By Joel Beall
CARMEL, Calif. — Words like “vision” and “perseverance” often are used in golf, describing a gritty round or bounce-back effort from a slump. And book it, those words will be used to describe this week’s U.S. Open winner in some fashion. While true to varying degrees, those words are personified by the five newest members to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Retief Goosen, Billy Payne, Jan Stephenson, Peggy Kirk Bell and Dennis Walters were enshrined Monday night in a ceremony at Sunset Center in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Though all blessed with talents in their respective roles, it was those tenets of fortitude and creativity that spurred them to greatness.

With more than 30 fellow Hall of Famers on hand, the inductees spoke of the influences that brought them to this honour.

Payne, who earned his place via the Lifetime Achievement category, is best known as the former chairman of Augusta National Golf Club. In his position, Payne was the first to admit female members to the club, in 2012, and oversaw upgrades to the press building, practice and patron facilities and Berckmans Place. Innovation that strengthened the brands of the club and the Masters.

Payne, who helped bring the Olympics to Atlanta in 1996, also led efforts to grow the game with the Drive, Chip and Putt National Championship, Asia-Pacific Amateur and Latin America Amateur initiatives. But Payne deferred the spotlight, putting it back on the club he loves so dear.

“I know I am the outlier,” Payne said. “Let’s be clear: it’s Augusta National Golf Club being honoured tonight.”

As for his motivation? His wife, Martha, who Payne attributed all his successes and triumphs. “Without her, none of this is possible.”

Goosen is famous for his two U.S. Open victories, but that hardly encapsulates his career. He won 33 times around the world and was consistently a competitor at the sport’s biggest stages with 16 top-10s at major championships. The 50-year-old made five Presidents Cup teams in his career and represented South Africa five times at the World Cup.

All accomplished after surviving a lightning strike when he was 15.

“You don’t know where you’re going to wake up when that happens,” Goosen said of the near-death experience. “Three weeks later, I was back on the golf course, and here we are.” Then adding some levity to the moment, Goosen joked, “I think the lightning really struck something in me, I started to play some real good golf.”

Stephenson won three majors and 41 worldwide wins. But her legacy was built outside the ropes just as much as it was in.

She was the key figure (literally and figuratively) in an LPGA marketing campaign the leaned on players’ looks. Though her embracement of this tactic was somewhat controversial and drew detractors, Stephenson was a primary reason the tour was able to gain new and financially-sound sponsors.

“To now be counted with fellow LPGA friends who are World Golf Hall of Fame members is both an honor and very humbling,” Stephenson said.

Kirk Bell, who died in 2016, was one of the pioneers of the women’s game, helping form the first professional tour with Babe Zaharias and others. She won the Titleholders Championship (once considered a major) and the North and South Women’s Amateur, and represented the U.S. in the 1950 Curtis Cup. With her husband Warren (Bullet) Bell, the two purchased and ran Pine Needles until Bullet’s death in 1984. She was the winner of the USGA’s Bob Jones Award in 1990 and an inductee into seven halls of fame, but it was as a teacher that she made her greatest contribution.

After starting one of the country’s first golf schools at Pine Needles, she began running five-day group lessons she called “Golfaris” for women to learn the game. More than 20,000 women went through the program.

Walters, a recent recipient of the USGA’s Bob Jones Award, said he was overwhelmed when receiving his induction news from Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. “I can’t walk, but when I got the call, I felt like I could fly,” Walters said.

Walters was an elite amateur when he was paralyzed in a car accident at 24. Resolute in continuing his relationship with the sport, Walters had a customized wheelchair built to accommodate his love of the game.

He began to host clinics, starting with the 1977 PGA Merchandise Show, built around performance (Walters mastered a number of trick shots) and inspiration, telling his story of perseverance and chasing his dream. He has appeared in over 3,000 golf clinics, including a number of television shows. Walters is just one of 11 honorary lifetime members of the PGA of America.

“Ben Hogan watched me hit golf balls, Sam Snead told me dirty jokes, and Byron Nelson was once standing so close I had to tell him to back off,” Walters joked.

And though he was the first speaker of the night, his words proved an apt summary of the night’s theme.

“Never let anyone tell you your dream is impossible,” Walters said.

The post U.S. Open 2019: Vision and perseverance spurred five legends inducted into Hall of Fame appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Each of the four living inductees (Kirk Bell died in 2016 at age 95) were notified via phone on Tuesday.

“I was standing on the putting green hitting a few putts and then this number rings, which I didn’t recognize, but thought maybe I’d pick it up, and it was Gary Player on the phone,” Goosen said. “It’s always great hearing Gary’s voice, but he sounded extremely excited, and when he told me, yeah, I sounded very excited. So it was a great moment, and I felt shaky after that. Missed a lot of putts, but it was very exciting.”

Goosen, a South African native, won a combined 19 PGA Tour and European Tour events, and 33 worldwide tournaments during his professional career. His most noted victories came in the 2001 and 2004 U.S. Opens. He also played on six International teams in the Presidents Cup and was twice the European Tour Order of Merit winner in 2001 and 2002.

Retief Goosen.
Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY

After winning the 1949 Titleholders Championship as an amateur, Kirk Bell was a charter member of the LPGA who went on to become a renowned golf instructor and the matriarch of Pine Needles Lodge and Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. Before her passing, she got to see Pine Needles host three highly successful U.S. Women’s Opens in 1996, 2001 and 2007.

Peggy Kirk-Bell

Stephenson joined the LPGA Tour from her native Australia in 1974 and immediately made a mark on and off the course. She earned rookie of the year honours but also became famous for embracing her good looks and using them to help market herself—including famously posing naked in a bathtub, covered by a pile of golf balls. Her record, however, was something that marketed itself: among her 16 LPGA titles and 20 worldwide wins were three major titles (1981 du Maurier Classic, 1982 LPGA Championship and 1983 U.S. Women’s Open.

Jan Stephenson.
Photo: Focus On Sport

“I was crying when Nancy Lopez called me yesterday because I knew she was going to tell me I didn’t make it again, and I didn’t hear her when she said I made it because she started the conversation the same way … two years ago, she said, ‘I know you’ve worked so hard for the LPGA but you didn’t make it.’ So she started exactly the same way yesterday, ‘I know you’ve worked really hard’ and so I started crying. And then she said, ‘But this time you’ve been recognized and you’ve made it.’ I’ve been crying, goosebump, couldn’t sleep. It was like winning the U.S. Open all over again.”

In his 11 years as chairman of Augusta National and the Masters Tournament (2006-2017), Payne oversaw a series of initiatives aimed at broadening the appeal of the sport to grow the game in the U.S. and around the world. He helped establish premier amateur tournaments in Asia and Latin America that gave the winners invitations into the Masters in an attempt to create golf heroes in those regions. He also helped establish the Drive, Chip and Putt National Championship hosted at Augusta National the Sunday prior to the Masters. And in 2012, he oversaw the admission of the first female members into Augusta National.

Former Masters chairman Billy Payne.
Photo: Rob Carr

Walters was a talented golfer whose life took a harrowing turn when he was paralysed at age 24 in a golf cart accident. But it didn’t prevent him from staying involved in the game, as he would go on to perform thousands of golf clinics around the world, becoming an iconic figure to many fans for his trick shots as well as his lessons on life.

Dennis Walters
Photo: Jim Rogash

“Everybody has a story of how they got here, but I think my story is probably the most unlikely journey to get to any type of Hall of Fame that anyone’s ever done,” Walters said. “I was laying in a hospital bed 44 years ago, and I never thought I was actually getting out of that bed. I’ve done so many things I’ve never thought were possible, but it also gives me the opportunity to show others what’s possible.”

Goosen and Stephenson gained entry as male and female competitors, while Bell, Payne and Walters were all nominated through the lifetime achievement category. Their additions bring the total number of Hall of Fame members to 160.

The five were among a group of 15 finalists that included Graham Marsh, Corey Pavin, Hal Sutton, Susie Maxwell Berning, Beverly Hanson, Sandra Palmer, Dottie Pepper, Jim Ferrier, Catherine Lacoste and Calvin Peete.

The official induction ceremony is June 10, 2019, the Monday prior to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

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By Jaime Diaz

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Today marks Fred Ridley’s first official day as chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters tournament. He is the seventh man to occupy the post, and follows Billy Payne, arguably the most dynamic and consequential chairman since the original one, Clifford Roberts. With a measured, understated personal style that befits his long career as an attorney, it’s easy to assume Ridley will never quite emerge from under Payne’s shadow.

But the 65-year-old Floridian, whose full head of hair and smooth features makes him look a decade younger, should not be underestimated. He went from a player who could not crack the University of Florida’s starting lineup to beating college stars and future PGA Tour winners Curtis Strange, Andy Bean and Keith Fergus on his way to winning the 1975 U.S. Amateur. Shrewdly maneuvering very much under the radar, he rose through the USGA’s executive committee to become the organization’s president in the mid-2000s. At the prominent law firm of Foley and Lardner, where he operates out of the Tampa office, Ridley is the national chair of its real-estate practice. Whether the public has noticed or not, he’s spent a long and knowing time in the arena.

And in the one moment before Payne chose him as his Augusta successor that Ridley was unwittingly thrust into the world’s spotlight—the tangled Tiger Woods rules controversy at the 2013 Masters—he acquitted himself admirably when a misstep could have damaged his chances for the chairmanship.

To review, a resurgent Woods was on the verge of leading the tournament late in the second round when his third shot on the par-5 15th caromed off the bottom of the flagstick and into the water. Likely stunned by his misfortune, Woods took a drop that a television viewer informed an official had been about two yards behind the divot hole made by his third shot. If true, it meant Woods had not dropped as near to his original location as possible and was thus due a two-stroke penalty for “playing from the wrong place.”

When Ridley, in his role as chairman of the competition committee, was told about the situation, however, he deemed after reviewing the video that Woods’ drop had been close enough to the original spot not to incur a penalty. Yet that decision was called into question after Woods signed his scorecard and then, in a television interview, said that he had intentionally dropped two yards behind his original spot, thus incriminating himself. With Woods standing to be disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard, Masters officials the next morning invoked rule 33-7, which states that “a penalty of disqualification may in exceptional cases be waived, modified or imposed if the Committee considers such action warranted.”

It was thus determined that because the committee had not discussed the alleged violation with Woods before he signed his scorecard, he was absolved from disqualification but given a two-stroke penalty—changing his score on the 15th from a bogey 6 to a triple-bogey 8—before his third round.

As the golf rulings often can be, the outcome was confusing, leaving many to wonder why Woods hadn’t been disqualified. It fell to Ridley to explain it all to the assembled media. Rather than rely on arcane language, he did so with clarity, patience and an honest admittance of his own fallibility—much like a relatable and above all believable witness before a jury in a complicated civil trial.

At the press conference, Ridley said that because he had initially “in my best judgment,” thought Woods had complied with the rule, “I chose—it was my decision … that I was not going to go down and tell Tiger that we had considered this and it wasn’t a violation.” But when asked if in retrospect he wished he had spoken to Woods before he signed his card, Ridley candidly answered, “There’s not a day that goes by that there are not some things I wish I would have done differently.”

David Cannon/Getty Images Ridley handled himself well as he addressed the media during the Woods’ ruling in 2013.

Last week, in the elegant but homey chairman’s office at Augusta National that Payne made the headquarters of arguably the most powerful position in golf, Ridley reflected on that moment. “That press conference was not difficult at all,” Ridley said in his sonorous, faintly Southern voice. “I knew exactly what had happened, what we’d done, and what the result was. And while you can always do things better, in the end we got to the right result, we did the right thing. And so, and I’ve told Billy this, I was not nervous when I walked into that press conference. My thought was to state what happened, explain why you did what you did. That’s all you can do.”

Presumably, it’s the approach Ridley will bring to his new role. And while Ridley has high praise for Roberts and his good friend Payne, his beacon would seem to be Bobby Jones, a boyhood hero who he followed in remaining an amateur golfer (Ridley is the last U.S. Amateur champion not to turn pro) and into a career in the law.

“I did read a fair amount about Jones,” said Ridley, who got started in the game playing with his father, a school district administrator, at public courses in Lakeland and Winter Haven. “Clearly, he remains the greatest amateur of all time. But the thing that really struck me and was an influence on me was his integrity, the sportsmanship he showed, just his character. And even though he’s been gone from competition for a long time, for a young and avid golfer, that was a pretty good example. And as a member of this club for the 17 years, I’ve gotten to know him and his persona better. The letters that he wrote about this place, and in general, were so eloquent and profound.”

Related: Billy Payne’s lasting legacy as Augusta National chairman

• • •

Ridley went into a more measured mode when asked about possible changes in Augusta National’s future. Top of mind is the famed 13th hole, where land purchased last year from the adjoining Augusta Country Club opens up many alternatives, among them lengthening the currently 510-yard par 5, revered by many for its nuanced and dramatic second shot but which in recent years has increasingly been reached with a drive and mid- and even short irons.

“No decisions have been made to do anything with the 13th hole,” said Ridley, while hinting that more length will be in the offing. “It really goes back to the underlying philosophy of the challenge that the golf course should present. Jones had a great quote about the 13th hole, that the second shot should entail ‘a momentous decision whether or not to try for the green.’ That says it all. So we are looking at opportunities there.”

And what about the issue of the increasing distance professional golfers are achieving and what it’s doing to classic courses? Does Ridley plan to oversee more lengthening of the course similar to what Hootie Johnson initiated while chairman in the early 2000s? Or perhaps even look into the development of a special “rolled back” ball for the tournament?

“[The ball] is an idea Mr. Johnson introduced,” Ridley said, “and I guess I would say that I hope that is not something that we would ever have to do. But I will say that we are committed to do whatever is necessary to preserve the integrity of the Augusta National golf course. Don’t know exactly where the line is, but it’s something that we are certainly watching. I wouldn’t take anything off the table.”

Scott Halleran
Former Augusta National chairman Billy Payne and Ridley look over the 18th green during a practice round prior to the start of the 2016 Masters.

Ridley said he will not continue as chairman of the competition committee and will soon appoint his replacement. Asked whether coming from a competitive playing background might make him a chairman more attuned to the wishes of Masters competitors—particularly in their wishes for changes to the golf course—Ridley was vague but not dismissive. “I think it will be helpful,” he said. “As we look into the future, and we continue to try to honor the philosophy of Jones and [Alister] MacKenzie when they built the golf course, I hope that my background will be a positive.”

• • •

As the only chairman to have ever played in the Masters (he missed the cut in three straight years beginning in 1976), Ridley can still shoot some low numbers in the 20 or so rounds he plays at the club each year. His best score from what he calls “the old Masters tees” is 67, with three 66s from the members tees. From the current Masters tees, he says he’s never broken 75. (On Augusta’s Par 3 course, his best is a 22 shot last year.) He has birdied all the par 4s, eagled all the par 5s, and has one hole in one, on the 16th, playing with two of his daughters (he and his wife, Betsy, have three).

In what is probably a practiced response, Ridley has no regrets about not ever turning pro. “None,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be a professional golfer when I was a teenager. If someone said, Fred, you would have won $50 million as a professional, my answer is the same. There’s no amount of money that could replace the life I’ve had.”

He looks at his victory the U.S. Amateur at the Country Club of Virginia as a magical week to be eternally thankful for rather than a prompt for “what if”.

“I knew I was going back to law school after playing golf that fall,” Ridley said. “So I went to the tournament with this incredible peace of mind. Like This is great, I’m just going to have a good time. And I never looked past the match I was playing. It was all in the moment.”

Though it will probably prove impossible, he seems to be trying to take a similar approach to the chairmanship. And while fully acknowledging that there is only one Billy Payne, Ridley carries a quiet but well-earned confidence about what he can bring.

Augusta National Jack Nicklaus and Ridley stride down the 14th fairway during the 1976 Masters.

“Billy has leadership qualities that are probably the best I’ve ever witnessed in my life,” Ridley said. “He understands the immense power of relationships. I always felt that I had a good understanding myself through my law practice, but I understand it better from watching Billy and his accomplishments over the last 11 years. He just has that ability to make people want to do better at everything they do. And to me that’s the definition of great leadership.

“Billy was guided by the principle and the mandate that goes back to Mr. Roberts and Mr. Jones, which is the idea of constant improvement. It’s a driving principle that permeates our culture. I look at it as an honor to follow Billy Payne. But if I am true to those same principles, there’s not going to be a shortage of opportunities for me to leave this position even stronger than when I took it. That’s kind of where my focus is.”

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By Tim Rosaforte
Fred Ridley was doing legal work at the law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP in downtown Tampa on Wednesday morning when breaking news came out of Augusta National. The boy from Polk County, just introduced as the next chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, had come a long way from his childhood days playing public courses in rural Lakeland and Winter Haven, Florida. He had already won a U.S. Amateur and served as president of the USGA before the greatest honor in his golf life was bestowed upon him at age 65. While it seems daunting, joining the ranks of Clifford Roberts and to follow in the footsteps of Billy Payne, the job was something Ridley had been groomed for. Bobby Jones was a lawyer, too.

When Ridley’s picture popped up on a screen in the clubhouse at Lone Pine Golf Club in Lakeland, Fla., Andy Bean had to laugh. So did Ridley’s colleagues at the law firm, especially the then and now images of the hairdo Ridley sported in his pairing with defending champion Jack Nicklaus in the 1976 Masters. “He’s a very young looking 65,” said Randy Wolfe, Ridley’s law partner for 28 years.

Around Tampa, Ridley is recognised and respected much as he is in the world of golf. “He’s a well-known, well-loved guy,” Wolfe says. As an “old-school” commercial real-estate lawyer, his gentlemanly demeanour matches his persona in golf. Ben Crenshaw used the same words as Wolfe to describe him. “He’s a consummate gentleman who has sort of a courtly manner to him and he’s very endearing,” said the two-time Masters champion in an interview on Golf Channel.

Augusta NationalJack Nicklaus and Ridley stride down the 14th fairway during the 1976 Masters.

Bean grew up with Ridley. He has had dinner at his childhood house. He remembers Ridley’s mom being “so nice,” just like Fred. But that didn’t make up for the burn Ridley put on Bean in the 1975 U.S. Amateur.

They were teammates at the University of Florida, too. But while Ridley didn’t make the starting lineup on the 1973 NCAA Championship team that featured Bean and Gary Koch, he was good enough after taking lessons with Jack Grout to eliminate Curtis Strange in the quarterfinals and Bean in the semis of the ’75 Amateur.

Walking back to the clubhouse after their match at the Country Club of Virginia, Bean grabbed Ridley by the collar and told him, “I’m going to kick your behind if you don’t win the final match tomorrow.” Ridley responded by taking out another college star of that generation, Houston’s Keith Fergus, the NCAA champion, for the title.

It was a loss Bean never quite got over. “I thought about it,” Bean told me on Wednesday as he was heading to Gainesville with his fishing poles to watch a Gators football practice. “I might just call him up and ask for four [Masters] tickets to see what the heck he would say.”

Knowing Ridley, it wouldn’t be a problem, because he hasn’t forgotten where he came from, which is a long way from Augusta, and where his contemporaries ended up. Sandy Lyle won a Masters and an Open Championship after Ridley beat him twice in the 1977 Walker Cup. While Bean went on to win 11 times on the PGA Tour, Ridley never turned pro, the last U.S. Amateur champion to decide not to play the game for money. Instead, he took his law degree from Stetson and started working for Mark McCormack at IMG, where he managed the early career of Hal Sutton.

“You could see it early on in Fred,” Koch said. “We go back to high school golf, back in the late ’60s. He was always a guy that did things the right way, that was very respectful of the game and everything the game stands for. He was a bright guy, very smart, and he figured out through college his golf game wasn’t probably going to serve him later in life as a means to making a living. At a pretty young age, when a lot of kids are indecisive about what the future held, he certainly wasn’t.”

Ultimately, this is how Ridley found his calling in golf administration. One of his mentors was former USGA president Reg Murphy, who took a liking to Ridley.

“I think he’s one of the really good people in golf,” Murphy said. “He’s courteous as can be on a golf course. He’s just a fine human being.”

Fast-tracking through the hierarchy, Ridley became Walker Cup captain in 1987 and 1989. Five years later he transitioned to the USGA Executive Committee, ascending to president in 2004 after working on the Championship, Amateur Status and Conduct and International Team Selection committees.

The door to membership at Augusta National opened in 2000, and the new member was quickly put to work as Chairman of the Cup and Tee Marker Placement Committee. When Payne became chairman in 2007, Ridley was named chairman of the club’s Competition Committee. For the past 11 years, he has basically run the tournament under the direction of Payne.

In his statement released Wednesday, Payne said he was confident Ridley would lead Augusta National “to a future that I am confident will hold new promise.”

What Ridley promises to be—in what Crenshaw calls a voluminous job—is not Billy Payne.

“I think it will be a low-key kind of chairmanship,” Koch said. “Fred is very measured in a good way, he seems to be able to handle every situation and handle it with calm and class. I think we’ll see a lot of that.”

Whatever that new future holds, count on Ridley being true to what he’s always been.

Scott Halleran Ridley was handpicked by Payne to be his successor after chairing the Masters Competition Committee since 2011.

The post So who is Fred Ridley? His friends are glad you asked appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Jaime Diaz
With a legacy that indisputably qualifies him as the most significant Augusta National and Masters chairman since Clifford Roberts, Billy Payne has announced he is stepping down from arguably the most powerful position in golf.

After serving just over 11 years as the sixth chairman in the club’s history, Payne will be followed in the job by his handpicked successor, Fred Ridley, effective Oct. 16.

In an interview with Golf Digest in his office on Tuesday, amid two paintings by President Dwight Eisenhower—one of the 16th hole and one of Bobby Jones—and a framed photo of Payne with his predecessors Hootie Johnson and Jack Stephens, the man often referred to simply as “Billy” was himself a portrait of contentment and equanimity.

For good reason. In his relatively short time, Payne has fulfilled an enormous to-do list, ranging from admitting the first women into the club in 2012 to the successful development of the Drive, Pitch and Putt Championship, demonstrating vision, grit and nuanced gifts for leadership.

Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesPayne’s most public moments as Augusta National chairman have been opening the Masters with the tournament’s honorary starters.

Under Payne, the position of the Masters and Augusta National among golf’s major organizations has climbed in stature and import. The club has a bigger voice in the game’s issues and seems to operate with more autonomy. By shrewdly blending its increased revenues with a broader, more culturally current vision, Payne pushed the previously often hidebound club and its tournament into the 21st century with a vitality that in retrospect is stunning.

With so much accomplished, Payne decided the time was right to pass the torch. But not because the grandfather of 11 will turn 70 on Oct. 16. And not because the survivor of two triple-bypass operations, the first in 1982 when he was only 34, the second in 1993, was finding the job too physically taxing.

“Health doesn’t even enter into the equation of the timing of this decision,” said Payne, who through a strictly followed daily regimen of exercise carries a trim 205 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame. “I’ve stayed in shape, and I’ve tried hard.” Acknowledging that for him self-discipline is not a struggle, he added, “I think I’m pretty focused when I get something on my mind. I’m kind of relentless.”

Payne’s life, from earning 1968 All-America honors as a defensive end at the University of Georgia, to being the key figure in bringing the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta, to his tenure at Augusta, makes him a sensei in “Get er Done.”

“What I do is I do my very best at everything that I attempt to do,” Payne said. “Sometimes it might not be good enough. Sometimes it may be misdirected. Nevertheless, I’m never going to be in the place where lack of effort was the contributing factor in failure. I’m just not gonna put myself there.”

But that doesn’t mean Payne has lacked finesse. Quite the contrary. Conversing across a coffee table, Payne is the opposite of the gruff autocrat Masters chairmen have often been assumed to be since Roberts, who by reliable accounts was that way throughout the 44 years he reigned until his death in 1977. Payne’s language is a listenable mix of folksy and high-brow, reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s in its Southern cadence, tone and pitch, and when called for, profundity.

“Arnold Palmer let us all into his life,” Payne said before this year’s Masters, the first played since Palmer’s death last September. “Not from the distance that is typically maintained between a superstar and a fan, but into his life, close‑up, so that we could literally push him to greatness and regale in his accomplishments as though they were our own. I think tomorrow will no doubt be an emotional goodbye, but at the same time, an even more powerful thank you to the man we dearly love.”

Clearly, Payne is a persuader and a mobilizer, and surely at times an irresistible one. The alchemy has been particularly effective on the many captains of industry that make up Augusta’s membership.

By shrewdly blending its increased revenues with a broader, more culturally current vision, Payne pushed the previously often hidebound club and its tournament into the 21st century with a vitality that in retrospect is stunning.

“There is residing among our membership a wealth of talent that may be unparalleled in any organization in the world,” Payne said. “And deciding and motivating those who otherwise have very important positions, to come and embrace Augusta National and its culture, and make the time commitment … it’s a challenge. And yet because there are so many of them, and because they themselves embrace and love Augusta National, they are more than willing to make the sacrifices required. And that gives us, I believe, the edge in the way we present our sporting event.”

Although Augusta is often seen as holding itself apart, Payne’s achievements have been built on forging alliances, notably with the PGA Tour, PGA of America, USGA, R&A and LPGA. Hesitant to call himself the most progressive chairman, he is comfortable being the “most collaborative.”

“I’m pretty good at math,” he said in reference to working in concert with golf’s other organizations. “I know if you add five together, it’s a lot more powerful than just doing it alone.”

Payne is at his most natural one on one. He says that the best part of his chairmanship has been developing “lifelong, deep, foxhole kind of friendships” with some 20 fellow members he has gotten to know since joining the club in 1997. And when asked his proudest achievement, Payne cites fostering a friendlier environment at the club through parties, tournaments and other functions. “The fact that my members and friends come more often than they used to because they like it more,” he said. “I hope I’m a part of the reason that they want to do it.”

“Billy has revolutionized what Augusta National is all about,” says Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, which has covered the Masters since 1956. “His forward thinking in the area of television, and social, digital and interactive media is extraordinary. I don’t think I have ever met anybody who has such an eye for fine detail, but at the same time a vision for the future. And there’s not a guy who I would rather spend time just hanging out with and listening to stories than Billy Payne.”

But after “articulating a goal” to his followers, Payne then unapologetically returns to “being relentless.”

Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesPayne presided over Augusta National’s admission of its first female members, including former Secretary of State Condi Rice.

“Overcontrol … that’s kind of a permissible description of the chairman of Augusta historically,” Payne said. “That is honestly a part of our culture. And you just hope you’re fortunate enough to get good at it. It’s a chairman-centric culture. And that’s why you can coalesce all of this diverse talent and knowledge because there is one person in charge. And it works.”

Certainly it did for Payne. His accomplishments far outnumber the four previous chairmen who followed Jones’ and Roberts’ legacy.

Besides the aforementioned 2012 admission of Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore as the first female members in the club’s history (IBM’s Ginni Rometty became the third in 2014), and the establishment in 2013 of the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship, open to boys and girls 7-15, further “grow the game” milestones under Payne’s leadership include:

• Establishment of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (2009) and the Latin America Amateur Championship (2014), both of which admit winners into the Masters field.

• Media innovations including, in 2016, the first live 4K broadcast of a sporting event in the United States, and the first live virtual-reality experience made available to the public for a professional golf event with Masters Digital.

• Persuading Arnold Palmer to become an honorary starter in 2007, and adding Jack Nicklaus in 2010 and Gary Player in 2012. Says Payne, “One thing I’ve noticed through the years, even though it’s a ceremonial shot, they are all very serious about it. That last 10 seconds before they hit the ball, you can feel it. You ought to hear all the mumbling they have back and forth.”

• Restoring the tradition of PGA Tour winners from the preceding 12 months qualifying into the field of the Masters.

• Vastly expanding free patron parking in 2009 with land purchased west of Berckmans Road.

• A new 18-acre practice facility, 400 yards in length, opened in 2010, featuring a state-of-the-art short-game area, two fairways with trees and bunkers.

• Opening Berckmans Place 2013 as a high-end hospitality venue near the fifth hole.

• Removing the Eisenhower Tree in 2014 after an ice storm left it irreparably damaged.

• Opening a new Tournament Headquarters and the Press Building in 2017.

• Buying a large strip of land on the adjacent Augusta Country Club that borders Augusta National’s 12th and 13th holes, that will make possible a lengthening of the par-5 13th by as much as 50 yards.

Payne’s missteps have been few and a matter of opinion. Some applauded his stern words when Tiger Woods returned to golf at the 2010 Masters—“It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here; it is the fact that he disappointed all of us.”—but others found them overly judgmental. Says Payne, “You know, all of my failures I’ve worked pretty hard at, too.”

Harry How/Getty ImagesPayne’s embracing of the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship has helped the event become a fun part of Masters week.

As Payne transitions to his new title of Chairman Emeritus, he will undoubtedly retain a strong voice. On Tuesday he opined on possible future issues.

On creating a rolled-back Masters ball:   “That would be a very drastic step, and we would hope before that was necessary, there would be a collaborative decision. We love to follow collaborative decisions. Not be a loner. But we reserve the right to do so if we think it’s needed. We retain options about our course. So, I would suspect we would exhaust those before we would unilaterally jump ahead of others.”

On lifting the ban on cellphones:   “You have to ask the next chairman. I asked as recently as today if he has the same opinion as I do. And that’s where he stands right now.”

On allowing players and caddies to wear shorts:   “They don’t offend me. But it’s just not Augusta National. We don’t allow it for tournament or member play.”

Allowing Augusta to be less green in the interests of “brown is beautiful” sustainability:

“It’s not where we want to go. We think our beauty is part of our reputation and our brand. And it may surprise you to know that on the course we primarily hand water, using substantially less water. So we are not an abuser of that, and people think we perhaps may be because it’s so beautiful.

“You know I’ve never had that guilt trip [about sending a “too green” signal to seeking the Augusta ideal]. We’re going to do what is required to maintain the beauty of our course so that we can deliver both to our guests who play, and to our television audience the beauty that they expect.”

Payne says he is confident the 65-year-old Ridley, the 1975 U.S. Amateur champion, will navigate such issues with good judgment.

“He’s an extraordinary leader,” Payne said. “He needs a lot more skills than the obvious ones his resume would show, and he has those skills in immense qualities. He’s the perfect choice. If that [finding his successor] was my most important decision, I think time will prove I did a pretty good job.

“And now I have identified the person I believe can take it to the next level. That, therefore, signals to me that it’s time to leave.”

Payne said in 2013, “There are two personalities which will always define Augusta National: Bobby Jones and Cliff Roberts. All the rest of us just came and went, and I’m going to fall into that latter category.”

Certainly, he hasn’t. And based on his extraordinary contribution as chairman, he won’t.

J.D. Cuban

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By Ryan Herrington
When Augusta National Golf Club opens again on Oct. 16, it will do so under new leadership. Billy Payne, chairman of the club and the Masters Tournament since May 2006, announced on Wednesday that he will retire from the role this fall.

Succeeding Payne will be Fred Ridley, a former USGA president who has served most recently as the chairman of the Competition Committees for the Masters.

During his tenure, Payne, 69, helped create the Asia-Pacific Amateur, Latin America Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship in an effort to extend the game’s reach to new, broader audiences. He also oversaw the expansion of the club’s physical footprint, but said now was “the right moment to step down.”

“The privilege I experienced serving as chairman of Augusta National and the Masters was far greater than I could have ever imagined,” Payne said in a release. “Just as nothing can prepare you for the unique responsibilities and important decisions that come with this position, it is equally impossible to anticipate the many joys and, most importantly, the wonderful friendships that are the ultimate reward of service.”

Ridley, 65, will be the seventh man to hold the position of club and tournament chairman. His predecessors include Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts (1933-’77), Bill Lane (1977-’80), Hord Hardin (1980-’91), Jack Stephens (1991-’98), Hootie Johnson (1998-2006) and Payne.

“I am now proud to call upon my good friend Fred Ridley to lead Augusta National and the Masters to a future that I am confident will hold new promise, while always being faithful to the principles of Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts,” Payne said. “Fred will be an excellent chairman who will serve with my complete and enthusiastic support.”

A Florida native who lives in Tampa, Ridley works as a business lawyer and partner at Foley & Lardner LLP, where he serves as national chair of the firm’s real estate practice. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and his law degree from Stetson University.

Ridley has deep ties to the game as both an accomplished player and an administrator. During his competitive career, Ridley won the 1975 U.S. Amateur, played on the 1976 U.S. World Amateur team and was on the 1977 U.S. Walker Cup squad. He is the last U.S. Amateur champion to have not turned professional. Ridley also captained the American Walker Cup team in 1987 and 1989, and the 2010 U.S. World Amateur Team.

Beginning in 1994, Ridley served as a member of the USGA Executive Committee and was elected the association’s president in 2004-’05. After finishing his tenure with the governing body, he became more involved at Augusta National, taking over as chairman of the Masters competition committee in 2011.

Ridley’s connection to the tournament goes back to 1976, when he made the first of his three appearances as a competitor. That year he met Roberts, beginning a lineage in which he has been acquainted with every chairman in club history. Ridley, however, will be the first chairman to have played in the Masters.

On Ridley’s short-term radar: the potential expansion of Augusta National’s 13th hole. A letter from the president of neighboring Augusta Country Club sent to its club members earlier this month revealed that ANGC had purchased land just behind Augusta National’s 12th green and 13th tee. Speculation is that Augusta National might build a new tee box that would lengthen the par-5 13th, which plays among the easiest holes during tournament week.

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1. On the impact of Arnold Palmer:
“Arnold Palmer let us all into his life; not from the distance that is typically maintained between a superstar and a fan, but into his life, close‑up, so that we could literally push him to greatness and regale in his accomplishments as though they were our own,” Payne said. “I think tomorrow will no doubt be an emotional goodbye, but at the same time, an even more powerful thank you to the man we dearly love.”

2. On the club’s strong stance against cellphones being allowed for patrons.
“You’ll have to ask the next chairman. That’s not going to change while I’m chairman. I just don’t think it’s appropriate, and the noise is an irritation to not only players, the dialing, the conversation, it’s a distraction and that’s the way we’ve chosen to deal with it.”

3. On the need for continued improvement at Augusta National:
“People always ask us why we continue to improve our campus and our facilities, which are already considered by some as without peer in the sporting world. Honestly, the answer is pretty simple In the same manner that we all inherited this wonderful Club and tournament, so, too, did our beloved founders, Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones, condition that inheritance on our collective adoption of the principle of constant improvement. We simply know no other way.”

4. On the possibility of implementing an alternative ball at the Masters:
“[The USGA and R&A] are working together to ensure that it does not become a problem, and as is always the case, we have great confidence in their ability to forge a solution. But of course, as you would imagine, we always reserve the right to do whatever we have to do to preserve the integrity of our golf course. But I don’t think that will ever happen.”

5. On the health of the game:
“First of all, I think golf as a sport is in better shape than some people write about. The reason I say that is there are a lot of those are measuring the business of golf. Well, some people are not good businessmen and women. You know, they make mistakes. They don’t build the courses properly; they overextend. So some of these closings have to do with the business of golf more so than the fact that people don’t want to play golf. So what we have chosen to do and hope to do, and I’ve said many times, is that we are blessed with significant resources and significant gratitude for the position that we all find ourselves in, and we are willing to commit those resources to help grow the game, and we can always do better, and we will do better.”

Photo by Getty Images

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