Jim Vernon's Speech From Annual Meeting

The following is incoming USGA president Jim Vernon's speech at the Association's Annual Meeting on Feb. 9 in Houston, Texas:

Everyone in this room recognizes that there is something special about this sport. It undoubtedly means different things to different golfers, but the nature of the game, the values which it embodies, the time spent with friends and family on the course, all add up to something to which no other sport can lay claim.

The evidence is what golfers do for the game.

Like the game itself, the United States Golf Association is special. The USGA has some bricks and mortar in Far Hills, but it is special because of what makes it outr of the ordinary is the participation of our volunteers. people like you. The core of the organization is built around a talented staff and , but it could not fulfill its mission without the selfless contributions of time and effort by its volunteers. The range and scope of volunteer service on behalf of this body is exceptional. And those contributions on behalf of golf are not limited to the USGA-the state and regional golf associations depend just as heavily on volunteers. The depth of the commitment to give back to the game by those who enjoy it is unmatched in the world of sports.

A few months ago, Golf House forwarded to me a letter from a woman who lives not too far from my wife and me. The woman wrote that while she diddidn't not play golf herself but understood that the 2008 U.S. Open was going to be conducted at Torrey Pines. Sshe wanted to do something for her husband and son when the U.S. Open was at Torrey Pines. She wrote that both are avid golfers and both had been diagnosed with cancer within the last twelve months. Both were undergoing some pretty unpleasant treatments. My immediate reaction was to reach for the phone to make arrangements to get tickets for them. But as I read on, I realized that she was not asking for tickets. Rather, she explained that both her husband and her son wanted to volunteer to work at Torrey Pines-and they had missed the deadline to submit their applications while they were undergoing their treatments.

What she wanted to know is whether there was any way we could still let them work at the Open. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS SPORT!

Connect the Passion to the Volunteers to the core functions of the USGA:

This passion and spirit of volunteerism flows from many of the core functions of the USGA.

I want to take a little time to devote the rest of my time up here today to explain some things we are doing in connection with three of those core functions-(1) our championships; (2) our role regulating the equipment we golfers use; and (3) preserving the history of the game.

Let me start with our championships, and it is a fitting place to start. After all, the USGA was organized in 1894 to conduct national championships. Our three Open Championships are our flagship events and account for millions of visits to our website, millions of prime time television viewers and just as important, opportunities for thousands of volunteers from all over the country.

With the expertise of a talented staff and thousands of volunteers we conduct the best championships in golf. The U.S. Open is the most challenging test of the world's best golfers. We challenge every aspect of those golfers. Our last three U.S. Opens in particular have been overwhelming successes.

But as good as they have been, we continue our relentless pursuit of improvement. And the contributions to that pursuit come from throughout the Association. Our Championship staff developed the concept of tiered rough to provide increasing penalty the farther a competitor hits his ball in the rough. We are now making better use of our Green Section's regional agronomists to prepare our championship sites. The team at our Research and Test Center has developed an innovative portable device-the Thumper-- to monitor the firmness of a course's greens, approaches and fairways so that we can determine whether we have achieved the firmness we want and to assure uniform conditions throughout the course. And Mike Butz and his team are working constantly to assure that fans who attend our events have the best possible experience, from traffic flow, to food service, to watching the play. We continue to examine every aspect of our championships to determine if there is any way to make them better, inside and outside the ropes.

There is another element to the success of our championships-the assistance of state and regional golf associations around the country. Those associations, with the participation of hundreds of volunteers, conduct many of the almostover 700 qualifiers for our championships. It is only one of the many things that the state and regional associations do for the USGA and the game of golf, but it is a critical element in our quest to conduct the best championships in golf.

We will continue to examine every aspect of our championships to determine if there is any way to make them better, inside and outside the ropes.

Equipment

Let me say a few things about a second core function, one that I have been involved with since I went on the Executive Committee - Our role as regulator of the equipment we all use to play golf is central to our mission and core to every golfer's enjoyment of the game. You already heard my report about some of our recent efforts in performing that function. But what I want to stress here is not the specifics of what we may or may not do about reining in the golf ball or regulating the grooves that manufacturers put on irons, but rather I want to explain the process, because it says so much about what we are doing throughout the USGA.

It all starts with having the right people. Dick Rugge oversees a team at the Research and Test Center that includes four staff members with advanced degrees in mechanical engineering (three of them are Ph.D.'s) and a fourth member, responsible for conformance rulings, who has a law degree. Dick has created an environment at the Test Center that fosters innovation and challenges the engineers and scientists working there to conduct only the most rigorous research and to make decisions that are based not on preconceived notions but on scientifically supportable facts. The team members are proactive and accessible -they devote themselves to understanding every aspect of how technology affects the way that the game of golf is played.

When we they find evidence that technology has changed or threatens to change the way the game is played, we they undertake extensive scientific research-world class, industry-leading research-so that they can understand exactly what the facts are. We are committed to basing rules on scientifically sound facts and not anecdotes.

If we think the scientifically-supported facts from the research justify new rule-making, we develop a proposal and initiate a public notice and comment period-in a sense a form of peer review of our research and decision-making. And we listen. We spend all the time necessary to review and evaluate the comments we receive. Oftentimes, there are revisions made to the proposed rules to reflect new data which we receive or perhaps manufacturing nuances that we did not appreciate fully.

This process underscores what is happening within the USGA. It starts with a commitment to relentlessly pursue improvement and to do what is necessary to achieve it.

Preserving the History of the Game

We also work hard, and often in obscurity, to preserve the history of the game and to make that history available to golfers everywhere.

The USGA Museum and Archives is home to the world's most extensive collections of golf memorabilia, photographs and literature. By collecting, preserving and interpreting the historical developments of the game, the Museum promotes a greater understanding of golf's cultural significance for a world-wide audience.

This June we will open a remarkable renovation and addition to the museum in Far Hills - The Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History. The Center will showcase the history of our championships and celebrate the game's greatest champions and the greatest moments from our championships. Just as importantly, though, it will be the world's leading research facility for the history of the game,. It will be the world's premier the repository for significant artifacts, literature, photographs, film and videos and . It will include perhaps the most complete archives of golf architecture in the United States.

The Center will not accomplish its mission simply by being a repository. The goal is make its contents accessible world-wide.

And you will not have to travel to Far Hills to take advantage of what the Museum offers. The USGA is committing significant resources to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet and new media to better serve our members and golfers everywhere, and nowhere is the benefit of these opportunities more apparent than in the new Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History. You just met Alex Withers, our new Managing Director of the Internet and New Media. Alex and his team are working to create a virtual museum that can be visited by anyone with a computer and access to the Internet. You will be able to experience the exhibits at the Center, to view photographs from our archives, to examine the contents of the new golf architecture archives, to view film and video clips to relive some of the most exciting moments of our championships.

At the same time, you will be telling us what is important to you.

Let me add a personal note to the new Center. It is only appropriate that the Center will carry Arnold Palmer's name. Arnold in some ways has touched the golfing lives of everybody in this room, and in many ways embodies the spirit of golf, its integrity, its volunteerism and just the sheer enjoyment of the game. Arnold has been a long-time supporter of the USGA. He was the ideal choice for the USGA when it looked for a national chairman of our Members Program upon its creation in 1975. There is no one more deserving of having his name on the new Center.

You are all invited to come. I know the President, and I think I can get you a good deal on tickets.

Proactive Relevant and Accessible

There are a variety of themes to the roles and core functions I have outlined: They include the role of volunteers, a highly skilled staff, an organizational willingness to listen and a commitment to relentlessly improve everything we do. In return, each of you counts on us to be proactive in our efforts to communicate.

An old job interview question that a recruiting firm once suggested I use was: "What will I know about you in a year that I don't know now?" Well that was a tricky way of finding out something now rather than in a year.

In that spirit though, I'd like to paint a picture for you of what you might find about the USGA in a year that you might not anticipate now, specifically on how we communicate with golfers and golf fans.

First, we must listen and respond to what golfers want while also balancing the responsibility of doing the very best to promote and preserve the traditions of the game.

As part of this, we are committed to doing a better job of communicating with our members and other golfers. We will utilize the new opportunities presented by the Internet and new media both to learn what golfers think and what they want and then to provide it to them, as well as to let them know what we are doing.

We are already rolling out a series of efforts to ensure we fulfill our end in communication with all audiences. There will be major upgrades to our Web site - USGA.org - as well as our other sites, such as usopen.com. We are working on a USGA Online University, to provide training in fields such as handicaps and course rating, the Rules of Golf, and environmental and turfgrass management research. And that is just the start.

Second, and core to our efforts, we recognize that the USGA does not operate in a vacuum. We recognize that we do not have a monopoly on serving the game.

I see in the audience a number of directors of state and regional associations - Kevin Heaney from the Southern California Golf Association, Robert Markionni from the Chicago District Golf Association, Jay Mottola from the Metropolitan Golf Association, Mike Waldron from the Georgia State Golf Association, Rob Addington from our host Texas Golf Association. As I already mentioned, we recognize that you help us conduct almost 700 qualifiers and play active roles in championship committees and our national championships. You help administer our world leading USGA Handicap System and our world leading USGA Course Rating System. It is the state and regional associations, utilizing hundreds of volunteers, that conduct the thousands of course ratings each year that make the handicap system possible. You are core to the mission of the USGA, and we will make every opportunity to work with you on the big things and the little things.

We will continue the ongoing efforts of the past few years to foster our relationships with the PGA of America. I am honored that Brian Whitcomb, President of the PGA of America and Joe Steranka, its CEO, traveled to attend this meeting. Brian and Joe have been consulting members of the USGA Equipment Standards Committee and I have enjoyed working with them on that committee. The fact is that the PGA professionals are the doctors, priests and rabbis of the game of golf! Millions of golfers come to you first with their questions, ideas and their problems. We appreciate your role and your leadership, and I look forward to continuing our work together in the year ahead.

As the new President I admire the passion and leadership that have come before me, and I am humbled by the trust you have placed in my stewardship over the next two years. We will continue to excel in hosting the best Championships. We will continue to excel in developing some of the cutting edge technology like the T thumper, and to improve our knowledge and expertise about golf clubs and the golf balls. We will continue to innovate in the area of turf research. The USGA is a great steward of the environment and we will continue our efforts to share that with courses around the country.

We will also continue to grow the $654 million our Grants Program already has committed to this game to make it more accessible to those who desire to learn.

Before I sit down, I hope you will indulge me in two more things.

First, I'd like to acknowledge my wife, Gail, and our family members who are here with me tonight. Thanks for your support, and Gail, I will see you in two years!

Second, and finally, I'd like to ask everyone in the room who volunteers in some way for golf-for the USGA, for your state or regional association, for your golf club, whatever--to please stand. Please stand - don't be shy!

You are the ones who make golf special. You all are the ones who deserve the applause tonight.

Thank you all. I hope to see you at the 2009 USGA Annual Meeting on Feb. 7 at the Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach, Calif.

Thank you for your time tonight and perhaps at the reception and dinner you can each share with me something about yourselves that I don't know now but will know in a year.