HOYLAKE, England – The leader of the Royal and Ancient (R&A), who only a year ago was among the fiercest critics of LIV Golf, did not rule out the possibility on Wednesday that the group, the British Open’s organiser, could some day accept money from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

“The world of sport has changed dramatically in the last 12 months, and it is not feasible for the R&A or golf to just ignore what is a societal change on a global basis,” Martin Slumbers, the R&A chief executive, said at Royal Liverpool, where the British Open started on Thursday.

“We will be considering, within all the parameters that we look at, all the options that we have.”

The wealth fund has lately surged to become one of the most prominent benefactors in sports, cumulatively spreading billions of dollars through golf and football and stirring speculation about where it might put its money next.

Britain has been central to the wealth fund’s ambitions: In 2021, it purchased the Premier League football team Newcastle United.

The fund and its allies have insisted that the investments are intended to broaden the Saudi economy, but they have faced scepticism and fears that Saudi leaders are partly looking to use sports to rehabilitate the kingdom’s reputation for human rights violations.

Although Slumbers said in 2022 that he was “very comfortable in golf globally growing”, he complained then that LIV’s Saudi-bankrolled model was “not in the best long-term interests of the sport” and “entirely driven by money”. Human rights abuses, he declared then, were “abhorrent and unacceptable”.

He appeared far less fearsome on Wednesday, even as he placed a limit on a potential arrangement with the wealth fund, or anyone else, and insisted that he was uninterested in a so-called presenting sponsor for the Open.

But asked during a news conference about the possibility of the wealth fund becoming “a partner”, Slumbers replied: “If I’m very open, we are and do and continue to do, talk to various potential sponsors.”

Slumbers’ receptiveness reflects the swelling fears among golf executives about the financial sustainability of the sport, whose prize funds have recently soared.

The purse for this season’s British Open is US$16.5 million (S$21.9 million), more than double that of a decade ago. On Wednesday, Slumbers said prize money was increasing far faster expected.

Some of the pressure swamping men’s golf could ease if the PGA Tour and LIV end what has amounted to an arms race for the world’s top players.

The Tour, the wealth fund and the DP World Tour took a step towards that in June, when they announced a plan to bring their golf business ventures into a new, for-profit company. The agreement, which the R&A is not a part of, may not close for months.

Slumbers said that the R&A, which, along with the US Golf Association, writes the sport’s rule book, would “absolutely welcome an end to the disruption in the men’s professional game”.

Meanwhile, South African amateur Christo Lamprecht left his mentor and former champion Louis Oosthuizen in the shade as he enjoyed a dream start to share the first-round lead on five-under 66 with Tommy Fleetwood at the British Open on Thursday.

The towering 22-year-old looked as cool as a cucumber around the sunny Royal Liverpool links with seven birdies and two bogeys.

Oosthuizen, a surprise winner at St Andrews in 2010, has helped his compatriot Lamprecht since he was a teenager through his Louis57 Foundation and, while he struggled with a 74, he took great pride in his young apprentice.

Fleetwood, who grew up about 50km from the course, picked up four birdies on the back nine, including three straight from the 14th. NYTIMES, REUTERS