A Brief History of The PGA
100 YEARS THE FIRST 100 YEARS
#makinggolfhappen
At the beginning of the 1880s remarkably few people played golf and, with only 111 golf
Professional Golf Before 1901
clubs in existence in the British Isles, mostly situated in Scotland, it was a game that was not overly popular. However, the number of courses would double by 1886 and by 1898, astonishingly, the number of clubs would increase to 1,460, with slightly more than half of them now in England - quite an explosion. Not surprisingly, along with this boom in golf, a whole supporting industry would emerge. From the traditional ranks of ball-makers, club-makers and keepers of the green a more specialised individual would evolve, an amalgam of the three trades, to become more commonly known as a golf professional and their numbers would grow exponentially. For most of the 19th century, professional golf, in the sense of playing for money, was not focused on the players. Moreover, matches and tournaments for professionals existed only because their employers and social superiors wished to bet on the result. In fact, challenge matches, sponsored by amateur golfing gamblers, were the dominant form of professional play until late in the century. In the latter decades it is quite possible such matches became less frequent as organised tournaments developed. Tournaments provided an additional source of income for the better players as well as being showcases for incipient talent. A good performance in the major tournaments, especially the Open Championship, brought offers of exhibition matches, invitations to tour abroad and, more importantly, jobs. Success at regional and district level could also lead to a better club appointment within the area. In the eight years before the first PGA-organised tournament was held in October 1901, professional golfers had, on average, thirteen events throughout the playing season in which they could participate. The prize money on offer was not much more than £55 per tournament; by 1914 there were 31 tournaments with average prize funds of £90. Much of the increase was attributable to the undertakings of The PGA who, actively sought sponsors, in addition to organising tournaments at national, regional and district level. In defending their trade, and in the provision of a Benevolent Fund, PGA Members had much in common with the skilled trade unionists of the later nineteenth century. However, in promoting tournaments they were actively assisting the development of their industry. On
1880’s
the eve of World War I, The PGA could reflect on what it had achieved in this area. Prior to its formation, the tournament situation had been one of random events, apart from The Open (inaugurated in 1860) but the basic framework for a ‘tour’ was in place by 1914. Apart from the principal events that attracted the leading players, a whole network of regional and district tournaments developed in this period. As the number of tournaments
IN THE BEGINNING
grew, so did the opportunity for professionals to make a name for themselves and to earn some money in the process. This great change can be directly attributed to the formation of The PGA.
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It all began following a letter published in Golf Illustrated on June 12th, 1901, in which a professional in North Wales wrote: ‘the time is now ripe for the professionals to band
The Beginning
themselves into an association to promote the general welfare of the professional and look after his interests’. Additionally, he hoped the idea would be taken up by the leading professionals of the day. John Henry Taylor, the first English professional to win the Open Championship, was perceived as the ideal leader and urged ‘to come forward at our call to help formulate some scheme for the better treatment of our poor and downtrodden brothers’. The overwhelmingly contentious issue was the growing practice by golf clubs of selling the club making and golf ball business to the highest bidder, thus depriving the resident professional, who lacked the capital to finance such a bid, of what had been regarded as his customary right. Other clubs were cutting the salaries of those professionals whom they felt were doing too well out of the shop as golf in Britain boomed. Taylor, supported by James Braid, Harry Vardon and other leading players lobbied against salary cuts for the underpaid professionals as there were no state pensions or national insurance to support them during and after their careers. On September 9th, 1901, JH Taylor and Braid were elected chairman and captain respectively of the newly formed London and Counties Golf Professionals’ and moved into offices at 19, Paternoster Row, London. Later that year at its first Annual General Meeting on December 2nd, the title of this fledgling organisation was changed to The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) and its membership extended to all professional golfers, their assistants and club-makers in the United Kingdom. There were 70 members in total; however, there would be more than 300 by the corresponding meeting the following year, and by 1908 this figure had risen to 574.
From top: Harry Vardon, James Braid and JH Taylor
The backbone of the Association had been established and it laid down the following objectives: To promote interest in the game of golf; to protect and advance the mutual and trade interests of all its members; to hold meetings and tournaments periodically for the encouragement of the younger members; to institute a Benevolent Fund for the relief of deserving members; to act as an agent for assisting any professional or club-maker to obtain employment; and to effect any other objects of a like nature as may be determined from time to time by the Association. Despite these noble principles in an age when British workers were joining unions in
1901
unprecedented numbers, The PGA was at pains to disassociate itself with militancy. Being the first organisation for sports professionals, its foremost initial activities were in welfare and benevolence, to assist its members in times of financial distress and help them to seek employment.
Indeed, in November 1902, the Association sent letters to all golf clubs to reassure them of their
A BAND OF BROTHERS
desire to work together in complete harmony with their patrons. Such was the favourable response that many clubs made donations to The PGA’s Benevolent Fund.
Great Britain declared war on Germany on August 4th, 1914. Golf, like many sports,
Membership and Administration
cancelled its fixtures. The August 19th issue of Golfing announced that all tournaments organised by The PGA were to be abandoned. Financially, this most ghastly of world conflicts would bring strife to The PGA, an organisation that was heavily dependent upon subscription income. The cupboard was virtually bare when Ted Ray persuaded the Earl of Wilton to make a gift to the Association of £500. The PGA Benevolent Fund benefitted by almost the same amount just after the war through the donation of the assets of Acton Golf Club to The PGA primarily for welfare purposes. Understandably central to the development of The PGA was control over membership eligibility. A major screening mechanism was that potential members had to receive the ‘full profits on the sale of golf balls’. This ruled out those who worked for sports stores or at golf schools where they offered mass instruction rather than the individual attention a club professional could provide. In many respects The PGA was a conservative organisation. Examples include the rejection of Henry Cotton’s suggestion in 1926 of a formal training scheme for assistants. They scorned this proposal on the grounds that ‘no assistant has his prospects retarded through not having received specialist training’ and that ‘the office was not equipped to handle such a scheme’. Two years later a proposition to bring in certificates showing the qualifications of Members was also dismissed because the Association felt it would be ‘unreasonable to attempt to define the capabilities as a teacher, club-maker or player’. Furthermore, ‘it was also considered that the granting of such certificates would, in practice, be equated to giving some Members a preference over others when applying for appointments which, the Association always strongly denounced’. Perhaps surprisingly, in view of its conservatism in some areas, The PGA adopted a fairly liberal policy on the issue of gender. Women professionals had competed in tournaments with men as early as 1933. Nevertheless, it was not until January 1962 that The PGA allowed women to become teaching professionals, although for full membership of the Association they also had to be employed as professionals or assistants at golf clubs.
1914 THE OUTBREAK OF WAR
By contemporary standards a successful tournament player could earn a substantial
Earnings and Social Status
amount. On the other hand, as with tournament golfers today, earnings could be erratic from year to year. For the leading players, exhibition matches were their bread and butter. A further source of income for a select band was to become the personal professional to a wealthy patron for a season or, a few days or weeks. Similarly, for the very best players, came the opportunity to design golf courses. The Great Triumvirate – Taylor, Vardon and Braid, - would all become engaged with this alternative and well rewarded activity. Nonetheless, despite the extra-curricular earnings of a few leading professionals, most were still dependent on their clubs for the major source of their income. While the more prominent players were earning considerable amounts of money, the rank and file certainly were not and had to depend upon the profits drawn from their club jobs. A professional golfer at club level had several potential sources of income. Prior to World War I he received a basic salary from his club, rarely more than £1 per week out of which he had to pay an assistant to help run the shop when he was out on the course. He was expected to make and repair clubs, sell balls, and teach and play with members upon demand. The relationship was one of master and servant, of employer and employee. For some professionals, golf brought economic prosperity but, disturbingly, for none of them did it bring social equality. Indeed, it was not until 1925 at the Open Championship at Prestwick that professionals were allowed in the clubhouse for the first time.
1914 THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER
The first international match played between professionals from Great Britain and the United
International Competition
States of America took place on June 6th, 1921 at Gleneagles in Scotland. A year previously the Glasgow Herald newspaper had sponsored a tournament in the week prior to the Open Championship with a prize fund of ÂŁ650 - a record at the time. In 1921 this figure would increase to 1,000 guineas (ÂŁ1,050) quite a staggering amount that would attract the best players from both sides of the Atlantic. With the Open being staged at St Andrews the following week a good number of the best professionals would enter. It was arranged by the proprietors of the newspaper to showcase the week with an international match between professionals representing Great Britain and America on the Monday. Medals were struck for each of the team members, to be presented at the conclusion of the match by the Duchess of Atholl. The home side was to defeat the Americans by quite a margin in front of an enthusiastic yet partisan crowd that would include the US ambassador to Great Britain who had made the long journey from London to be present. Even though this match captured the imagination of the golfing public, it would be a few years before such an event would be repeated.
1921 A RIVALRY BEGINS
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Steel-shafted clubs had been experimented with on both sides of the Atlantic prior to 1914
Clubs, Balls, and a Co-operative
but had been declared illegal, even though the relative shortage of hickory, persimmon and other hard woods in post-war America was seen as a threat to the expansion of golf there. This, together with the pressure from club manufacturers keen to utilise new technology, persuaded the United States Golf Association (USGA) to legalise steel shafts in 1924. In September 1926, the Royal & Ancient canvassed the opinion of The PGA Executive on the introduction of the new clubs. Predictably, they profoundly opposed the idea as being detrimental to the business of their members.
Right: James Spittal, exprofessional golfer and golf club maker at the
JH Taylor maintained that this was one of the most momentous questions the Association had
workshop of Tom Morris, examining
been asked to consider and that, in his opinion, it was not entirely a matter of the financial
a newly sanded golf club head, 1950.
aspect. He believed that the art of club-making largely consisted of shafting which was the work of skilled craftsmen and that, if steel shafts were introduced, to all intents and purposes, they would gradually cease to exist. Even though there remained staunch opposition by the Executive on November 26th, 1929, the R&A’s Rules of Golf Committee announced that, ‘after full consideration, it was decided that Steel Shafts as approved by this Committee, be declared to conform with the requirements of the clause in the Rules of Golf in “Form and Make of Golf Clubs”’. While this decision was believed not to be in the best interests of the professional, in practice the really skilled club-makers still found a market for their handcrafted equipment. Most professionals relied on the profits of ‘the shop’ to raise their standard of living. If costs could be reduced then profits might increase. This was the rationale behind the notion, first put forward in 1907, of a golfers’ co-operative trading society, which would buy in bulk from manufacturers. The first discussions for such a venture, whilst promising, faltered through lack of solid support so the plan was shelved for more than a decade. By then, with The PGA firmly established and with a clearer vision of how to move forward, the proposal was resurrected. As a consequence the Professional Golfers Co- Operative Association (PGCA) was formally recognised on January 23rd, 1921. This time there was more enthusiasm for the project as many professionals realised the future of the professional golfer off the course was to be in the selling of golf equipment rather than in its manufacture. In 1928 the Association circulated manufacturing companies asking if they would produce
1924
balls specifically for The PGA with a distinctive mark to indicate their provenance. At that time no major manufacturer replied positively, but a second attempt in 1932 was more successful as a number of golf ball companies agreed to the making and marking balls for sale exclusively through PGA Professionals. Seven years later the idea was extended to steel shafts.
THE DAWN OF NEW TECHNOLOGY
Samuel Ryder, the son of a Lancashire corn merchant, amassed a sizable fortune selling garden seeds in penny packets and, then in his 50s, like many businessmen before and after,
The Ryder Cup
he discovered golf. Ryder watched as well as played and in early June 1926 was a member of the gallery at Wentworth when an informal international match was held between British and American-based professionals. After the match Ryder hosted a champagne reception and allegedly remarked ‘we must do this again’. Now, he may have been referring to Britain’s convincing 13-1 victory or simply to his admiration of the camaraderie engendered by such an international challenge. Whatever the motivation, he was persuaded by George Duncan, the Wentworth professional, Walter Hagen, the American team captain and Abe Mitchell, Samuel Ryder’s personal professional, to back up his views and so the Ryder Cup competition came into being. Ryder invited Royal jewellers Mappin & Webb to source a trophy in gold for the Match and, so it is believed, Ryder always hoped the figure on the lid would be a depiction of Mitchell. The trophy was then presented to the British team to take with them to America at a farewell gathering hosted by Ryder at Verulam Golf Club. The original Trust Deed of 1927 was drafted by Ryder’s solicitor nephew, Thomas Anderson Davis, and witnessed and signed by Samuel Ryder himself together with JH Taylor, James Braid and Joshua Taylor representing The Professional Golfers’ Association. Clause 1: of the Deed, states: ‘The Cup shall be called and always known as The Ryder Cup’. More importantly to The PGA, clause 2 states: The Cup shall always be and remain the
Samuel Ryder
absolute property of The Professional Golfers’ Association’. The first match was held in 1927 at the Worcester Golf & Country Club, Massachusetts where a strong American team prevailed by quite a winning margin. The home sides won the early matches but after the conclusion of World War II there followed a continuing period of American dominance that would stretch until the mid-1980s, save for a British victory at Lindrick in 1957. This supremacy was to strain the enthusiasm of the Americans to such an extent that after the 1977 match at Royal Lytham & St Annes the leading player of the day, Jack Nicklaus, wrote to
1927 Abe Mitchell
PGA President Lord Derby to implore Great Britain & Ireland to include players from Europe. Wisdom would prevail and to guarantee the future success of the matches, this was agreed. In 1979 Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido would represent continental Europe for the first time heralding a new era of European golf. From 1985, when the European team would win for the first time in 28 years, until the present
THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND
day, Europe would be victorious 11 times out of the subsequent 16 matches which created huge interest in the Ryder Cup elevating it to what is now one of the leading global sporting events.
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After a post-World War II flourish of tournament golf, by the early 1950s a decrease in the number of events and prize fund distribution greatly concerned the Association’s players.
Tournaments
They demanded a greater say in how tournaments were run, lobbied the Executive for increased representation on the tournament sub-committee and called for the appointment of a tournament manager. Given The PGA derived a large percentage of its income through tournament activity, the players commanded a great deal of economic leverage, and during numerous exchanges with the Executive in 1954 many of their demands would be met. Player power had come to the fore. At the Annual General Meeting of 1958 it was announced that the tournament list for the following season had events scheduled for every week from March to October. Clearly, The PGA regarded tournament golf as extremely important, not only for income it generated for the Association but also as a showcase for the sport. The issue at stake, however, was who was to be in charge of the development of such events. On the one hand the tournament players saw they could gain more by seizing control themselves, demanding more prize money and, indeed, more tournaments, while on the other the Association’s Executive felt they were best placed to take decisions on behalf of all Members. By 1960 pressure built up for change as affluence rather than austerity was now the problem. A number of top players became increasingly vocal in their collective call for greater influence over tournament matters. With perhaps too many tournaments with too little prize money, the players were keen to attract sponsors from the likes of tobacco companies, brewers and distillers, who would be asked to offer a minimum of £2,500 for a 72-hole tournament. They also wanted tournaments to be run by a largely autonomous ‘tournament bureau’ which would appoint a ‘modern thinking businessman as manager’. The PGA had created a fine organisation they concluded ‘but the future will demand a much wider vision, a far more commercial approach than they have been able to provide in the past’.
1954 PLAYER POWER DEMAND MET
From its foundation The PGA had been part of an established craft tradition through which
Assistants and Trainees
an apprentice learned from his ‘master’. Many of the older generation of professionals were highly skilled craftsmen as well as accomplished players. The PGA’s job was to ensure they got the respect and rewards they deserved. The development of a modern system of training that began as a voluntary and makeshift arrangement in the 1960s to an ever more complex and compulsory scheme – with the purpose built ‘Academy’ we have today – is arguably The PGA’s most important achievement. The idea of founding a national training school appears to have originated from a letter sent by Eddie Whitcombe to The PGA Executive in 1936 although Henry Cotton had called for a similar initiative a decade earlier. Whitcombe, who was always keen on training his own assistants took strong exception to the practice of appointing the best tournament player to a good club job, even if the individual had no idea of how to teach or carry out club repairs. However, it would be another 20 years before Whitcombe found himself in a position to effect his proposal as James Braid invited him to attend a PGA Executive Committee to
First female PGA Assistant of the Year Lynn Sweeney (centre) in 1996 with Training Programme founders Reg Cox (left) and Eddie Whitcombe (right)
outline his thoughts in more detail. Together with a number of likeminded senior professionals, he organised the first meeting of a new PGA Teaching Advisory Committee, which took place on January 30th, 1961. Even though the first courses for training assistants held at Llandudno Golf Club were not compulsory, due to the rapid educational expansion in the 1960s, and with a strong emphasis on improving access and broadening vocational qualifications, The PGA was clearly influenced. In 1968 the AGM voted to make training compulsory in order to establish common standards and enhance the profile and reputation of the organisation. The PGA strived to present itself as a body that could pass on disciplined and comprehensive information on how to play golf. It felt the public had to know that when they went to a PGA Professional, they were engaging someone who had been taught and examined by the best teachers available.
1961 A TWENTY YEAR CRUSADE
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The PGA formed a Ladies’ section in March 1962, some 12 years later than their American
The PGA and Women’s Professional Golf
counterparts. The new section, however, did not launch a tournament circuit. Nor were ladies allowed to hold office in The PGA or to vote at meetings unless, of course, the matter concerned their own section. The men did not directly oppose a women’s circuit, they simply thought it was not commercially viable and left it at that. In 1978 the Women’s Professional Golf Association was set up and applied to join The PGA as a ‘region’. This meant the former Ladies’ section of The PGA would be scrapped and the distinction between men and women removed from the constitution. Women professionals would be required to go through the PGA training school and the Association itself would run their tournaments on the ground. After a relatively calamitous venture with an outside agent to source sponsorship, The PGA decided it would undertake that role itself and the ship was steadied. The WPGA tour programme, now under PGA direction, went from strength to strength. Money came pouring in with total prize money for 1985 being £568,00 rising to £710,000 in 1986 which reflected the growing importance of women’s professional golf in Europe. However, this success was not to last. With a change of executive director at The PGA, 1987 was to prove a troubled year for the WPGA with prize money plummeting. Matters came to a head when The PGA, after discussions with the WPGA tabled a restructuring of the organisation. A paper was prepared in November 1987 outlining new arrangements in which the WPGA would become a subsidiary company of The PGA with a seat on the Board. There followed a period of agonised debate within the WPGA. This culminated in a vote in January 1988 to separate from The PGA and go it alone. The vote was 109-8 in favour of leaving and the newly formed organisation was to become the Women Professional Golfers European Tour,
From top: first female PGA
subsequently renamed the Ladies European Tour.
Captain Beverly Lewis ; Women’s US Open champion Alison Nicholas
1962 THE BIRTH OF THE LADY PROFESSIONAL
The first two matches between the club professionals of Great Britain & Ireland and the United States of America were held in America in 1973 and 1974 and they contested the
The PGA Cup
Diamondhead Cup. The Diamondhead Corporation, who owned The Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina, where the first two editions of this Ryder Cup style match were held, sponsored this event. From 1975 onwards the matches were organised by the two PGAs and became known as the PGA Cup. In 1990 the event was opened up to club professionals from continental Europe however, from 1996 onwards the home team has consisted of players from Great Britain & Ireland. The PGA Cup trophy now played for biennially is, in fact, the Llandudno International Golf Trophy. In 1938 Llandudno Council donated this ornate trophy to be contested by the leading players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in a ‘home international match’. It was intended for this to be the forerunner of a series of such matches. Disappointingly, however, the contest was not to be resumed following World War II. As a result, the captain of the winning England team, Percy Alliss, took possession of the trophy and it remained in the Alliss household for a considerable amount of time before being presented to The PGA by Peter Alliss, the son of Percy, to now become the iconic and much admired trophy of the PGA Cup matches.
1975 A BATTLE OF TWO PGA’S
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The year 1976 was a watershed in the history of The PGA. Far from wrecking the Association
The Belfry and the Regions
some of the traditionalists had feared, the split with the tournament players allowed for a far greater degree of specialisation and growth than was envisaged at the time. Nevertheless, a rosy future was far from the minds of the men who met when The PGA Executive Committee assembled on January 12th, 1976 in the wake of the setting up of the Tournament Players Division; there was an air of despondency about the meeting. Having given their agreement to The Belfry relocation late in 1974 and with the tournament players remaining in London, The PGA now had to make the move a success. The shipping company Ellerman Lines came in with Greenall Whitley to raise the initial £3.5 million to build a golf resort and win back the Ryder Cup. In return for agreeing to host the Ryder Cup at this new facility, The PGA got a national headquarters in a prestigious location for next to nothing. In 1975-76 the future scope of The Belfry project was still hard to grasp. The tournament professionals were unwilling to move from London and kept out of the picture. A deal was struck with Accles and Pollock, the shaft manufacturers, to brand The PGA’s new premises in their name ‘Apollo House’ and, in return, they would make funds available to cover the cost of relocation and fittings and furniture. With that last minute deal concluded, the new offices were open for business on January 1st, 1977. Who could have foreseen the success of this Belfry/PGA relationship but fast-forward to September 1998 when Centenary House, the new enlarged PGA office complex officially opened together with a purpose built residential Training Academy within The Belfry grounds.
1976 A WATERSHED MOMENT
A Brief History of The PGA - Timeline IN THE BEGINNING
THE OUTBREAK OF WAR
At the beginning of the 1880s remarkably few people played golf and, with only 111 golf clubs in existence in the British Isles, mostly situated in Scotland, it was a game that was not overly popular. However, the number of courses would double by 1886 and by 1898, astonishingly, the number of clubs would increase to 1,460, with slightly more than half of them now in England - quite an explosion.
World War I began on August 4th, 1914. Golf, like many sports, cancelled its fixtures. The August 19th issue of Golfing announced that all tournaments organised by The PGA were to be abandoned. Financially, this most ghastly of world conflicts would bring strife to The PGA, an organisation that was heavily dependent upon subscription income.
1880’s
1901
1914
THE DAWN OF NEW TECHNOLOGY Steel-shafted clubs had been experimented with on both sides of the Atlantic prior to 1914 but had been declared illegal, even though the relative shortage of hickory, persimmon and other hard woods in post-war America was seen as a threat to the expansion of golf there.
1921
A BAND OF BROTHERS
A RIVALRY BEGINS
It all began following a letter published in Golf Illustrated on April 12th, 1901 in which a professional in north Wales wrote: ‘the time is now ripe for the professionals to band themselves into an association to promote the general welfare of the professional and look after his interests’.
The first international match played between professionals from Great Britain and the United States of America took place on June 6th, 1921 at Gleneagles in Scotland.
1924
1927
THE FIRST 100
1927
PLAYER POWER DEMAND MET
THE BIRTH OF THE LADY PROFESSIONAL
A WATERSHED MOMENT
After a post World War II flourish of tournament golf, by the early 1950s a decrease in the number of events and prize fund distribution greatly concerned the Association’s players. They demanded a greater say in how tournaments were run, lobbied the Executive for increased representation on the tournament sub-committee and called for the appointment of a tournament manager.
The PGA formed a Ladies’ section in March 1962 some 12 years later than their American counterparts. The new section, however, did not launch a tournament circuit. Nor were ladies allowed to hold office in The PGA or to vote at meetings unless, of course, the matter concerned their own section. The men did not directly oppose a women’s circuit, they simply thought it was not commercially viable and left it at that.
The PGA relocates to the newly built £3.5 million Belfry Golf Resort, a national headquarters in a prestigious location in hope of winning back The Ryder Cup.
1954
1961
1962
1975
1976
THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND
A TWENTY YEAR CRUSADE
A BATTLE OF TWO PGA’S
The first Ryder Cup Tournament was held in 1927 at the Worcester Golf & Country Club, Massachusetts where a strong American team prevailed by quite a winning margin.
Together with a number of likeminded senior professionals, Eddie Whitcombe organised the first meeting of a new PGA Teaching Advisory Committee, which took place on January 30th 1961.
From 1975 matches were organised by the two PGAs of America and Great Britain & Irelkand. The PGA Cup was born.
0 YEARS
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