lot,” acknowledged the boss of the Royal and Ancient.

“We are perfectly aware of the importance of the existence of these courses for the development of golf, they are the bottom of the pyramid. Golf has experienced eight years of incredible growth. If you focus on the perimeter of the R&A (Editor’s note: mainly Europe), 62.3 million people currently consume golf.

The numbers have increased significantly after COVID. So we are going to need more facilities.” “I think it is essential for us to prove to local councils who are under incredible tensions and pressures that it is important to keep these golf courses in operation and that it adds value to society,” continued Martin Slumbers.

A general lack of public sports facilities in France
In France, as we know, there is no shortage of courses (more than 700). As the architect Alain Prat explained on our site in 2022, they are divided into 4 categories: the most important are the “commercial” golf courses financed (land and construction) mainly by public project owners and managed by private operators (pension funds, developers , etc.), public golf courses which, unlike the previous ones, are managed by communities, private golf courses and in small numbers, real estate golf courses.

Public golf courses are those which perhaps contribute the most to the famous democratization of golf. However, still according to Alain Prat, “The lack of truly public facilities (as well as other facilities such as football fields, swimming pools, etc.) means that France is still lagging behind in its development if we compare it, for example, to Germany with 600,000 players and 750 golf courses”. The concern raised by Martin Slumbers therefore concerns France first and foremost.