The R&A’s Post

Transcript

That's not fair. Martin, how happy are you to see the AIG Women's Open come home to Saint Andrews? Ohh, I think it's, you know, this is the home of golf and I was talking to the dinner last night and, you know, we're saying all the great men champions, the male champions in history have played here. They've been in the clubhouse and I think it's just. As we're trying to build out the profile of the AIG Women's Open, to bring it here, to use the clubhouse to have them playing on arguably the most important golf course in the world, umm, I don't think you could underestimate how important that is for a. Well, Saint Andrews for women's golf and for this championship. In your time as chief executive of the RNA, how proud do you feel to see the way that the AIG Women's Open has grown and developed? It feels like year on year it just gets bigger and better. I mean, I, I, I, I'm starting to reflect on this and I think if I have 3, the growth of women's golf and girls golf from the grassroots right to the very top is something that I will, I'm very proud of. We're beyond the tipping point now, and it will only continue to get better and it will only continue to get bigger. But we had to get the whole pyramid right. We had to have the, you know, the Women's Open running brilliantly. We couldn't have done that without AIG. But then we also needed to have the bottom. Going as well and yeah, it's, you know, it's lovely to be out here with you and Sarah who. Being part of that journey with for me in the last 10 years, ohh, that, that is a great pleasure for us too, Martin. And what a day we have for for it here that we couldn't have asked for more. Looking forward, what do you hope the future holds for the AIG Women's Open? I like it to grow in size in terms of the number of people who realize actually this is a fantastic thing to go and watch. And these these young athletes are very, very skilled. I'd like to see more crowds. We can have the highest number of people we've had since I have been involved here this week, but it's still smaller than the men's. I'd like to see people think about the women's game at the same level as the men's game. I think it has the opportunity to do that. We all need to do something about it. Us as administrators, media, the players have got to do their bit. But you know, the Sky's the limit in terms of what we can achieve and placing it on the great golf courses that we have is a part of that. Martin, thank you, thanks for all you've done for me. Thank you, thank you.