Forget Craigslist, USGA "ED" Job Posting Coming To USGA.org!

Adam Schupak with the news that the USGA will be posting a job description and contact info at USGA.org Friday, January 7th.

No search firm will be engaged. Instead, a search committee has been formed consisting of Jim Hyler (current president and committee chair); Glen Nager and Tom O’Toole (incoming vice presidents); Martha Lang (incoming chair of the women’s committee), and Jim Vernon (immediate past president). Hyler said they are committed to choosing an individual ingrained in the golf industry as its next executive director.

“We think that is a relatively small pool of people,” Hyler said. “We know who a bunch of those people are and we have some excellent internal candidates. We didn’t think it was necessary to engage an outside firm.”

The objective is to hire Fay’s replacement in the next 90-120 days, said Rand Jerris, the USGA’s managing director of communications.

“Tomorrow the curtains will go up and we’ll start receiving expressions of interest,” Hyler added.

Reader Carl, an interested USGA observer and fan of the organization, wrote to me earlier this week about the prospects of a new Executive Director hiring and laid out a description that I'd say is pretty darn solid. The highlights:

The E.D. is the face of the association; therefore, he must be passionate about game as a whole and about its constituencies (play at the highest level on down to the hacker in a Tuesday night league) and components (architecture, rules, handicapping, turfgrass research, championship setup etc.).  On this matter, I think Fay did a very good job.  When he spoke of his youth caddying at Tuxedo and occasionally sneaking onto courses in the Met area he made the audience think that being a golfer and being a USGA member was important.  On some occasions he spoke that passionately about baseball as well making one wonder if he would jump ship to run MLB (lol).  With Tim Finchem, for instance, the passion is lost in the "balance-sheet" discussion -- the USGA E.D. cannot fall into that trap regardless of how important financial solvency is (and such matters can be handled by those staff members who are not 'out front').

The E.D. also has to be the face of the staff in matters dealing with the Executive Committee.  Fay had the respect of the staff as he was one of them due to having come up through the ranks -- he had painted hazard lines, he had packed up equipment at the end of a championship week, he had taught the rules seminars etc. etc.  His replacement should have that same pedigree.  Most outsiders won't realize what is important to the mid- and lower-level staff members and to the volunteer committee members.

The E.D. needs a deep knowledge of the matters that the USGA handles exclusively (within its jurisdiction): Rules of Golf, Amateur Status, and Handicapping.  Although many golfers enjoy the game using their own subset of the rules, they still recognize the need to have an ultimate authority (ruling body) on Rules of Golf matters - the E.D. needs to be a proven authority on the rules as a symbol of their importance and for the need to speak accurately regarding them.  The same is true regarding amateur status.   Regardless of whether one agrees with the USGA's handling of matters like Earl Woods' deal with Nike or the way in which Michelle Wie and her parents walked the tightrope of amateurism, the golf world needs a strong and public leader to handle such issues.  Of course, the E.D. must also have a strong relationship with the R&A on these matters and must be able to 'step into the ring' with Peter Dawson et al to ensure that the U.S. golfer is properly represented within the unified golfing world.

The E.D. needs to be known to and respected by the state golf associations.  These associations do quite a bit of work on the USGA's behalf especially in the area of running championship qualifiers and they deserve to feel that the USGA's leader is aware of and working to further their needs.  

Obviously, as the face of the USGA, the E.D. must have very strong communication skills and the ability to think on his feet when faced with a difficult situation (Shinnecock, 2004).  He must be able to show patience when faced with the type of controversy-seeking media and give accurate answers that, above all, do not embarrass the association (a quality not found in Mr. Driver, for instance).