Peter Dawson will retire next year as chief executive of the Royal and Ancient (R&A), the body which governs golf outside the United States.
Dawson, who has led the R&A for 16 years, will step down in September 2015 and also relinquish the role of secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, a members club whose headquarters overlook the Old Course.
The R&A organises The British Open, golf's oldest Major, and assumes responsibility, along with the USGA, of the rules of the game.
Dawson is also president of the International Golf Federation, with his term of office running to 2016 when golf returns to the Olympics at the Rio de Janeiro Games for the first time since 1904.
