Davis Hiring This And That

The biggest question left unanswered (for me) from Mike Davis's hiring announcement as the new USGA Executive Director is what happens to the invaluable Mike Butz and those immediately below the Executive Director's job. Butz was the interim ED and Ryan Herrington reminds us of this history, which would hopefully mean that Butz is staying on in his key role in the organization:

When he neared graduation from college in the mid-1980s, he sent a letter to the USGA's Mike Butz (the association's deputy executive director) who also grew up in Chambersburg, inquiring about working for the association. only to receive the standard "thanks-for-your-interest-but-there's-nothing-available" response. Thinking a career in golf was unlikely, he went on to work for Coldwell Banker in Atlanta after graduating with a business finance degree.

A few years later, however, Butz unearthed Davis' resume during a time when the challenges of running the U.S. Open were growing, and brought Davis aboard.

Rex Hoggard shares this about Davis's apparent change of heart about the job.

Seems the entire golf world can hear him now, and that’s a triumph by any measure.
Not that Davis went quietly into the big office. “He was strongly advised to consider it,” said one USGA insider, which is corporate speak for professional arm twisting.

And regarding the setup of USGA courses, Davis unfortunately will no longer be handling anything but the U.S. Open.

He will still be involved in the selection and setup of all U.S. Open venues – in fact he’s scheduled to do a “walkthrough” at Congressional in early May, site of this year’s championship – but will leave the “conduct” of the USGA’s various other championships to others, most notably Jeff Hall who has served as Davis’ No. 2 at the last six U.S. Opens.

“There will be a few differences in my job to what David (Fay) did. I love the golf course setup part. I’ve said this before, but I’d pay the USGA to allow me to do this,” Davis said. “Rules and competitions are always going to be near and dear to my heart. That’s the way I grew up.”

Steve Elling talked to a few players about the USGA's hiring and the excitement was apparent.

"He does a great job at the U.S. Open," Lee Westwood said. "He's a straight man. What he says is what he does. Glad to hear it."

And this from Kenny Perry, for what that's worth.

Mention the USGA to most players and, outside of Davis, they don’t often offer positive feedback. When Davis talked to players, Kenny Perry said, he actually listened.

"I think Mike understands the player perspective," Perry said. "He is a guy that everybody likes and I think he will be very fair in that new job.

"He has always been very approachable. I think it's awesome, and it's a win-win for everybody."

Here is the USGA's story authored by, uh, USGA. And the conference call transcript is here. I was not able to call in but was intrigued by a few answers, starting with this related to course setup.

I would see a normal day at this year's U.S. Open, I will be out with the grounds staff at 5 a.m., I probably get done on a typical day at 8:30 to 9:00 a.m.   It's not that I will take my focus entirely away from the U.S. Open, but until the mid- afternoon when I meet with the superintendent and grounds staff about what we're going to do for the next day, how the golf course is playing, how weather might affect it, that will free me up to do some things to meet with some of the USGA's key constituents.

We get so many people coming to the U.S. Open.  I'll be meeting with The R&A, the PGA Tour, the PGA of America, some of our state and regional golf associations, national officials, international officials, certainly our board of directors.

It will be interesting to see if he can in fact juggle these duties while also taking in enough golf to evaluate his setup work.

This was particularly interesting. Paging Dick Rugge!

Some of the things I have not been involved with that I've always had a lot of interest in, as an example, Equipment Standards.  This is the regulation of balls and clubs that we do jointly with the R&A.  I've always had interest in that because that directly affects the game and our championships for sure.

I strongly believe, the R&A does, certainly our board does, that one of the most important things we do is preserve and protect the game.  I certainly know something about that topic.  I understand how the game's played.  But I've never been engaged in really some of the details of that.  I never sat in those Equipment Standards meetings.

That's just one example of a few areas where I am definitely going to quickly get up to speed.  I'm very interested in it.  I want to become engaged with it.

Here, here. Maybe this will help get the infamous ball study wrapped up!