SOUTHPORT, England – R&A CEO Mark Darbon had his turn to give his state of the union on Wednesday. As the leader of the governing body for golf everywhere but the U.S. and Mexico, Darbon is one if the most influential people in the game and he got right to the few news items worth sharing and then opened things up to the floor for questions (though there were still questions to be asked when the press conference was halted no more than 30 minutes in total).
Here are five things we learned in advance of the Open Championship:
There are rumors floating around that if England defeats Argentina on Wednesday night to advance to the World Cup final against Argentina, tee times for the final round may be moved to avoid a mass exodus to watch "The Beautiful Game."
The R&A expects the final putt on Sunday to drop at 6:40 p.m. local time, which should leave time for a three-hole playoff to be completed in time for the World Cup final. That said, Darbon admitted that if England do get through tonight, they'll have more discussions.
"I'm an England football fan, so it would be a great problem to have. But I guess also, because I'm an England football fan, we should also wait to see how the semifinal goes before we get too far ahead," he said. "Of course in the background, we've been doing a lot of thinking about this…At this stage, no plans to alter anything, but we'll maintain that under review and finalize our position after the semifinal."