Case Study: The R&A achieves a single point of reference for global Rules of Golf translations with Smartling

Creating a single point of reference for all translations

The R&A, based in St Andrews and co‑governor of golf worldwide with the USGA, faced a major communications challenge when the 2019 Rules Modernisation introduced significant changes and a new Player’s Edition. With affiliates and volunteer subject‑expert translators across 156 organisations in 143 countries, versions quickly fell out of sync and consistency across web, app and print channels was difficult to maintain — and the translation tool needed to be intuitive for non‑linguists.

Using Smartling Cloud Translation integrated with their Sitecore site as the single source of truth, The R&A centralized translation projects, pushed the same content to affiliates, and supported 30–40 languages while making it easy for volunteer translators to contribute. Smartling’s Professional Services built a custom visual‑context solution for the Rules’ complex structure, resulting in synchronized, up‑to‑date translations across web, app and print channels and a streamlined, controlled process for future updates.

R&A

Graeme Smith

Technical Product Manager