Change is par for the course on golf rules for R&A retiring CEO Peter Dawson

The chief executive of the governing body for golf rules reflects on the salient developments during his long 15-year-old tenure as he walks into the sunset.

Peter Dawson was honoured for his services as the chief executive of the R&A, which administers the rules of golf, in Abu Dhabi. Warren Little / Getty Images

ABU DHABI // The retiring chief executive of golf’s largest governing body made it clear that he was not interested in soppy, sentimental reminisces about his looming departure.

However, Peter Dawson had no problem talking about the unceremonious and unplanned exit he made about three decades ago, before he became the director of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club.

Back when he was in the construction business, authorities in Nigeria abruptly hauled him into an airport interrogation room and accused him of smuggling guns, then deported him to England.

“It took me about five hours below stairs being interviewed and I was put on the midnight flight back to London,” said Dawson, laughing, who later learnt that authorities were looking for a different man with a similar name.

His retirement next year from the R&A will doubtlessly be more gentle, though marked by plenty of opinions about his tenure, which began in 1999 at the height of Tiger Woods’s powers. As with Woods, Dawson’s time at the R&A’s helm has had plenty of successes and controversies.

Yesterday at the HSBC Golf Business Forum, an annual global seminar held for the first time in Abu Dhabi, it was all about the huzzahs. Dawson, 64, was given a distinguished service award for his years of stewardship over a game that is starting to show a few cracks.

With the game’s regression in Europe, North America and Australia, to name a few crucial locales, much of the seminar was focused on fixing the economic ailments that have stalled golf’s economic engine.

With stars such as Woods and Phil Mickelson well into the back nine of their respective careers and public play declining at courses across most western countries, the forecast is not exactly rosy in the eyes of industry analysts.

But for Dawson, the timing felt right. He will be 67 by the time he retires and having found the game a place in the 2016 Olympics and with the R&A membership to vote on allowing female membership, it potentially gives two big feathers in his cap. “It’s an age thing,” he said. “It’s time, isn’t it?”

Several hot-button topics remain, including the formal polling of the all-male R&A membership in September to potentially end more than 250 years of exclusionary policies. It is safe to assume that a vote would not have been called if passage was not reasonably assured, but Dawson was making no bold predictions about the result.

“As a governing body, I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “But anything’s possible, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

While Dawson has helped stabilise the financial underpinnings of the R&A’s most cherished property, the British Open, the game’s governing bodies have taken some broadsides during his tenure, too. For instance, there has been continued blowback regarding the R&A’s use of three male-only clubs as British Open venues, though that point is not under discussion.

“We are not about to change our policy of where the Open is played,” he said.

Some of the HSBC seminar centred on fixing golf’s participation issues by tweaking the game with larger cups for beginners, cutting the number of holes played, or other nuances designed to attract the millennials the game sorely needs to endure.

Dawson all but dismissed the gimmickry. “This thought that if the game is easier, it will be more popular, is totally unproven,” he said. “The game is easier today, arguably for the average golfer, than it has ever been. But during that time, at least in mature markets, golf has declined a bit.

“People want instant gratification today and don’t seem to have as much time to spend on stuff. I don’t think it has anything to do with how difficult the game is.”

Another development that has seen plenty of public traction relates to the British Open potentially being staged in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1951. Dawson said that the R&A remain in discussions with Royal Portrush and various government entities, and effectively confirmed a report last week that two new holes would be built.

“Yes, if we went to Portrush, it would involve some course changes,” he said.

Dawson said that as he prepares to ride into the sunset, he hopes another wave of elite-class players will assert themselves.

“We need two or three to come through and be ‘the ones’, so to speak,” he said, “and we’re not quite there.”

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