Slugger, Russell Speak On Retirement And Huge Changes In Rules Administration World

Adam Schupak does a nice job packing a lot into this story and Q&A on golf losing a combined 160 years of experience at the top of the rules administration game. The players: White, Russell, Paramor and McPhee. Sounds like a law firm!

In the U.S., as reported here Monday, Slugger White and Mark Russell will be winding down their PGA Tour days as tournament directors and officials. White is hanging up his walky talky sooner while Russell will take a longer last lap around the country as he hands things over to Gary Young.

But the loss of golf’s four most prominent faces at applying the Rules of Golf at essentially the same time begs the question: how do the PGA Tour and European Tour begin to replace that institutional knowledge?

“The most important thing to me over the years that I thought I was responsible for was hiring the best possible people,” Russell said. “I’m extremely proud of the people that Slugger and I have hired and I’m sure it will carry on.”

“It’s a lot of years and you take a lot of experience with you,” White said. “I hope I’ve given some of that experience out and I’ll be around for a little bit. They know what they’re doing and they’ll be fine.”

In the Q&A White tells the story of his first ruling after retiring as a player. Of course, it was Jack Nicklaus who called for an official.