A View from the Green: Transport Operations at Championship and Olympic Golf

As Olympic golf took centre stage this week, our Head of Sports & Major Events, Simon Hall, was prompted to give his insight into managing the complex transport and mobility needs that arise from major golf events, drawing on his experience of supporting The R&A at The 152^nd Open Championship in Troon last month.

This week’s Strokeplay final for the Men’s Golf Olympic Medals was a tense affair. American world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler beat Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood by one shot, after the pair were tied for the lead until Fleetwood bogeyed the 17^th. 

Watching the closing stages, I was enthralled by the Golf, but also pondered on the transport operation to move nearly 30,000 spectators to and from the course. Had Fleetwood not missed the Green on 17, he’d have been tied for a playoff with Scheffler, and the transport team would have been waiting with bated breath for an outcome for an hour or more. 

Le Golf National, where the game took place, is a combined rail and shuttle bus ride outside of Paris. When you have road closures, bus numbers, drivers’ hours and train timetables to worry about, it can all get quite ‘exciting,’ and running out of capacity is a real risk if not considered at the planning stage.

Steer has supported the R&A in delivering Transport and Mobility for the last three Open Championships. At The 150^th Open in St. Andrews, nearly 50,000 spectators left the course very quickly following Cameron Smith’s win over a chasing Rory McIlroy. At the 151^st at Hoylake, departure was a lot ‘flatter’, aided by the atrocious weather and a leader who was six shots clear. Last month’s Open at Troon was a tighter affair, with Justin Rose pushing Xander Schauffele all the way to his two-shot victory.

With every golf game having the potential for a dramatically different arrival and departure profile, the Steer team must work hard to support the R&A in ensuring that spectator transport is ready for whichever type of egress occurs. We do this with an established data ‘dashboard’ that takes in feeds from real-time cameras monitoring park and ride hubs, train loadings obtained for each service from the TOC, ridership numbers from the bus and shuttle providers, plus detailed analysis on course attendance and gateline data.

The Steer team takes this analysis and uses the profiles and numbers to determine the impact on transport at any point should Play finish. This ensures readiness and provides helpful insight to our external transport providers. 

Bus planning, turning tidal operations around and readying platform staff is a complex and technical job – we love it and are delighted to be working for the R&A in planning The 153^rd Open next year at Royal Portrush.