The R&A has warned golf fans who misbehave at the Open that they will be identified and slung out under its new code of conduct.<\/p>\n
Its chairman, Mark Darbon, stopped short of endorsing calls by Sir Nick Faldo, the last Englishman to win an Open, for anyone that abuses a player to also be fined $10,000. However, he confirmed that a team of R&A staff, marshals and officials would be closely monitoring the expected 300,000 spectators at Royal Birkdale to ensure good behaviour.<\/p>\n
Darbon also confirmed that the R&A was unlikely to change tee-off times for Sunday\u2019s round before the World Cup final, but said a final decision would be taken on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose people are briefed on keeping an eye on this behaviour in line with our code of conduct, so we\u2019re very confident in our ability to identify any folks that step over the line,\u201d he said. \u201cWe feel that it\u2019s within our gift, if someone does step over the line, to ask them to leave the venue. That\u2019s the mechanism that we\u2019ll use rather than fining a spectator.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new guidelines come amid growing concerns over the behaviour of golf fans. Last year\u2019s Open winner, Scottie Scheffler, said he had heard things \u201cthat were very far over the line\u201d during his final round at Portrush last year, while Brian Harmon, the 2024 champion, was also jeered during his emphatic victory.<\/p>\n
That behaviour has been largely blamed on gamblers who are angry that their bets have lost, or newcomers to the sport via TikTok or YouTube who are unaware of the sport\u2019s traditions.<\/p>\n
Darcon said the R&A was trying to balance the need for new audiences with tradition. \u201cI certainly don\u2019t think we\u2019re a passive organisation,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we are proactively focused on how we grow our audience for this great championship.<\/p>\n
Fans are seen at the course during practice. Photograph: Phil Noble\/Reuters<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say a few things, though. I think the activities we want to undertake at our Open specifically have to remain true to their heritage and standing of this great event. We could have chosen to stage a creator classic at the start of this week. We didn\u2019t do that. We proactively sought to stage an event \u2013 in this case, the Last-Chance Qualifier<\/a> \u2013 that was entirely aligned with the roots that we have for qualification into our event more broadly.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where the sweet spot lies for us. We will engage with different audiences through a range of channels, where we\u2019ll use influencers and content creators to help us on that journey, but we will never do anything to undermine the standing, heritage, and platform that our championship has built.\u201d<\/p>\n Of plans for Sunday\u2019s round, he added: \u201cIn the background, we\u2019ve been doing a lot of thinking about this. Our final putt is currently scheduled for around 6.40 on Sunday. We think that, even if we go to a three-hole playoff, we\u2019ve got time to complete the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The R&A has warned golf fans who misbehave at the Open that they will be identified and slung…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-693192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}