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 JULY 2007 ISSUE |
Tradition and history are two words often linked with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club. If you talk to the R&A they will also tell of their interest to grow the game of golf. As the owners of the Open Championship, the oldest national open in the world and one of golf's four majors, the financial boom that golf has seen in the last few decades has put the organization that oversees golf for the majority of the world on very firm footing. The R&A each year develops numerous programs to put their spare cash to work. Golf Malaysia Magazine was able to spend a brief amount of time with Assistant Secretary and R&A Director Michael Tate and what follows hopefully will give our readers helpful information on the venerable institution and where it stands on some of the issues affecting golf today. Golf Malaysia: Could you describe the magnitude of the R&A's preparations for the Open Championship and what some of the biggest hurdles are to organising a golf major? Michael Tate: The Open Championship is a massive undertaking that is planned and delivered by a surprisingly small core team of about a dozen people based in St. Andrews. The Championship also has no permanent home but moves around nine venues in the UK, five in Scotland and four in England. So the challenge to us as the organiser is constantly changing. Venues are selected by The Championship Committee and announced up to four years in advance, so although the championship's team is focused on Carnoustie this month there is also work going on now for St. Andrews in 2010. Transport is always the biggest issue moving up to 250,000 spectators in a single week is a special skill. This year for the first time every spectator will be scanned as they enter the course as we move to enforce a ban on cell phones at the event. GM: What does it cost to run an Open Championship? Does this figure vary with different venues, if so please cite some examples? Tate: The Open is one of the world's largest annual televised sports events. It has a global reach of over 410 million households and is carried by 57 broadcasters in 162 territories. At the championship itself there are over 6,000 people with passes to work onsite, including 1000 broadcast staff and 1000 more press reporters and photographers. Staging the event is a multi-million-pound undertaking that is tasked to deliver a profit each year. In 2006, the R&A reported an operating profit of £9.1million that provides for golf development funding worldwide and ensures that we can fulfil our rules and other governance responsibilities, now and... |
 
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