Is it sacreligious to NOT join the USGA?

**FAHooGolfs** · January 10, 2007

I've been a member for a couple of years, but barring 2005 when I was able to secure weeklong tickets to the Pinehurst Open, I haven't really realized any significant benefit.

I just got my renewal notice in the mail today, and while it's only $15, I'm a bit conflicted with respect to whether or not I should re-up. According to the letter, here's what I get for my $15:

- Advance priority for US Open tickets
- Latest edition of "The Rules of Golf"
- the US Open program
- annual subscription to Inside the USGA newsletter
- USGA Championship Annual
- volunteer opps at USGA championships
- special member discounts on USGA Catalog merchandise
- personalized USGA bagtag and window decal
- 2007 US Open hat

With all I have going on this year, I definitely will get very little benefit and/or satisfaction out of any of the "perks." Still, I feel like I owe it to the game of golf to toss in my $15 so the USGA (which I consider one of the only "pure" bodies of golf) may continue to flourish, etc.

So what do you say? Is it sacreligious as a golfer to not join the USGA? Or is this simply another way to get me to spend $15 that might be better spent on a sleeve of pro-v1s?

**NM Golf** · January 10, 2007

I have never joined the USGA and I don't feel a bit bad. I belong to the golf association at my course and with that I am part of the GHIN network. I figure the USGA gets some of that $40 it costs to join so thats good enough. I also play in several events put on by our State Golf Association so they get my money there as well.

**BritBoy** · January 10, 2007

mee too. Never been a member but I do pay the $35 to join the state association so that I can play local tournaments

**cdriver** · January 10, 2007

I have been a member of USGA since the first year I started playing golf. I have been a "Champion's Club" member for about the last 4 years. That costs $50.00. I support them because it is their job to promote the sport and guard the integrity of the game.

I feel the same way about this I do about people who listen to public radio and never pledge their support. If you are going to benefit from the work of this organization, you should at least support them monetarily.

**Norm66** · January 10, 2007

"I feel the same way about this I do about people who listen to public radio and never pledge their support. If you are going to benefit from the work of this organization, you should at least support them monetarily."

In my ignorance I don't know exactly how I (or you for that matter) benefit from the work of the USGA. Care to enlighten me?

**Q.Q.Quillume** · January 10, 2007

No, it's not sacrilegious if you decide you don't want to join the USGA. Let's see, what's a bag tag worth? And why do you need a new one every year? I'm not sure what other "benefits" one gets for the $15, but it's surely not an entitlement that is owed to the USGA.

**cdriver** · January 10, 2007

"I feel the same way about this I do about people who listen to public radio and never pledge their support. If you are going to benefit from the work of this organization, you should at least support them monetarily."

Your state golf association is affiliated with the USGA. They run tournaments for amateurs at a state and national level. They provide training on the game. They establish and monitor the rules of play. They established and run the handicap system along with the course and slope rating system. They provide most of the funding for sanctioned competitions for amateurs around the US. Their only function in life is to promote and nurture the game you care feverently enough about to join a forum devoted to it.

**jrbechthold** · January 10, 2007

I just started golfing last year, but I will be joining the Utah Golf Association, which is affiliated with the USGA. The main reason I am joining is so I can get an official USGA handicap that will allow me to play in local tournaments.
I am also joining for the same reason I am a member of the IMBA and NORBA - associations whose main interest is the promotion and protection of sports I enjoy.

**Hogan Fan** · January 10, 2007

I'm a member and always will be. If not for anything else its good for the new rule book.
I also enjoy the Championship annual!

**pmcarync** · January 10, 2007

I voted "Yes" but I'm not sure if it's absolute 'sacreligous'. As others have said, participation in local clubs helps support the USGA, and that should 'count'.

I do it not so much for the direct benefits (although like Hogan Fan I appreciate the yearly rules book) as I do for the indirect... promotion of the game is a good thing, as is their advice on turf management (our club is about to re-do the greens and are using USGA's advice/recommendations), and their testing/etc. to help fairness in the game... so I think of the benefits beyond 'yet another bag tag' and another 'hat', etc.

**tartanjack** · January 11, 2007

I did some projects for the USGA back in the 80's while P.J. Boatwright was around and Frank Hannigan was still the guy in charge. Television money for what they get for rights to the U.S. Open has, in my opinion, completely corrupted the organization. They have more money than they know what to do with.

Money has bred evil. You can laugh and scoff at the blue bloods who've run the organization for over a century, but at least at their heart they tried to keep the game, at it's roots, pure and amateur.

No more. Let's all welcome American Express as the USGA's new corporate sponsor. Excuse me while I barf. I, as an amateur, can't accept more than $750 in money or merchandise for winning a tournament while my governing body can accept untold millions from a corporate sponsor so their executives can get a pay raise?

I'm sure they don't think they are following Michelle Wie to the money. But they are. As an example, they've closed down the museum in NJ for an indefinite period of time until they can waste untold millions on a museum that over the years they've mismanaged to the point it contains nothing.

Don't get me started. Although, I guess, I already have.

The irony is that I do continue my membership. Have for over 15 or so years now. Stupid. But somehow I feel I owe it to a game that has given me so much over my lifetime. My problem is with the stewardship of my lousy $15 a year.

Dear Mr. Fay: Why do you need my $15 dollars when American Express is paying you at least 100,000 times that? Why bleed me when the spigot flows so much fuller from your corporate hos.

January 11, 2007

Well, it's certainly worth debating, as the USGA sometimes gets a free pass for its venerability. While they do much to promote and defend the game, they do things, as well, to maintain its elitism. In particular, the $125 fee charged for amateur reinstatement (necessary, until recently, even for hacks who accidentally win hole in one prizes) seems like an excessive fee for a "status" invented and controlled only by the entity collecting the fee. Ditto for the fees charged for even populist tourneys, like the Publinx. Golfers of lesser means have no way of competing, as the costs associated with amateur play are significant, while the USGA leaves open no mechanism for the raising of funds, since that would violate the "sanctity" of amateur status. So, perhaps each $15 dues payment should come with a detailed list of demands for modernization and equitability.

**GoingfortheGreen** · January 11, 2007

I guess I'm a member because I think it's the 'right' thing to do. I end up giving away all the stuff they send me - the bag tag I use. I'm hoping that the $ is used to help golfers in need?

I wasn't aware of the fact that I can apply for US Open tickets - you learn something new every day!

***iacas*** · January 12, 2007

I'm a member, and though I recognize that they've become a shell of what they used to be, I'm not quite as bitter about it as Jack is.

**golfchief** · January 12, 2007

A new US open hat, and new rule book is worth the money. Don't you buy at lest one new hat a year? Make it a US open one. The rule book will help you more than hurt you. If you want ryder cup or open tickets your on the top of the list and you get one free ticket to a tournament.

**tartanjack** · January 12, 2007

I'm a member, and though I recognize that they've become a shell of what they used to be, I'm not quite as bitter about it as Jack is.

That's the danger of boards like this. You can really, really, run off at the mouth, or keyboard as it may be. I am bitter because I've seen too much inside stuff. But the rant I posted earlier was a little too extreme.

So, thanks iacas for pointing that out. So here's what I really think: A lot of the TV money and member's dues and income from all the merchandise they sell (ask me sometime about that story re the club pro's at the US Open venues) and, I guess, their new corporate sponsor, do go to helping build the game and staunch the flow of equipment innovation that could change the game. There's is a noble cause and worthy of support. But I guess my earlier point is that all that income, even if it is doing a lot of good, has helped fund an organization bigger than the output of their good deeds might justify. I ask you why it took a separate initiative to start the First Tee organization? Yes the USGA supports the program, but why couldn't they come up with something as far reaching and effective as it on their own? Gosh, I guess I am really, really bitter.

But I will always continue to be a member.

**FAHooGolfs** · January 12, 2007

If you want ryder cup or open tickets your on the top of the list and you get one free ticket to a tournament.

Just FYI, the Ryder Cup is a PGA event. Being a member of the USGA doesn't get you anywhere for the Ryder Cup.

**golfchief** · January 12, 2007

Yep, I also belong to the PGA partners, that's where the open tickets are available from.

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Is it sacreligious to NOT join the USGA?

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1. Is it sacreligious NOT to join the USGA?

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