Former USGA director savages current director on blog

A little lengthy, but worth the time. Rarely do you see this kind of dirty sports laundry aired in public like this:

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2007/7/10/letter-from-saugerties-july-10-2007.html#comments

 

Great ending... old guy knows his women...

The decline of the USGA did not begin with Walter Driver. I would label it as beginning in 1995 when one of Driver’s predecessors hired Kenny Rogers for $30,000 to sing at a USGA birthday party.

Kenny Rogers is as appropriate for the USGA as Jenna Jameson would be at a conclave of the College of Cardinals.

 

The comments - at least the few that I read through - were also quite interesting. Is that really Larry Mize or just someone using that name? (And is that really Johnny Knoxville?)

 

Frank Hannigan is and always will be my favorite curmudgeon.
;D

 

Somebody just got pwned.

 

This happens from time to time on Geoff's blog, because Geoff is one of the most respected golf writers you've probably never heard of.

Just FYI, Geoff is the son of Lynn Shackelford, the former UCLA and Lakers hoops player who played with Kareem and the gang at UCLA in the mid-late 60s. He's written about a dozen books on golf architecture -- including the definitive history of Riviera Country Club -- writes for several golf publications (LINKS and the LA Times, among them) and has consulted on the design of two courses with more in the works.

Included in that is Rustic Canyon in Moorpark, CA -- the most underrated golf course in the state of California. If you're ever in SoCal and want a reasonable round of golf on a great course, run, do not walk, to this course.

Geoff is a curmundgeonly traditionalist. He hates the current trend of bomb-and-gouge golf and what it's doing to the classic courses. Yet he absolutely detests the blue-blooded hypocrisy of the USGA.

It is a testament to Geoff that Frank Hannigan -- the patron saint of golf curmundgeons -- dropped this broadside in his lap. Yet it's not surprising, since several nationally recognized golf writers post comments on his blog.

 

A great read, but it should be noted for those who have not yet read it that the headline here is incorrect. Hannigan isn't going after David Fay, a successor as the USGA's executive director (or paid boss), but the USGA president, Walter Driver (an unpaid volunteer who apparently loves private jets and making paid staff miserable).

 

You're partly right, Clerk.

While Hannigan's broadside is largely (and properly) directed at Driver for turning a non-profit like the USGA into another Wall Street, cutthroat plaything, there is venom directed at Fay (a good guy) who is not standing up for his staff like a good leader should.

And that is certainly justified.

 

I noticed that at the end, Birdscribe. I don't know how much, if at all, Hannigan and Fay talk -- I know Hannigan doesn't think much of the USGA's size, but don't know if he blames Fay for that. And I don't know if anyone besides Fay knows how much, if at all, he has stood up for his staff. Perhaps not at all. Perhaps he's prevented a bloodletting besides the two dumped so far. Sure seems to be a mess, though.

 

I'm impressed that even a curmedgeon like Hanigan knows who Jenna Jameson is.

 

Amazing that Hannigan knows who Jenna Jameson is but didn't know that the WWF is now WWE.