New R&A CEO talked for 25 minutes. 1 message came through

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — There was only one issue when Mark Darbon plopped down in his seat Wednesday morning ahead of his first Open Championship press conference as head of the R&A: 

No one was there.

Darbon was two minutes early, beating the horde of question-askers into the room. 

What happened next, however, flipped the issue 180 degrees. Once everyone had filed in, Darbon spent 25 minutes talking to the question-askers and offering them … nothing. Zilch. Nada. It was a masterwork of saying nothing at all.

The purpose of press conferences has been stretched over the years. (Same with the press release, for that matter.) But in a sport run by five governing families, each of which uses the Wednesday before their premier event to share a State of Their Business, today was supposed to mean something. Where is the R&A going? What is the R&A excited about? What does this new CEO hold dearest in the sport he’s part-governor of? 

Darbon is just six months in to filling the vacancy left by Martin Slumbers, a beloved leader who kept a handful of goals close to mind throughout his decade in charge. He sought to elevate women in golf, he strived to increase participation, he wanted to make The Open a global event, and to push the pro sport in sustainable financial direction. He wrote these things down, committed them to memory, and made forward progress by the time he was done. Importantly, he also wasn’t afraid to share them publicly. Slumbers was forthright and witty — happy to chat, wise enough to never say too much, but keen to explore out loud what mattered to him personally and to the R&A as a brand. (A bit like Scottie Scheffler, now that I think of it.)

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Darbon, on the other hand, seems much less interested in litigating anything in the press room, either his thoughts alone or the general direction the R&A will be headed. Unfortunately for him, there’s a lot to talk about right now. And when a leader struggles to illustrate, or explicitly ducks topics — see: Jay Monahan, Players Championship, 2024 and 2025 — they surrender their chance to articulate the meaning of their role in the game, leaving it in the hands of others instead.

This week the R&A has halted the rampant, recent increases in tournament prize purses at £17 million. When asked how difficult it was to reach that decision, Darbon noted 1) It’s important to reward players, and 2) it’s also important to reinvest funds in the game, so 3) “We think the choice we’ve made is really appropriate.”

The nuances of why it’s an inherently tricky decision — we’ll keep waiting for that. How about the potential for Muirfield to host the Open soon? 

The R&A loves Muirfield, Darbon said, but the practice ground needs changing — we can assume that means expanding — “and there’s some work we need to do with the venue to facilitate some of the infrastructure that we require, some cabling to enable the scale of the production that we have these days.”

If “cabling” is all that’s keeping the biggest international golf tournament on earth from being played at one of its most beloved venues, a couple hundred East Lothians will show up with shovel in hand. 

Muirfield’s Scottish cousin Turnberry seems similarly plighted in its quest to host an Open. Darbon’s explanation hid behind “logistical challenges” without adding much more. Portmarnock, the Irish course pegged as a possible host — is just that: possible. “We’re thinking about Portmarnock,” Darbon said, adding the R&A is “knee-deep in feasibility work.”

What feasibility work looks like, we don’t know. But we sure would like to! That kind of detail is the simple inputs that media use to help  boost popularity, importance and, ultimately, viewership and revenue for golf tournaments. Media are, plainly, the the juice squeezers who can help you sell a proper, professional drink. But you need to bring some fruit to the table first. 

Darbon is clearly much more like Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National and the Masters, than Mike Whan, the talkative and assertive leader of the USGA. In absence of any significant detail, perhaps that is the chief takeaway from his first significant state of the union. The decisions are the decisions — much like at Augusta National — and they will speak for themselves, all the way down to … who rakes the bunkers. This week, that job is on the caddies, rather than Opens of the past where the British Greenskeepers Association sent marshals walking with each group.

“It’s a change for us but we think a good one,” Darbon said. It’s a duty so seemingly innocuous that it actually should have a clear reason. So, why? 

“A number of factors,” Darbon continued. “We just think it’s a good model for us here at Portrush.”

Alrighty, then.

It’s good the golf starts tomorrow.