Chairman and Editor-in-Chief
It’s clear we need a return to the Boatwright Method at the U.S. Open. WHEN GARY PLAYER won the 1965 U.S. Open at Bellerive, first place was $25,000. Player, whose mother died of cancer when he was 8, donated $5,000 from the purse to cancer research and the remaining $20,000 to the USGA for junior golf. Some pros were moved to say, “Just goes to show, the USGA is four times tougher to beat than cancer.”
So our story in this issue, “USGA Confidential” (page 70), isn’t the first example of the contentiousness between tour players and the Governing Body. P.J. Boatwright, who set up courses for the USGA from 1969-’90, once told me: “Shouldn’t it be difficult to win the U.S. Open—damned difficult?” But the definition…
