R&A’s Slumbers to step down by end of 2024

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers will step down from his position by the end of the year, the organization announced Wednesday.

Slumbers, 63, is in his ninth year at the helm of the R&A. He will continue in his role through at least the Curtis Cup in early September before stepping down.

The R&A said that it has appointed an executive search firm to find Slumbers’ successor.

“It has been a privilege to serve golf at the highest level,” Slumbers said in a statement. “In any career, there is a time to allow the next generation to have its turn. I am grateful to have had the honor, for nearly a decade, to have been the custodian of all that the R&A and the game of golf more broadly represents.”

Slumbers has helped elevated The Open while also modernizing the R&A over the past decade, including the new-look Rules of Golf in 2019 and World Handicap System in 2020. Along with the USGA, Slumbers oversaw the Distance Insights Project, which culminated with last month’s decision to roll back the golf ball at the elite level beginning in 2028.

“In Martin, we have been fortunate to have a CEO who has steered the organization through a period of growth and enhanced the profile and reputation of our sport to make it more accessible, appealing and inclusive,” said Niall Farquharson, chairman of the R&A. “Through his stature and influence in the world of golf and sport more widely and in growing the proceeds of The Open to invest back into the game, he has been true to the R&A’s purpose of golf thriving 50 years from now and has shown transformational leadership. He speaks often of reflecting history in a modern way, and that will be his legacy to the R&A and to the Club.”