The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews
Announces Ian Pattinson as Captain for 2024/25
[St Andrews, Scotland – 8 May 2024]: The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has announced that Ian Pattinson will serve as Captain for the 2024/25 season, following a nomination by the outgoing Captain. On Friday, 20 September 2024, at the Old Course, there will be a traditional tee-off ceremony to mark the start of his tenure.
Ian Pattinson
Ian, a former lawyer at a Cambridge-based firm, retired from a regional law practice in 2014, stepping down from his role as partner.
Born into a golfing family, his father Reg represented England as an amateur twice in The Open and won the inaugural Senior Amateur Championship in 1969.
Educated at Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, and Pembroke College, Cambridge, Ian studied Law and captained the Cambridge University Golf Club while there. He also represented Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and later Cambridgeshire at county level. Currently, he holds a handicap index of 4.9.
Ian became a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1989 and has held various roles within the Club and The R&A Group over the past 30 years, including Chair of the Rules of Golf and Equipment Standards Committees, and the first Chairman of the World Handicap Committee. From 2018 to 2022, he served as Chairman of the General Committee and Board of The R&A Group.
Between 1995 and 2018, he was a Rules Official at The Open, and from 1997 to 2019, he served as a Rules Official at multiple Masters Tournaments. He has also officiated at the US Open, PGA Championship, AIG Women’s Open, and Solheim Cup, as well as amateur events like the Walker Cup, Curtis Cup, World Amateur Team Championships, and the Arnold Palmer Cup.
In addition to his refereeing duties, Ian acted as a golf rules advisor for BBC coverage of The Open from 2004 to 2015 and fulfilled a similar role for Sky Sports from 2016 to 2018.
From 2018 to 2022, he co-chaired the Executive Committee of the International Golf Federation and became the Chairman of England Golf in 2023. He is also a board member of the Arnold and Winnie Palmer Foundation and a trustee of Ely Cathedral Charitable Trust.
Elsewhere in golf, Ian is an Honorary Member of Royal Wellingham & Newmarket Golf Club, where he served as Captain in the club’s Centenary year of 1993 and has been the President since 2023. He is also a member of The Company of Golfers (Edinburgh), Royal West Norfolk Golf Club, Merion Golf Club (USA), the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society, and the Seniors Golf Association.
Ian’s wife Jan is also an avid golfer and has twice captained the ladies’ team at Royal Wellingham & Newmarket. The couple resides in the Cambridge area with their two sons, James and Jonathan, and two grandchildren.
(R&A Release)