To the left of Peter Dawson’s desk in his office overlooking the Old Course at St. Andrews is a shelf lined with a handful of ornaments.

One of these ornaments is a six-inch high silver TV camera set on a tripod and presented to the R & A by the BBC to commemorate a 50-year association in covering the Open Championship.

But then that now 60-year association will all change with the 2017 Open Championship.

And while Dawson went into much detail over this new arrangement he also revealed how the St. Andrews ruling body was bombarded by ‘hate mail’ in the wake of a decision to hand exclusive TV screening rights to SKY Sports.

“Oh, we’ve had plenty of hate mail, clearly from individuals who haven’t read the etiquette section of the rule book, some of the intemperate language,” he said with a slight smile.

Peter Dawson, CEO of the R & A, and revealing the hate mail the St. Andrews body received over a decision to replace BBC TV with SKY.

The decision came as a shock to most UK observers given the BBC has been screening coverage of golf’s oldest Major for more than 60 years.

There was also widespread condemnation from some of the world’s leading golfers including current Open Champion Rory McIlroy along with past US Open winner Justin Rose and four-time Major winner Ernie Els.

However it was Lee Westwood who was most outspoken.

But in sitting down with Dawson this morning in his office overlooking the Old Course at St. Andrews he explained in more detail the new arrangement with SKY Sports, and stated:  “There’s not a person in this room, believe me, that would have made that decision, given the state of play at that time.”

Dawson, who is set to step down on 2nd March, 2016 also revealed the hurt of reading untruths in the media about the new TV deal with SKY Sports.

“We’re very happy with where we’ve got to here, absolutely delighted, in fact, because we are obviously very conscious of a 60‑plus year relationship with the BBC,” said Dawson.

“We know them extremely well.  We’ve worked together for ages.  They have been part of the growth of The Open and the development of The Open for a long time.

“But the change that’s coming up is difficult to understand perhaps for some people, so we’ve been meticulous in trying to cater for that proportion of the audience out there.  We have agreed to with SKY a limitation on advertising.  This is not going to be the SKY broadcast with advertising every few minutes, which is often driven by the American coverage; it’s limited to four single minutes per hour.

“We have a primetime, four nights of The Open highlights show, two hours from 8:00 until 10:00, when we expect a very, very large audience for the highlights of The Open.  We have the usual excellent radio coverage that BBC provides through Five Live, and we have, of course, the fantastic digital offer, world class really, that BBC give as well as the SKY and the R&A digital offer.

“It is not true people will have to have a SKY subscription to watch it.  It is not true that the broadcast will be full of adverts.  It is not true actually that according to our analysis that the viewership figures will fall when you add all these things together.  We’re actually convinced that the viewership numbers will be very similar, and we will be attacking ‑‑ not attacking, aiming at, targeting, a younger generation than the profile we would get on the normal BBC live coverage.

“Given everything that’s happened here, we are very, very happy with the outcome.  I read in the papers that it’s the R&A’s greed that’s doing this, we’ve taken the money, and to hell with the viewers.  Not true.  What are we going to do with the money?  We’re going to put it back into the game.  Of course we are, and we’ll talk about that a bit more presently.”

And Dawson was asked if he felt the R & A had let down the BBC.

“No, I don’t feel let down by the BBC,” he stated.

“I think the BBC does a tremendous job in quite difficult circumstances now, and I think that, and perhaps this is not a popular view, but I think it’s true, I don’t think it’s possible for the BBC to do everything that the great British public wants at the current licence fee level.  I just don’t think they’ve got a chance.  That has to be addressed.

“So the BBC, as anyone does, has to make choices as to their priorities.  Don’t get me wrong, we love the BBC to bits.  They’re a great operation.

“And in the end it’s down to the economics of it all and the commercial pressures that free‑to‑air TV is under.”