Robert Sommers: My Mentor And Hero


July 28, 2008

Everyone, I suppose, has his heroes. I've had mine. Some were athletes, some were warriors, some were neither. My most lasting hero was among the last group.  As a young man in the early years of a career in writing about sports, I looked forward each morning of the golf season to the reports byAlLaney, in theNew YorkHerald Tribune.  Later, when I began attending such happenings as theUnited StatesOpen, the Masters, or the National Amateur, I maneuvered to the typewriter next to his, and I walked with him in the galleries of the great men we wrote of.  Back inside once again, I marveled at how quickly he created his graceful, fluid, and literate work while I struggled, unsure of myself, to write a simple declarative sentence.  I'd become morose and discouraged, butAlwould reassure and advise me…

By Marty Parkes

The last U.S. Open: Bob Sommers, left, and Marty Parkes share a happy moment at Oakmont Country Club in 2007. (USGA Museum)

This passage, which introduces the seminal history of golf's national championship by Robert Sommers entitled The U.S. Open: Golf's Ultimate Challenge, represents the first exposure I ever had to its author. I read these words and all the others in his book in early February of 1991 while preparing for a job interview. The United States Golf Association sought a young staff writer to join its ranks. I applied and prayed for the best as I drove for the first time to Far Hills, N.J. The author hardly put me at ease at our first meeting.  His brusque tone and curmudgeonly manner, if truth be told, scared me to death.  I came to know why others, behind his back and under their breath, muttered "Sunshine Sommers" with more than a touch of factitiousness.  Nonetheless, I somehow landed the staff writer assignment and headed to the Garden State.

These thoughts drifted back recently when the sad news reached me that my frequent and ongoing communications with Robert Sommers had reached an end. Sommers, 81, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., passed away last Saturday while in hospice care near his home. He died as the result of complications from a brain tumor that was recently diagnosed.

Born on Aug. 6, 1926, Sommers grew up in Baltimore, Md. He attended public schools there. Upon graduation from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard and served on various transport ships in the Pacific during World War II. He received an honorable discharge from the Coast Guard and returned home, attending the University of Maryland on the GI bill. He earned a B.A. degree in economics in 1950. That year he attended his first U.S. Open golf championship, witnessing Ben Hogan's victory in a three-way playoff at Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia.

After graduation, he joined his father's employer, The Baltimore Evening Sun , as a journalist. He covered a variety of sports for the newspaper, developing an expertise in golf. He married his beloved wife, Helen, in 1952. The couple would have two children, Thomas Michael and Patricia. Both his children, as well as his wife, survive him.

Sommers later joined the staff of The Washington Star , becoming the paper's main golf correspondent. In 1966, he received a call from a friend named Don Weiss. Weiss was leaving his role as public information officer at the United States Golf Association to join the National Football League. He wanted to know if Sommers would be interested in replacing him. He accepted the position and moved to Stamford, Conn., and went to work at the USGA's headquarters, then located in New York City.

Sommers remained at the Association until his retirement at the end of 1991, moving to north-central New Jersey in the early 1970s when the USGA relocated its offices there.  Throughout his years at the Association, his duties encompassed all aspects of USGA communications. He became editor and publisher of the USGA's official magazine, Golf Journal. He traveled the globe and produced countless articles that featured stylish prose about golf competitors and competitions. He lent his skilled and demanding editorial sense to many top-flight golf writers. He earned, throughout his career, the ongoing respect of his colleagues in the golf world and beyond.

Sommers became an accomplished author as well as journalist. Perhaps his best known work remains his The U.S. Open: Golf's Ultimate Challenge that has appeared in two editions. The volume benefits significantly from his eye-witness accounts gleaned after more than a half century walking along the fairways of the Open. Sommers produced other fine golf-related books as well, most notably Golf Anecdotes, published by Oxford University Press.

In his retirement, Sommers remained active as a golf writer for various publications. He continued to produce the U.S. Open Annual for the USGA. He became a mentor to many golf observers, lending his vast knowledge and expertise in answering historical questions about the Association or game of golf. Sommers loved the British Isles and enjoyed visiting there. He eventually became a member of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club in St. Andrews, Scotland. Sommers also served as a member of various USGA and Florida State Golf Association Committees and as a Rules official at various championships. He received the 2001 Memorial Golf Journalism Award presented during the Memorial Golf Tournament as well as the 2004 Lincoln Werden Golf Journalism Award presented by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association. Both awards recognize outstanding contributions to golf journalism.

Those are the facts and figures about Robert Sommers, a synopsis of the many accomplishments of his lifetime. But like most facts and statistics, they convey only a partial view of the man.

It wasn't long into my tenure working under him in 1991 that I came to appreciate his demanding, driving style. If you included a fact in a story, you'd better be sure it was correct. If you used the word "host" as a verb, it wasn't long before you received chastisement and threatened with banishment to Serbia if the act were repeated. And he relentlessly challenged you to analyze and sift through facts. Sommers refused to settle for the easy, obvious story conveyed through rote quotes from players. Instead, he demanded that you find "a back door" into the story that would present it in a fresh, engaging, and interesting manner.

In retrospect, it's hard for me to believe that we worked in person together for only about nine months at Golf House. The lessons he imparted to me in those months proved beneficial and enduring. As another 15 USGA years unfolded, we'd talk at least weekly on the phone. Sommers remained careful never to convey compliments while freely doling out criticisms. 

"It's my job to tell you where you came up short in your job," he would bellow through the receiver if I showed the hint of exasperation at these harangues. While I never would have admitted it to him, these continuing lessons delivered from master to pupil had their desired effect and much more.

There's so much more I could say about him. Let me not leave the impression that he was devoid of a sense of humor. His stories would often leave me with tears squirting from eyes like wiper fluid on a windshield. His quick wit, keen mind and literate background made him a most delightful dinner or vacation companion. And while his politics were to the right of mine - and those of all other human beings - his steadfast beliefs always put one on rock-solid ground regarding his opinions.

Looking back, I now realize just how fortunate I was to land Robert Sommers first as my boss. My fortune increased over many months and years as he became my mentor. 

Gradually our relationship bloomed into a cherished, mutual friendship. Ultimately, like Al Laney before him, Sommers became my most enduring professional hero.

Marty Parkesserved as the USGA's Senior Director of Communications from 1996-2007.