It is a beautiful large and heavy book: 12 1/2" x 9 1/2" and 1 1/2" thick and about weighs at least three pounds (or am I getting too old and weak?).
Coincidentally, the "Drive, Chip & Putt" is organized by the PGA of America in collaboration for Augusta National. I don't know -probably will never know-, if it was the idea of the brass at Augusta National, or, if someone from the PGA of America approached Augusta National with the idea. No matter who gets credit for this, I ended up enjoying the show much better with one of the three copies on my lap. I felt proud to be part of the PGA of America. I wish this had started 30 years ago, I now both of my golfing daughters would have had a chance to be there, especially Anya, probably the best golfer my family has had. Anyway, there is no regret there. It is what it is, and I am happy that it happened in my lifetime.
The book opens with a statement that "a small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history", and, as far as the PGA of America, those words have proven to be prophetic, not just an inspirational quote. This opening made me reflect that, like the other 28,000 members, I am just a small part of a big picture, and all I can aspire is to do my part and do it as well as I can: I asked myself, "how much have I contributed to the whole picture? How much have I inspired others, young or old to play the game? To respect the game and its integrity? Its traditions? Its history?
The PGA of America started with just a few members who wanted to play professional golf, and it evolved into something truly big.
We are the ones who get to implement the rules of golf as set by the USGA, teach and and promote the game by having direct contact with the public, and in more cases than not, help manage facilities that spread the joy of the game in small or large communities. In many ways, PGA Professionals are "the face of golf" because they are entrusted with representing the game at all levels as well as preserving the traditions, and it all comes down to direct communication with the average golfer.
Not everything that this organization has done has been popular or right, but it was always done with the growth of golf in mind. For instance, until 1961, there was a "caucasian only" rule that kept several to be greats in the game from showing their skills, most notably a man that I met in 1973 in Guadalajara, Mexico by the name of Charlie Sifford, who won the Raleigh Cup Series in Mexico that year. He was 51 then, and almost past his prime when the PGA changed the rules for the 1962 season.
A few years later, there was a dispute between the brass of the PGA of America and the golfers who played for a living, but didn't hold a job at a club. That is when the PGA split in two entities.
After dropping out of college from Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas (now Texas A&M of Kingsville) in 1975, I went to work for IASSA, a company that built golf courses in Mexico. After one year of working for them, I turned pro in the summer of 1976, just so I could accept a job offer to become the head professional at Club De Golf Palma Real in Ixtapa, Mexico, a club designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., and also the course I had helped build the previous 12 months (I was in charge of installing and testing the irrigation system).
Looking back, I was really lucky in getting this job. Perhaps fate put everything together. first was the "having the right contacts" issue that was well taken care of (I had worked for the company that built the course, and had had the opportunity to meet everyone on both sides, including Robert Trent Jones Jr., the architect, on whom somehow I had made a positive impression); second, because the same company that built the course would manage its operations and we already knew each other; third, I was bilingual and this was a resort course which required a person who could understand most tourists; and fourth, and most important, because the guys (Mexican Department of Tourism) who hired me, did not have a clue what to expect from from a golf professional other than thinking that having the reputation of being a good player, having played some college golf, and speaking English was all you needed to be their golf professional.
How wrong they were, but I am glad they thought that way. I turned "pro" in 1976 by paying a $200 fee to the Mexican PGA and by answering a short questionnaire about the rules of golf, something a high schooler who played golf could have answered.
Once on the job, I realized that I was way over my head. Fortunately, I realized that I could turn that ignorance and the knowledge of it, into an advantage, so, before I was caught off guard by something I had not faced, I began reading as much as I could, about golf (a more in depth knowledge of the rules, tournaments, merchandising, the area where I was, a little history and books of greats). It paid off. Necessity is the mother of invention... my "invention" was to contact different professionals, other than Jack Mann to check things that worked or didn't.
One year after taking the job fate intervened again. We hosted a Pro-Am and I invited a man by the name of Jack Mann to help me do a golf clinic. I've heard of him and his reputation was the best. After he gave the clinic and I translated for him, we had dinner and struck a nice conversation and a lasting friendship based on our love for the game.
He inspired me in some ways I had not thought about. He told me that I knew more about golf than all the pros he had dealt with, about rules and etiquette and history. Then he added: "if you really want to realize your potential as a golf professional, you must find a way to move to the USA and join the PGA of America". I did have a way. My family had moved to Brownsville, Texas in the late 40's and all of us had "Legal Resident Alien" status (a "green card"), and, in addition, my wife was an American citizen. I just wasn't sure I would be received as an immigrant, so, that move that thought, would have to wait.
Jack was a "quarter-century" member of the PGA of America (now I am too, in fact, this year will be my 30th anniversary of having earned my card) and he was really proud of his membership and what the PGA had taught him over the years. Together we started started a "PGA School" to help other professionals get more knowledge, but we had no takers and our quest soon died.
In 1978 I was offered a much better paying job closer to Mexico City, where we stayed two years before a terrible tragedy in which my wife and I lost rent firstborn, Jan Michael Angela, just two months short of her third birthday. This was March of 1980. After the funeral, we took our second girl on a mourning trip to El Paso, Texas to visit my sister and her husband for a week, where no one would call us (this was the era of no cell phones).
One day, I went to play golf at Santa Teresa Golf & C.C. where I met a very nice banker, Mr. Young (I don't remember his first name, as I always called him Mr. Young, but as it turned out, he was the younger brother of famous banker, Sam Young). Mr. Young also had a traveling agency and said that if I came back to El Paso, we could possibly do some business together booking golf trips.
A month and a half later, my wife and I sold everything we had and moved to El Paso, TX. I first took a job as an assistant pro at Santa Teresa and struck a great relationship with Fred Atkins, the head PGA pro there, who began to inspire me to not do the travel agency trips, and to stay in the program to earn my card. None of the experience I had counted as "credits" for my PGA card and I had to start the program from the very beginning, but between the memory of the conversations with Jack Mann and now with Fred Atkins, I decided it was worth the effort. I had been a golf professional for six years now, and as far as a career as a PGA professional, I had to start all over again.
In 1982 I moved to Gallup, NM and after working as "non-member" head professional for four years, and attending all of the required seminars and business schools, and passing all of the necessary tests (real tests, not like the one page test I had "aced" in 1976), I became a PGA Professional in June of 1986. In fact, to my knowledge, I was the first non-American citizen to earn a PGA card through the rigorous process of apprenticeship, and not through the Tour, who gave PGA memberships to those who earned a PGA Tour card (I became an American Citizen in September of 1988).
After becoming a PGA member, my first call outside my family was to Fred Atkins, who had helped me get in the PGA of America's Apprentice Program; and the second went to Jack Mann (who was hard to track down) but finally did, through a friend of his in Mexico City. Now here I am, a 30 year PGA Member in good standing.
Like everything else, 100 years, a century, makes a lot of difference. At first, golf professionals had better jobs if they did well in tournaments. With time, golf professionals started learning more and more about business, and teaching, and now managing and leading. In the late 60's, the PGA of America split in two entities, one, the teaching and local professional group, and the second one, what is now called the PGA Tour.
Many of us have had dreams of playing golf for a living, but only a few can do that. I had found that out in 1977 when I played nine holes with the late Seve Ballesteros who was five years my junior and was yet to be the famous golfer he became: we played the same nine holes, at the same time, with the same weather and same brand of ball (a Titleist balata). He shot 29 and I shot 35, and had played my best golf ever in this course that would host the Mexican Open and I could not even dream of a 29, let alone produce it. It was an eye opener that forced me to seek more knowledge in the things I could do as a golf professional at a club.
During my 40 years as golf professional and 30 as a member of the PGA of America, I have acquired knowledge of many things (I specialized in Tournament Management, Rules and teaching) and have had many great days, and have many great stories in my memory bank, and I know that every day I learn something new, and I hope I can inspire young and adult golfers to appreciate the game and the other people who play it.... but there is still much to learn, in fact, right now I can think of three things I need to learn:
1.- How to nicely tell a proud parent that his son WILL NOT be the next Jordan Spieth
2.- How to tell members without angering them, that their group is HOLDING UP OTHERS, and,
3.- How to tell someone that playing in his pajamas (or similar, like a striped shirt and checkered pants of different color) is not good "golf fashion".
Any ideas will be welcomed... Have a Great Day!
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