Yesterday I found myself trapped on the last row of a 737 flying from San Diego to Salt Lake City. There was no convenient way to get to my regular reading material. The March 2005 issue of Golf Digest was readily at hand, so life wasn't all that bad.

I've been a long time subscriber to Golf Digest and had scanned this issue. But during the flight there was something like 2 hours to kill and one magazine (at least if you don't count the Delta inflight mag) to read. I hate idle time. My mind is built for input. I tore through and at least glanced at each and every page.

Near the end of the flight I started a rather lengthy interview of former PGA commissioner Deane Beman. Beman retired 10 years ago. It's amazing to think about a man who was in the center of golf elite and then just walked away.

I first became aware of Beman in the mid eighties. He was a controversial figure. Articles were written about questionable actions that seemed to put his job in jeopardy. He did things like fine the players for breaking rules. He also was responsible for the development of TPC courses, the Tournamant Players Championship and a well publicized law suit involving Ping and square-grooved irons. I wasn't much interested in Beman and thought he was just arrogant and shallow. I hadn't thought much about Beman over the past decade and would still hold that opinion had I not read the article. And I probably would never have read the article were it not for the circumstances of my flight. It's a fortunate thing. It was a good interview filled with several fine management lessons.

Without going into boring detail I'll just say that Beman had clear reasons for taking the actions he did. He went up against greats of the game like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer and prevailed. History has vindicated Beman's actions. And, most importantly, when he walked away he did so without any regrets. He says that he has no criticisms of the current commish, Tim Finchem. He rarely talks to Finchem.

I now realize that Mr. Beman is a class act and a fine manager. The article is worth the time and is insightful. Of course, it probably would help to have some idea of what happened in professional golf over the past few decades...........
9:34:39 PM    comment []