R&A names Northampton Saints chief Mark Darbon as new CEO – this is what he must resolve

The R&A has lured Mark Darbon from the Northampton Saints to become the new chief executive of golf’s governing body.

The Englishman is leaving Franklin’s Gardens – where he oversaw the club’s impressive rise to being crowned Gallagher Premiership champions last month – to take control in the famous office overlooking the 18th green at the Old Course in St Andrews. He will officially take up the role in November, with Martin Slumbers having announced his retirement in January.

It is understood that there were hundreds of applications for the position, with the former hockey international, who plays off a three handicap at Saunton Golf Club, winning the nod over what an insider told Telegraph Sport was “a remarkable array of candidates”. The salary is unknown but is believed to be seven figures.

“I am thrilled and honoured 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 in a statement.

“The R&A is a globally renowned organisation and does so much to ensure that golf prospers from grass roots 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 organisations to achieve even more success in the years to come.”

At 45, Darbon is believed to be the youngest secretary ever appointed by the Royal and Ancient, the 270 year-old institution with a global membership of more than 2,400. The club was known as “The R&A” until 20 years ago when a fresh organisation was spun off, with the R&A now essentially the administrative arm of the body that, in tandem with US Golf Association, is governing authority of the game and runs tournaments such as the Open Championship and the Women’s Open.

‘Darbon could just have accepted the challenge of his life’

Darbon – who was a former senior member of the organising committee for the 2012 Olympics in London – has earned rich acclaim for putting the Saints back on a sound financial footing after the pandemic, and while the finances are always primary for the R&A with its development programmes across the world, the most pressing tasks for the new man will be the LIV saga and the distance debate.

The former continues to split the game, despite the negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, and the R&A will soon need to decide if it will grant direct access to the Open from the breakaway league. There is also the thorny problem of LIV gaining world ranking points recognition.

Meanwhile, together with the USGA, the R&A is bringing in controversial rules to restrict the extraordinary lengths the modern pros drive the ball. With the PGA Tour and PGA of America against the proposal, this issue also has the potential to create a golf civil war.

As an Oxford Blue at Worcester College and with a career in sports management across all of its aspects, Darbon could just have accepted the challenge of his life. Niall Farquharson, the R&A chairman, is confident the appointee has the necessary attributes.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Darbon’s in-tray: the four key issues

Appropriately enough for the chief executive of the English rugby union champions, Mark Darbon will be required to get his hands dirty when he takes over at the R&A in November.

There will be rucks and there will be head-to-head collisions, all of which the new man at the helm of the governing body will need, at the very least, to survive as the professional game stands on the brink of a future that could be unified or split. Darbon’s role in shaping the sport for the next generations cannot be overstated.

Initially, there are two huge topics that will dominate the 45-year-old’s agenda as he leaves Northampton Saints for St Andrews. The emergence of LIV Golf has already caused one sporting civil war, while the impending limitations to be placed on the turbo-charged golf balls are loaded with the potential for another.

However, even if Darbon negotiates these hurdles, then there will be other problems for the three-handicapper to help conquer. He is lowering himself into the hot seat just when golf is ensnared in unprecedented uncertainty. These are the four principal issues in Darbon’s in-tray when he assumes the role from the highly regarded Martin Slumbers.

LIV Golf

Even though the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund will eventually decide how the top-end of male professional golf is structured, the R&A will still play a significant role.

Like all four of the majors, Slumbers has sided with the traditional power of the Tour, while attempting to cling on to some semblance of neutrality.

From the outset, he spoke against the Saudi disruptors breaking the meritocracy, if only because of the perceived closed-shop nature of LIV. The R&A remains in favour of the pyramid, but in the last year or so has seemingly accepted that the Saudi billions are in the sport for the foreseeable future and amended its stance to make the most of the investment.

Slumbers broke bread with Yasir Al-Rumayyan – the PIF governor and LIV chairman – at last year’s Open and there have been discussions in the background about PIF contributing to the R&A’s many development schemes. The body would be foolish not to converse, and it is vital that Darbon keeps open these channels of contribution.

Slumbers’ attitude was apparently to wait to see what comes out of the Tour-PIF discussions, before deciding which course to take in ensuring that LIV players have routes into the Open. But the peace-brokering could go on for years and Darbon may have to follow the lead of the US Golf Association – the sport’s other governing body that oversees the US Open – which appears ready to establish direct access from the LIV money list into its major for next year. It would be a big moment for LIV and may meet with resistance from the traditionalists, but the R&A’s duty is surely to have the best players at its championship.

The subject is complicated by the fact that the R&A – together with the other three majors – was complicit in turning down LIV’s request for official world ranking status. Slumbers would insist that rejection was nothing to do with favouritism and everything to do with LIV not yet meeting the criteria.

LIV has withdrawn its application, but the wrangle is not dead. Depending on what the new landscape looks like, Darbon may be obliged to take a firm hand in this area, particularly if professional golf is to prosper as much as the amateur scene, with participation levels soaring around the globe.

The distance debate

Together with the USGA, the R&A has announced that from 2028 rules will be introduced that will roll-back the ball and effectively reduce the length of the big-hitters’ drive by up to 20 yards.

The PGA Tour backed by the PGA of America – the body which represents the 30,000 club pros in the US – has stated their opposition and so the game is entangled in a state of limbo in which the authorities insist the regulations are coming in regardless and the professional game considers its options.

This could amount to the Tour (or Tours) rebelling and not obeying orders and this would lead to the majors – well, three of them anyway – demanding that the players conform in the tournaments that truly matter. That would be an almost inconceivable division and will likely be avoided because ultimately the pros would be negatively impacted.

Yet, as they are paid by the equipment makers, they will moan and whinge and the lawyers will make it difficult and probably expensive. Darbon and Mike Whan, his USGA counterpart, will need to stay strong.

After years of neglect, too much depends on the rules-makers sticking to the plan and at last doing something, however little it may be, to halt the ruinous effects of the bomb-and-gouge brigade.

Classic courses are being rendered obsolete, the game is becoming too one-dimensional and the environmental concerns are as obvious as they are ominous. Darbon is seen as a progressive and must live up to the billing in this regard.

Prize money

With LIV driving up the rewards to levels which are not just unsustainable but are actually turning off viewers, the R&A cannot do much more than plead for sanity, at the same time as keeping the Open purse relevant.

Surely, there will be a correction in the years ahead, especially as PIF and the private equity in the PGA Tour will eventually demand returns on their investments.

Yet where Darbon can make a difference is in carrying on the fine work of Slumbers with the Women’s Open. The outgoing CEO made it his mission to wrest control of the British female major and enhance its prosperity not only ramping up the prize money ($4.5 million in 2019, $9 million in 2023) but in taking it to a number of the great links.

Slumbers was always willing to discuss equal prize money, but only in a responsible manner in which the tournament generates the investment itself.

The problem is that the male game’s explosion in purses has hardly been secured in a justifiable or responsible fashion and Darbon may be forced to make a statement, by bringing the Women’s Open in line.

Naturally, it would be controversial and trigger a stampede of the dinosaurs, but again, Darbon would have to be resolute and look at the big picture.

However, by ensuring there are steady and notable increases each year, this can be a challenge for future years.

Turnberry

It is a crying shame that the Open does not visit the most spectacular links in the world. Granted, the R&A never has much fancied Turnberry in terms of the lower crowds and revenue it produces, but visually it is more than worth the economic hit every so often.

Slumbers has made no secret of the fact that the only reason the Ayrshire gem has not staged the major since 2009 – when a then 59-year-old Tom Watson so almost made history – is because of the owner.

Donald Trump purchased the course and hotel in 2013 and, as well as spending millions on a fantastic redevelopment, has become one of the most contentious individuals on the planet. Slumbers is certain that Trump would overshadow the Open and has not been prepared even to countenance the scenario.

“We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances,” he said last year.

Will Darbon take the same hard stance? Probably, even if Trump is elected as president for a second term. Alas, Turnberry deserves better and if Darbon has the minerals, he will find a solution.