R&A Appoints Mark Darbon As Chief Executive
Organization turns to CEO of Northampton Saints to replace the retiring Martin Slumbers. Plus, an Open Final Qualifying preview.
Mark Darbon has been appointed Chief Executive of The R&A and Secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.
The 45-year-old CEO of Premiership Rugby’s Northampton Saints will take over for the retiring Martin Slumbers in November.
Darbon’s other past roles in sports business suggests a broad range of experience outweighing a noticeable lack of golf world ties. He has held senior roles with the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, Olympic Park Operations, and staging of large-scale events for two American-based firms. Most recently Darbon oversaw a sports organization that captured its first title since 2014.
“We were greatly impressed with Mark’s knowledge and experience of the global sport industry and his ability to develop successful teams and deliver fantastic events,” said Niall Farquharson, Chairman of The R&A. “We believe he will be an excellent leader for The R&A and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and will play a key role in helping us to achieve our goal of ensuring a prosperous and sustainable future for golf.”
Carrying a three-handicap, Darbon’s lack of golf industry experience suggests the R&A will continue to place a Slumbers-era emphasis on ambitious business growth with an eye on improving the R&A’s contributions to the global game. Such a path comes as the PGA of America weighs whether to continue on a similar path of entrusting a member golf organization to someone with global business experience or to turn to a leader more focused on the needs of its membership.
The R&A job requires a complex blend of managing both elements, though a revamped structure since 2004 makes the two organizations more akin to Augusta National Golf Club’s division between tournament operations and club matters.
Darbon will hold the Secretary position and, like his predecessors, maintain a desk inside the world-famous Royal and Ancient clubhouse. That’s where some of the 2,400 international members have been known to lose sight of matters beyond a cloistered world. Darbon will require time to grow into this increasingly less vital part of the Chief position. However, the modern-day R&A has diversified and rarely makes news for anything beyond its annual change in captaincy. Slumbers deserves immense credit for managing and better defining this delicate shift over his nine years.
Heading the list of issues Darbon inherits:
Pressures real and imagined to keep pace with worldwide purse growth as the R&A sees benefits for golf after increasing investment in research and development causes.
Expiring media contracts in 2027 and 2028 with NBC and Sky Sports.
Official World Golf Ranking politics as part of the R&A’s board seat.
Managing the impact and ramifications of Saudi Arabia’s golf investment.
Working with the USGA on 2028’s initial implementation of new distance testing rules in the face of hostile and often inconsistent stances from the PGA Tour, PGA of America and manufacturer industrial complex.
Protecting The Open’s stature and continuing fan experience improvements while balancing affordability and access for a broad range of fans.
Continuing the AIG Women’s Open momentum as the season’s final major.
Maintaining the revenues necessary to fund successful outreach efforts that could include taking over failing or closed courses.
“I am thrilled and honored to be taking up these positions with The R&A and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and to be moving into golf, a sport I have always loved,” Darbon said. “The R&A is a globally renowned organization and does so much to ensure that golf prospers from the grassroots through to the professional game. I am looking forward to working with a hugely talented team of staff, the Club membership, and such an impressive array of partner organizations to achieve even more success in the years to come.”
Before joining Northampton Saints as CEO in 2017, Darbon served as CEO of Madison Sports Group, a New York-based events and content company best known for creating an award-winning international professional track cycling series.
While with the Saints, Darbon implemented a commercial strategy that enabled the rugby union club to achieve record revenues in consecutive seasons. As Head of Olympic Park Operations, Darbon oversaw nine competitive venues run by 20,000 employees and which saw 250,000 spectators over the course of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Darbon also served as an “Expert Adviser to the International Olympic Committee” for five years until 2018.
He is a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford University and maintains a Handicap Index of 3.1 as a member of Northamptonshire County Golf Club and Saunton Golf Club. Darbon is a former Under-21 England hockey international and a Full Blue for hockey at Oxford.
There has been occasional speculation that select old guard types within the R&A found the Slumbers years too ambitious at times, particularly with R&A outreach into women’s golf and other “grow the game” ideas such as the recently opened GolfIt facility in Glasgow. Darbon’s age, sports business experience and golf-light career background suggests the organization is looking to build on the Slumbers-era trajectory.
Open Final Qualifying
A field of 288 golfers will compete in Final Qualifying with a minimum of 16 places available into The 152nd Open at Royal Troon.
All tee times are available via TheOpen.com.
Final Qualifying will be played at Burnam & Berrow, Dundonald, Royal Cinque Ports and West Lancashire.
LIV is down to just 11 players attempting according to Robopz, though Laurie Canter is likely to earn a spot off the Federation Ranking.
There will be several coverage options:
Radio For The First Time. A live radio broadcast will be available on R&A TV for the first time. Presented by Rob Lee, Jamie Spence and Felicity Johnson, FQ Radio will also reporters at each venue providing live updates and reactions. Listeners can access the broadcast via R&A TV and TheOpen.com from 4 p.m. UK BST.
Live Blog Via TheOpen.com. This will provide videos, images and text updates from all four venues.
Leaderboard. Live scoring from each venue is available via TheOpen.com
Social media Updates. The Open’s official social media channels include Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X. Live updates will also be provided via One Club’s WhatsApp channel.
Good luck to all!
2024 Champion Golfer of the Year will wear an * because Taylor Gooch is not in the field.