Letter From Saugerties: Amateurism Edition

Following Sunday's U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay, former USGA Executive Director Frank Hannigan shares these thoughts on the state of amateur golf.

August 31, 2010

The annual USGA pre-professional championship concluded on Sunday. Of the 64 players who made it to match play only 11 were 25 years of age or older.     

One of the 11, Skip Berkmeyer, actually won a match before succumbing in the second round to a student athlete from Stanford.

The last time an adult won the event was in 1993 when John Harris of Minnesota prevailed. Harris had been a pro, was reinstated, then turned pro again to make serious money on the senior tour. But the ultimate adult golfer of our time was Jay Sigel, who beat all the college children in both 1982 and 1983, a feat so unlikely it warrants his enshrinement in golf's Hall of Fame.

My point is this: what is called the Amateur Championship is not an equitable competition because college golfers have an inordinate advantage in that they play golf nine months a year at someone else's expense and then milk their parents for money to play the other three.

Some pick up the semblance of an education in the process. Many do not. Only a minority of PGA Tour members who enrolled in college obtained degrees.

There is nothing new in this condition. Back in 1979 after only one adult, Dick Siderowf, reached the round of 16, two of the USGA's finest officials--Jim Hand and Sandy Tatum--asked me to concoct a new championship for post college golfers who had not attained seniority.

I came up with what is  called the Mid Amateur Championship which bears a minimum age limit of 25.  It has been a success in the sense that low handicap golfers enter in droves. The concept has been widely emulated by regional and state golf associations and even the R&A. (By the way, just what is a "mid amateur"?)

The USGA once declared in its code of amateurism that golf scholarships were forbidden. Such an attitude was deemed anti American. The USGA caved in during the 1950s.

Assiduous research led me to conclude that the very first golf scholarships were given at LSU during the 1930s with some other label.  Among the recipients was Freddie Haas, who later gained fame by ending Byron Nelson's winning streak of 11 straight victories.

Ah, but who gave out the scholarships?  None other than Huey Long, the Kingfish, governor of Louisiana, who wanted LSU to be first in everything except perhaps learning.

Amateurism was a class Victorian notion designed to keep the well bred apart from working men in sport.  It evolved, however, into something sane and decent. So long as golf enjoyed its tradition of "open"  competitions it was natural to have events limited to those who did not enjoy the advantage of playing golf for a living.

College golf scholarships blew that concept up in that the elite of college golf are better than the best club professionals.

The Rules of Amateur Status are made up of about 2,000 words of rationalizations. Among them is the proclamation that an amateur golfer is one who does not accept remuneration. A college scholarship based on golf skill is obviously a form of remuneration. The entire code, in reality, could be reduced fairly to 13 words:  "An amateur golfer is one who does not attempt to win prize money."