Fred Ridley first drove through the front gate at Augusta National 41 years ago, the U.S. Amateur champion with a letter of invitation to the 1976 Masters.
It was an eventful week. He played with Jack Nicklaus, before tumbling beneath the cut line. And he met the club’s first chairman, the Old-Testament-stern Clifford Roberts, a figure of unquestioned authority at this gathering place of powerful people with modest golf games.
Almost as an apparition, Roberts appeared next to Ridley, while the 23-year-old was surveying the scene from beneath the big oak tree behind the clubhouse. “It kind of startled me,” Ridley remembered. “I thought perhaps I had done something I shouldn’t have.” But, no, the two had a quite pleasant talk, the chairman on one hand underscoring how important the amateur players were to the fabric of the Masters and on the other advising Ridley to do some prep work for that Wednesday’s Par-3 Contest.
When Ridley made the drive up Magnolia Lane on Monday, the view wasn’t so different. But the circumstance certainly was. Now, at 65, he bore the title of Augusta National chairman, the seventh in an 85-year line that began with Roberts.
On his second day on the job, Ridley was still wrapping his arms around what he called, “the greatest honor of my life in golf and one that I will cherish and I accept very seriously.”
Speaking on a teleconference Tuesday, Ridley first performed the ritual task of praising the past.
In the case of Augusta National, that always begins with co-founders Roberts and Bobby Jones. “The only legacy that matters here is the legacy of Mr. Jones and Mr. Roberts. They are the ones that established the mandate of constant improvement, which is going to drive me and my goals as chairman.”
And winds around to his predecessor, the man who hand-picked Ridley as his replacement, Billy Payne. “There’s a saying that it’s amazing how much you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit, and Billy Payne is someone who always points the credit to other people,” Ridley said. “I think that’s what I’ve learned from him, and I’ve been very grateful for those lessons.”
Of the seven to run America’s most famous golf club and its springtime major, Ridley is the first to have actually played in the Masters. Three times in fact, qualifying as a U.S. Amateur champion and Walker Cup team member.
Credit: Augusta National
Credit: Augusta National
Hmmm. He’s a lawyer who steadfastly remained an amateur player – in fact the last U.S. Amateur champion not to turn pro. Any of that sound familiar? That mirrors precisely the background of the great Jones, without the embellishment of a Grand Slam, of course.
Whether that gives Ridley special insight into the inevitable future alterations of the Augusta National course remains to be seen. “I hope the fact that I’ve been a competitive player will be a positive attribute of me being chairman,” Ridley told his hometown Tampa Bay Times last week.
He comes to the job with a wealth of experience in golf and leadership. A Tampa-based attorney, Ridley also served as the president of the United States Golf Association in 2004-05. An Augusta National member since 2000, he was for the past decade the Masters competition (rules) chairman.
In any of his interviews since being named chairman, Ridley has not trafficked in specifics – traditional for the man in that position – about expanding the course or further expanding membership for women and minorities.
When the club recently acquired property from the neighboring Augusta Country Club, that spurred speculation about lengthening the iconic par-5 13th hole. In touching on that topic to the Times, Ridley offered a peek into his willingness to broker change.
“Bobby Jones said something to the effect that a player’s decision to go for the green in two at the 13th hole should be a ‘momentous decision,’” he said. “To me, that’s a pretty defined standard. So, we’re looking at things in that context.”
In style, Ridley has been described as even-keeled, a measured man.
“I think it will be a low-key kind of chairmanship,” Gary Koch told Golf Digest. Koch was a member of the same Florida golf team whose lineup Ridley rarely cracked.
“Fred is very measured in a good way, he seems to be able to handle every situation and handle it with calm and class. I think we’ll see a lot of that,” Koch said.
“I don’t mind people saying that (he’s low-key),” Ridley told The Times, “but I can probably be tougher than you think. If you live your life under the principles you believe in, and you don’t let what might be expedient at the moment get in the way of the decision, then I think you can be at peace.”
“We’re not going to rest on our laurels,” Ridley said Tuesday, striking a most chairman-ly tone. “I’m going to be who I am, but I think you’ll see that there’s lots to do, and that will become more apparent in the coming months, and certainly years, under my chairmanship.”
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