Martin Slumbers on golf’s financial sustainability

TROON, Scotland — Martin Slumbers, the outgoing CEO of the R&A, didn’t hold back his opinions on the state of the game on his way out the door, including voicing them on the growth of purses on Wednesday.

“I’ve expressed concern in recent years about financial sustainability in the men’s professional game,” he began during his press conference ahead of the 152^nd British Open. “If we take a wider perspective on the game for a second, golf is in many ways riding on the crest of a wave.”

He noted that more than 100 million people experience the game in one form or another around the world and cited that the latest participation figures indicate 62.3 million played golf – not including the U.S. and other countries that the USGA govern, a rise of 1.1 million over the previous year.

“These are very encouraging figures, but we have to maintain this momentum. To do that, we must have a sustainable business model in the long term. If you look at golf as a pyramid, however strong the pyramid is at the top, it can only be sustained in the long term if the pyramid is equally strong at the base,” he explained. “We see that as our responsibility, and that is why we invest all of the proceeds from The Open back into the sport.”

That is why Slumbers said the rapid rise in tournament purses, which soared ever since the Saudi PIF started writing lucrative checks to renegade pros and the PGA Tour responded by jacking up its purses to prevent any more players from jumping ship, has to stop.

Nevertheless, Slumbers signed off on a purse increase of $500,000 to $17 million, with the Champion Golfer of the Year expected to earn $3.1 million. In 2016, the last time the Open was held at Troon, Henrik Stenson banked $1.5 million from a purse of $8.6 million. Asked to explain why that has increased so much, Slumbers said, “Inflation.”

Not even the price of eggs and gasoline have skyrocketed at the rate of golf tournaments. Of course, there’s an argument to be made that the players were underpaid and the governing bodies were keeping too large of a share of the record TV money they negotiated but earned off the back of the players. Competition, they say, is always a good thing.

“There’s clearly a market out there. We watch it week in and week out, throughout regular play as well as through the big events. So, yeah, we’re aware of what the numbers are, but we’re also aware of our own business model and the way we think about it, and as I…