Speaking at the media day for the 2026 Open Championship, which being held at Royal Birkdale Golf Club from July 16-19, MARK DARBON, chief executive of The R&A, discusses the governing body’s new strategy to grow the game, demand for tickets to The Open, innovations being introduced to extend the golf offering over the course of Open week, and the challenges facing venues putting on the championship in the modern era. In a wide-ranging Q&A session, he also addresses issues around ticket affordability, the fan experience and the on-going driver distance debate.
MARK DARBON: Last week we unveiled our new strategy, which sets out the R&A’s purpose to open golf to the world. That means building on the positive momentum we’re seeing in the sport and getting more people playing and engaging with the game globally. In doing so, we can showcase golf’s transformational impact on individuals and communities, highlighting its health, well-being, and social benefits whilst ensuring it remains accessible and open at every level.
The three pillars of our new strategy will see the R&A unite through our role in governance of the sport, inspire through our portfolio of world class championships, and lead positively by shaping golf’s future with our partners.
The Open Championship is clearly the foundation of our work to inspire, to engage and excite millions of people around the world. So everyone at the R&A is eagerly counting down the 80 or so days left until the first tee shot is hit.
As we look ahead to what’s to come, I’m delighted to announce that at this year’s Open Championship we will welcome our biggest ever attendance with more than 300,000 people attending across the course of the week. Once again, we received over one million applications in the ballot for those tickets, and that continues to demonstrate the worldwide appeal for our championship.
We take our responsibility to provide an outstanding experience for fans extremely seriously. This year we’re therefore introducing a series of enhancements as we continue to evolve and expand our offering.
The Last-Chance Qualifier on Monday will see 12 players competing over 18 holes for the last place in the Championship. We expect that to deliver real drama and excitement at the start of the week.
On Tuesday we’re introducing the Heroes Classic, which will see Jordan Spieth and Padraig Harrington, both former winners of The Open at Royal Birkdale, joined by reigning AIG Women’s Open champion Miyu Yamashita and G4D champion Brendan Lawlor and Ryder Cup stars Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose, as well as high profile figures from sports and entertainment more broadly, including R&A ambassadors Bryan Habana and Kathryn Newton, and they’ll be playing a three-hole scramble on Tuesday afternoon.
In addition, we’ve listened to feedback from our fans and are introducing more opportunities for them to pick up a club from the championship. We’re creating a new skill zone, a short game area which will give attendees the chance to take part in putting, chipping, and bunker shots. We’re extending the hours of the swing zone so fans have more time to get free golf instruction from PGA professionals, and we’re bringing in a new long putt activation in the spectator village.
There will be additional off-course entertainment throughout the course of the week. For example, through a new sessions program that we’re bringing in in the main spectator village. And the excellent Open app has been further enhanced to improve the digital experience fans will have.
Our premium experience model has been redesigned, and we’ve also introduced a new direct consumer travel proposition, all of which will be in place for this summer’s championship.
Of course we also continue to invest in the player experience at The Open. We pride ourselves on the wonderful feedback we receive on the setup and facilities we deliver for the players, but we can’t stand still. We have worked closely with Royal Birkdale on the enhancements to the course, and with the club and neighbouring Hillside to
expand the practice range and ensure the players have world class facilities as they prepare for this championship. We’re extremely grateful to both clubs for their assistance and support.
How did the idea come about for the Last-Chance Qualifier for The Open?
We’ve been thinking about it for a while and a few reasons really. I think one of them is that we have such strong demand for our Open Championship, over a million applications the last few years for tickets that are available, and we’re absolutely at capacity on our championship days. We value the experience we deliver for spectators who are here and present.
So, like many other events, in golf and other sports, we’ve looked at means to elongate the event week. Our attendance now on the practice days are really strong, but in order to deliver that high value experience for attendees, we wanted to look at whether there were means to create additional opportunities, additional things for them to see and to do, but to do that sensitively and in line with the context and the nature of the rest of our championship.
So, we think the Last-Chance Qualifier, which will give a handful of players an opportunity to qualify for the main event, fits that ambition, so creates an extra attraction that works for on-site attendees and for broadcasters but is delivered in a way that is in keeping with the rest of the championship. We’re looking forward to see how that goes this year, and we’ll resolve and refine it into the future.
What criteria will decide which 12 players get to compete in the Last-Chance Qualifier?
I think we’ve published some key criteria, and to keep it in line with how we think about qualification to Open Championship more broadly, we want it to be a highly meritocratic process. We want players earn their rights. Everyone in the field will have earned their right appropriately into The Open Championship.
The criteria includes the runner-up from the Amateur Championship, people that have just missed out through final qualifying, people who haven’t quite made it on the OWGR list but may be reserves already for the championship. We’ll follow our broader principles. As I say, I think we’re going to create some drama and excitement at the start of the week.
There has been a lot of changes made to the layout at Royal Birkdale. Probably the most changes at any course for an Open in a long time. Is there apprehension about the number of changes that have been made?
I think the general feeling is one excitement rather than apprehension. We’ve had great feedback from the membership and from the club based on the changes that have been made. That’s always a good sign.
We’re excited because the changes are freeing up some of the pinch points that we’ve had in the past. They enable us to think slightly differently about the infrastructure we deploy to underpin this championship.
We’re looking forward to hearing feedback from the players when they arrive or when they practice here in advance of the championship.
Can you give us an idea about where you stand with regards to future Open Championships being held at Muirfield and Turnberry?
We’ve got a great on-going dialogue with Muirfield. I think we’re there for the Women’s Amateur this summer. As you know, in the same way with many of our venues, there’s some things we need to overcome to facilitate a modern Open Championship. The practice ground is one of those aspects, but there’s a few on course infrastructural points we need to work on with the club. That dialogue is a good one. The team from Muirfield are actually with us later in May to further that discussion.
Turnberry is also still very much in our thinking. We really like the golf course. We know that there are some logistical challenges that relate to staging a modern Open Championship there, primarily off the course – road, rail, accommodation and infrastructure, but we’ve got a really good dialogue with the club and its ownership. So, much like all of our other venues, that dialogue will continue, but I guess there’s not a huge amount of ‘new’ news to report on that front.
You mentioned that 300,000 tickets have been sold for this year’s Open. What do you hope to grow The Open at where you’re comfortable with a certain number of spectators?
We don’t have a target in mind when it comes to spectator numbers. What we know is -we have very strong demand for our championship, and that’s a positive. We’d like to try and service that demand where we can, and that means looking for opportunities to grow spectator numbers where possible.
But at the same time, it’s a delicate balance because the one thing we want to do, of course, is protect the spectator experience, and we want to manage our crowd sensitively around these wonderful golf courses. So there are, again, a number of things that influence the number of people that we can bring on site, not just on course, but in the surrounding area too.
Birkdale is a great location for us in terms of that logistical setup to transport and travel links, as well as now given some of the changes of the course, the routes around the golf course that facilitate that movement. There will be times when we will not be close to that number, which will certainly be the case when we’re at Lytham in 2028. We’ll have a lower capacity because the site is very different, and that’s fine for us. So we’ll flex our number depending on the nature and setup of the existing course.
There’s probably a lower limit for us these days because of that demand and our desire to present The Open Championship in a certain way. So lots of factors go into it, but we certainly don’t have a target in mind.
The Open Championship is our biggest commercial driver, so we take the profit we generate that and invest it back into the game. So we have to think somewhat commercially about this championship because it underpins the rest of that wonderful work that we do. So there’s always going to be a balance between commercial reality and the desire to keep The Open open and accessible to all.
What are your views on the ongoing distance debate and the golf ball roll back and where The R&A stands on this right now?
For us the trend on distance is undeniable. A decision was made at the back end of 2023 to make a change to the golf ball. We remain committed to that. The one thing we’re working through is the date of implementation given some feedback we’ve heard from the industry.
I would expect there to be a finalised position on that over the next couple of months as we consolidate that feedback we’ve taken from manufacturers and other stakeholders. We think the change is important, and so we’re committed to it. We know we have a lot of support from across the game. There’s some debate on it in certain quarters, but we’re optimistic about the route ahead.
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the cost of attending golf events by fans. I just wonder what commitment you have to keeping the event affordable to people who want to come?
Look, it’s a significant commitment of ours to try and ensure that The Open remains just that, open and accessible to a broad audience. Again, there are some commercial realities, right? The cost base of staging these things has grown significantly in recent years; that is undeniable.
We have this unique challenge of ensuring that our championship remains open and accessible while also needing to be thoughtful about the revenue and profit that it generates so we can reinvest that back into the game.
I think we’ve managed that balance appropriately in terms of taking some price increases where we’ve needed to but in a very measured fashion. One of the reasons we’ve done that is to maintain our commitment to some initiatives that are incredibly important to us. We still allow free attendance for under 16s at our championship. We still offer significant discounts for young people age 17 to 24.
If you look around the sports industry – not just golf, but more broadly – there are very few major events that are doing that, and it’s something we’re incredibly proud of, and it’s something that’s really important to us. We’ll strive to maintain that balance between affordability and the commercial reality.
At the same time, I think it’s important to not just talk about price, but to talk about value. So we pride ourselves on delivering an experience that is wonderful for the people that come through the gates to watch our championship. It’s one of the reasons we’re continuing to invest in these propositions to add and enhance to the event week to ensure that we maintain value for all of the stakeholders that we welcome.