CEO of The R&A Martin Slumbers has outlined an ambitious attendance target for future editions of the AIG Women’s Open.
Last year’s event at Muirfield in Scotland attracted over 30,000 fans, but while this year’s tournament at Walton Heath has sold considerably more tickets than that, Slumbers is setting his sights higher still.
Speaking to the media before the Major, he said: “I would love this event to have a quarter of a million people watching. I think it would be fantastic and it's exactly what the players deserve. It's what women's golf deserves.”
Slumbers also revealed that AIG would extend its sponsorship of the tournament until 2030 and confirmed this year’s event will have a record purse of $9m. However, while those are encouraging signs for the tournament and the women’s game in general, he reiterated the need to attract more fans to the tournament.
He said: “I picked 250,000 as sort of a number out of the sky. But yes, we do need to have bigger crowds. It is the single most important piece of making women's professional golf financially sustainable, both for event day and for media values and rights fees, to have more people watching, more people attending, and that's what we're going to drive towards.”
One of the initiatives for this year's event is a Fan Festival, and Slumbers said that had helped boost ticket sales this year.
He explained: "We wanted to attract families, and we wanted to attract young girls who not necessarily play golf but who want to come and have a good evening, good day, and spend time here. What we needed to do is create that family-centered environment, and that's what we've tried to do here.
“We are going to be around 50,000 for the week, which is up from just over 30,00 last year, so that's a fantastic achievement. It's a credit to that. It's a credit to being near London. It's a credit to this wonderful golf course.”
Slumbers also believes the tournament should have media coverage comparable to the men’s Open. He explained: “I would love to get to a point where I show opening tee shot to final shot in the afternoon. That’s what I would like to show, and that’s the goal long term.
“We will have seven hours a day here. That’s the biggest we’ve ever had, through Sunday, and obviously Sunday right through to the final putt when we have the Champion. But the next big gap to close after that would be the media coverage to be opening tee shot to final putt on Sunday.”
The tournament begins on Thursday with an opening tee time of 6.30am BST.
