[Steve Lang]

 

What would CBM say about the state of gca or the usga today if he could say a few words after his induction into the World Golf HoF this coming November?

http://www.pga.com/news/industry/macdonald061307.cfm

[Tom_Doak]

I think it would be:

"Line up all the people responsible for this so I can trample a herd of elephants over them."

[Steve Lang]

 

and disc them into the subgrade?

[TEPaul]

David Fay said:

"Without Macdonald, the USGA would not have been created. And without his leadership and strong character, the game in this country could easily have gone astray."

It seems to me there is no question at all that Macdonald felt, and as early as 1901, that golf in America (the USGA) in many important ways did go astray. How and why he felt that is most interesting! In fact one cannot escape this conclusion if one carefully reads all the parts in his book "Scotland's Gift Golf" (written in 1926) about the interworkings of the USGA over a period of about twenty years when he was involved with it.

David Fay uses a word in his quotation---"leadership" (Macdonald's), that should be looked at carefully too and analyzed.

In fact Macdonald never did "lead" the USGA----he was never its president---while there is no question at all from the beginning noone else in the USGA or American golf was in a stronger or more seminal natural position to be the USGA's president (in a real way Macdonald did bring the game formally to the United States). One needs to look carefully why things happened this way.

In my opinion, there's no question Macdonald was one of the strongest characters and personalities imaginable but even he came to realize (and fairly early on---eg 1901) he was up against a number of people who were far more powerful and opinionated than even he was or ever could be.

How he came to handle that---if one can call it "handling it" is part of the key to the way he lived the remainder of his live in golf, in my opinion.

[Peter Pallotta]

TE - thanks; I love those kind of posts.

Steve - you and Tom D are no doubt right. But maybe he'd also say:

"And, just because I've been given this award doesn't mean I've stopped working. Any one you gentlemen out there give me $8 million and I'll give you back the finest 18 hole course America has ever seen! Now, where the hell is that Raynor!?"

[Jeff_Brauer]

Not hard to imagine that with his ego, the USGA didn't want him anywhere near the presidents position, so he had to lead from the back of the room.  Maybe thats just me, though.

Its also not hard to imagine, with his ego, that he would be pushing the USGA to build "Open Courses" with he being the only qualified candidate to build them, of course.

[TEPaul]

To add a good and interesting example or two to my post above, I would offer a key remark about Macdonald that was found in an otherwise seemingly inconsequential letter from Merion's Hugh Wilson to the US Dept of Agriculture's Oakley.

Oakley had visited Macdonald at NGLA around 1920 to attempt to solicit his support in creating what would soon become the USGA's Green Section.

Wilson asked Oakley what Macdonald's response was to that solicition and Oakley's response was:

"Charlie said, as far as he was concerned the whole lot of them can all go to Hell."

Wilson's return letter to Oakley said:

"Well, that's just Charlie, he's probably unapproachable now."

A number of years later architect Perry Maxwell solicited Macdonald's opinion of a new golf course project and Macdonald responded:

"I wish you well on your endeavor but I would not walk around the corner to look at another golf course project."

These do not sound like the reactions of a man who felt either golf or architecture went in a way that he would've like to see.  

[KBanks]

It is a safe bet that CBM wouldn't be shy about declaiming upon the current state of the ethos of golf; clearly it was the subject of a lot of his thinking and writing during his lifetime.

This reminds me of another great MacDonald story. It has to do with the famous portrait of CBM and caddie which hangs in the Links Club in NYC. Finley Peter Dunne, the great humorist and CBM crony, was showing a guest through the Links Club
when he was asked about the provenance of the portrait. He replied "It is an allegorical picture.......representing Modesty".

Ken

[Adam Clayman]

Since Tom is likely channeling CB these days, I'll take his negativity as a sure sign.

However, One cannot ignore the renaissance that has occurred.

The next question is, are the egoists in power(usga), seeing it with 20/20 hindsight? And are they seeing it the same way as the private sector (Keiser)?

[TEPaul]

"Tom, could you explicate a little more as to why you speak of golf in America and the USGA as synonymous?"

Shivas:

By putting the USGA in parentheses that way I didn't mean to imply the USGA and golf in America back then were completely synonymous. Regarding the transposing of the Rules of Golf over here it was an important era though. Perhaps Macdonald's greatest contributions to the USGA and American golf was in his position on the Rules Committee.

 

[Steve Lang]

 

Most interesting comments.. thanks all..

My continuing interest is related to how the early usga politics may either be repeating or perhaps "much the same" is true.. that only a person involved at its literal roots would be sensitive to.  CBM being one not to mince words too!

For instance, SP Jermain, Pres. of Inverness in Toledo in the early 1900's had a significant influence to open the  largely "private CC game" to the public.  Getting the first usga Amateur Publinks Championship to be held at Ottawa Park (My Home Course, vintage 1899-9 holes, 1916-18 holes) in Toledo, Ohio in 1922.  It was always rumored that SP had Ross help him with it's expansion to 18 holes while tempting him with work at Inverness while he was in the OH/MI area

Toledo at the turn of the century had socialist leanings to provide social improvements and amenities for the working classes associated with the ports's industries and the developing automotive complex springing from Detroit.. Ottawa Park in whole being one of a series of Pubic Parks with varied sports facilites (baseball, golf, tennis) and congregation (shelter house and amphitheatre) and natural preserve areas in Toledo..

The Inverness Clock was presented to the Club by the touring Pros as they were welcomed inside the club's inner premises, and not just relegated to the backdoor entrances.. in no small part to SP Jermain..

But alas, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland.. these industrial centers were quite distant from the inner circle of the usga workings back east eh?
 

[TEPaul]

Steve:

If you really are interested in the politics and interworkings of the early USGA when Macdonald was part of it you have to get his book "Scotland's Gift Golf" and carefully read those numerous sections on that subject (he offers all kinds of supporting letters and documents).

If one just picked up that book today those sections and subjects would probably seem pretty dated and irrelevent today but they most certainly weren't then, and they probably aren't to the history minded like us.

Although Macdonald sort of skirts or minimizes the subject because I suppose in a sense he was caught between a rock and a hard place as he was originally from Chicago but had moved to New York around 1900, one of the most interesting and dangerous issues of the early USGA was how they were going to deal with the Western Golf Association that was threatening to break away from the USGA and start their own Rules and sort of their own game.

But it's not hard to see that in some important ways Macdonald was the ultimate elitist (in an organizational sense) and in other ways he was very much imbued with the uniquely democratic spirit of the way the game had been in and around St Andrews in the old days of the 19th century.

What is clear to see, though, is he very much wanted to transport that spirit of St Andrews to American golf, particularly in the context of the Rules, as the game was so new here. You can see, however, that he realized that just wasn't going to happen for some pretty interesting historical reasons.

The real hand-writing on the wall to Macdonald (to his dissatisfaction or horror) was the inauguration speech of USGA President Robertson (1901) where he proclaimed about golf;

"Nothing stays in America long without being Americanized. What I would like to see is an American game."

Macdonald also sort of landed on the wrong side of Travis and probably many Americans over the raging "Schnectedy Putter" issue in the first decade of the 20th century.

We today would be shocked to realize how contentious that "Schnectedy Putter" issue was between the nations. Even the President of the United States weighed in on the issue.

It seemed like Macdonald actually supported Travis' use of the Schnectedy putter because Macdonald did not exactly believe in standardizing or even regulating balls and equipment but one of Macdonald's problems with Travis anyway is Macdonald actually sat on the USGA's Rules Committee AND the R&A's Rules Committee (as the American representative) and I guess Travis felt that fact did not really allow Macdonald to defend or support Americans or American golf effectively enough.

I guess Macdonald and Travis' relationship at that time cut both ways because Travis was reported by Macdonald as one of two or three advisors in the creation of NGLA but Macdonald let Travis go at that time.

[Steve Lang]

 
TEP
Yes, I must lay my hands on that book.. ((I wonder if i can find a copy near traverse city the last week of july?))

so, does the usga and it's venue set-ups represent "americanized golf" 106 years later?  or are they missing the great big USA out there.. north, west, and south of far hills, NJ?

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