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DEL.ICIO.USUSGA chief born for the job
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Betty Driver can hardly wait for Feb. 9 to get here, when the clock strikes the evening hour of seven. No, it’s not an anniversary, or somebody’s wedding date. It’s the moment she gets her husband back, out of the trenches of the USGA, which stands for the United States Golf Association. Golf, “the gentleman’s game” that evolved into something more ballistic during Walter Driver’s tour of duty in the presidency. Being president of the USGA is the trophy at the end of the well-ordered ascendency of a faithful servant, from board director to general counsel to vice-president in the case of Walter Driver Jr. It’s officiated by the well-bred whose names oftimes begin with an initial, or are concluded with a Jr. or II or III. As in C. Grant Spaeth or James D. Standish Jr. Walter W. Driver Jr. was the perfect fit — especially with his awesome name. On top of that, he was an accomplished player, scratch at the time of induction, and an alumnus of Stanford University, the pipeline which gave us such celebrated golf personages as Lawson Little, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods and Sandy Tatum. It appeared earlier in life that Driver was destined to make his mark with a racquet, not a club. Then he broke his arm and while mending followed the course of so many that led to golf: He took to reading Ben Hogan’s “Five Fundamentals.” His father, a real estate broker in El Paso, deposited him at Stanford, and there he made the golf team. Playing professionally never beckoned. “I saw fellows getting beat who had beaten me, so I turned to law,” and thus to law school at Texas. Arriving in Atlanta, he became a member of the distinguished firm of King & Spalding, but just two years ago switched interests to the investment firm of Goldman Sachs, Southeast manager no less. Twice he won the club championship at Peachtree, the shrine to golf that Bobby Jones inspired. Once he became involved in the USGA it was inevitable that he should eventually rise to the presidency, succeeding as he did a former U.S. Amateur champion, Fred Ridley. He got a forewarning of the storm ahead when at the Open at Shinnecock Hills in 2004 he served as chairman of the competition committee and took the blame for high winds, fractious weather and a course as slick as an interstate. Truth is, he merely represented the membership; two hired staff employees, now departed, were responsible for the condition of the course, Tom Meeks and Tom Moraghan. Driver was a susceptible target, tall, well-constructed and rather handsome in a rustic sort of way. Media were looking for a scapegoat and laid it on him, laced with an overdose of resentment. They haven’t laid off yet, through his two-year presidency. At Oakmont this year, he was unable to arouse a chord of harmony. Bob Verdi, a good man and old friend, wrote of him in Golf World, the “president who can strut even while standing still.” Oakmont members take pride in the cussed toughness of their course, and in the end most every pro joined in. There was still a chorus of writers looking under rugs for reasons to indict the USGA on an unspecified charge, and Walter Driver. In the end, though, Oakmont drew a harmonious response from the competitors, sort of an unofficial gift to the outgoing president. He still has his favorite championship left, the Walker Cup, to be played in Northern Ireland. “That’s a championship I can get teary about,” he said. There have been internal matters that rattled the furniture at the USGA headquarters in Far Hills, N.J. Driver has seen fit to whittle on some of the staff benefits and came to cross swords with Marty Parkes, the senior director of communications. There has been crossfire about equipment standards, whose terminology is like trying to translate something off a cave wall to me. Then there was the matter of travel by private jet, which, as it turned out, was a practice Fred Ridley left behind. On another matter, Driver’s game has suffered. His handicap is now a plus-two. Meanwhile, back at the homestead, Betty Driver counts the days. It’s sort of like the time when the kids, now grown and out, waited to get a glimpse of dad. “Work, work, work,” they would say, “golf, golf, golf, that’s all daddy does.” Reg Murphy, now a resident of Sea Island, preceded Driver in the office 12 years ago. “There are times when you need a steward and there are times when you need to change,” he told Golf World. “Walter is a change agent.” Wonder if they really understand what he’s saying in the media center, or if they’re still wondering “if the USGA can survive Walter Driver?” as Golf World headlined its report.
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