NOTE: This is the full transcript of an interview with new USGA president Mark Newell that appeared in the March-April 2018 issue of Virginia Golfer magazine.
By Chris Lang
McLean’s Mark Newell is a VSGA member at two private clubs—Robert Trent Jones Golf Club and Army Navy Country Club. But Newell’s golf roots are decidedly more muni than country club.
“I got into the game as a regular, recreational player on public golf courses,” Newell said. “I didn’t belong to a club. No one in my family played golf—I played football, baseball and basketball in high school. But I went out in the summertime and hacked around a bit and came to love it.
“I never really got the bug to play until later on, when I was near 40. … I became one of those early-morning, Saturday morning golfers who joined a group of people that played together for almost 20 years. My strongest memories was how playing together strengthened our friendships. I think I’ve played 60 courses in the metropolitan D.C. area within an hour of my house. We were on the munis and the daily-fee courses, just always having a great time.”
From those roots, a deep love of the game developed. Newell was formally elected as the USGA’s 65th president at the organization’s annual meeting in Florida in February, succeeding Diana Murphy in that role. A eight-year member of the USGA executive committee, Newell took time to answer questions about his background, his work on the revamped Rules of Golf, and his vision for golf’s immediate future.
VG: How does your background, having grown up playing more public-course than private-club golf, shape the way you approach your work for the USGA?
MN: I think it helps me have a perspective, and it’s certainly a part of what the USGA is all about. We need to make sure to take care of the entire game of golf. A lot of what we do with our championships, a lot of the focus that we have in terms of rules changes, has to do with the elite game, elite amateur golf. And for good reason. But as a governing body and as a leader in the sport, our role is to take care of everyone who plays the game and to make it a great game. We pride ourselves on helping to create a single set of Rules of Golf for everybody who plays, everywhere in the world, all forms of play, from beginners to experts at all stages of life. I do think I bring an understanding of what it’s like for that common golfer who is out there in a way that might seem less serious in one sense. They’re not playing for great trophies in highly public competitions. But it’s quite serious in another sense because we all love that competition with our buddies, or that time out there with our friends and family.
VG: What drew you into volunteering for the USGA?
MN: Again, a little different than many at the USGA. I was an avid follower and player of the game, and I read a lot about the history. I had some books about the rules. But I was not a long-term USGA volunteer. I got involved as I came into the executive committee, first as the volunteer general counsel and then on the committee itself. I quickly became really passionate about what can be contributed by volunteers. I was in awe of people who had given decades of their lives to this and made it a focal point of their experience. So I got involved because it seemed like it would be a really good way to give back. I quickly found myself on the Rules of Golf committee and helped to lead major initiatives on Rules modernization and the world handicap system, and I’ve worked in most areas that the USGA is involved with. And now many years later, I’m still just as in awe of the great volunteers that we have all across this country.
VG: What’s been the most challenging and satisfying aspect of the undergoing the massive Rules overhaul that is set to take place at the beginning of 2019?
MN: It’s been a tremendous privilege and opportunity to do that. The biggest challenge was to create the opportunity for a group of us from the Rules of Golf committee along with those who have been heavily involved in the past, like the professional tours, to have the time to ask ourselves the hard questions. What was most challenging in this project—and most rewarding—is that we went back to basics. We studied the history of every single rule. We learned a lot that helped us along the way. Many things that we thought had been unchanged for hundreds of years actually had changed many, many times along the way. We were able to identify the core principles of the game. That was a fundamental point. We might look at changing a lot of rules, but we’re not changing the essence of the game. We’re not changing the principles of the game. Doing that, and allowing ourselves to ask the question, would this help the game for this to be different? Do we need this technicality? Do we need this complexity? Do we need that penalty? Are there things that fit the way golf is played now and in the future that would be a little bit better? We were able to, over the course of six years, to have that discussion over a long enough period of time and then take it out to the public and get a lot of great feedback.
VG: What are the biggest responsibilities that go into being the president of an organization like the USGA? How have you prepared to undertake this role?
MN: The responsibilities are substantial. An important piece of it is to understand what our roles are. This organization is led by the chief executive officer Mike Davis and his leadership team and the entire staff. They’re the full-time employees and the experts, and they manage this organization. The role of the president—and our executive committee, all of whom are volunteers—is to provide strategic direction, to provide oversight, and to work with them to give them all the support and resources they need to accomplish our many objectives. I’ve spent a lot of time learning about various areas. I particularly worked closely with Diana Murphy, and she helped me get up to speed and understand what we’re doing here. I’ve had a very close working relationship with this entire leadership team and many of those on the staff. For me, the most important part is to identify our objectives and make sure we carry out our initiatives. There’s a lot that we’ve put on our plate, a lot of things that we think can be done to make this game better. Our goal as the executive committee, and my goal is president, is make sure we help to do that.
VG: How do you see the relationship between the USGA and Allied Golf Associations (the VSGA is one) evolving?
MN: We think it’s going to be a terrific thing for golf, golf courses and all golfers. And it will help both the associations and the USGA serve them better. This was done to try to better organize the way our state and regional golf associations serve the game throughout the country. Our goal was to make sure that each of the 59 Allied Golf Associations was a full-service organization that accomplishes all of the things that we’re looking for from them. And also that we have a very strong communication on an ongoing basis with them so that we can make sure that we do all that we can to support them. So it’s a great new thing for us, we believe. We have many other golf associations, state and regional, throughout the country that will continue to perform important services to the game. Nothing that we’re doing here is intended to reflect anything but our continued support for them as well. Focusing on these 59 will allow us really to do a better job of serving those core customers of ours—the golf clubs, the golf courses and the golfers.
VG: What kinds of initiatives will you push during your term as president?
MN: For one, a number of things that are already underway. We had put together a list of strategic objectives years ago, and we have a lot of multi-year projects and initiatives. What we’ve been trying to do is to make sure we’re organized and keep those moving and that we have full continuity going forward. Two of the obvious examples are Rules modernization and the world Handicap system. (In early March) we expect to announce the final Rules of Golf for 2019, which will reflect some changes from what we proposed last March based, I might add, on terrific feedback from the golf community. We found that the process of publishing the draft Rules, creating a good period to allow people to comment on them and ask questions and voice concerns was very helpful to us. The final Rules will even be more improved. But we have a great deal to do this year to educate everyone. The World Handicap System is something we’ve been working on for five years. We’re close to having that ready to put in place so that the work can be done for it to go live in 2020. With the new Allied Golf Organizations, we recognize that having put that arrangement in play, the work has only just begun. We now need to make good on the great potential and promise of those enhanced relationships by working very closely to get the right communication and mutual support in place. And another initiative that we’re very focused on is the footprint of golf courses and the challenges for the industry going forward, both economically and environmentally. Mike Davis has talked about it a lot recently, and we’ve been focused on it heavily. It really goes to a variety of issues, from the constant lengthening of courses as related to the issue of distance; to the use of water and other resources; the issues related to government regulation. In the end, it does really come back to the golfer in terms of the cost to run a facility, and therefore, the cost for the golfer to play. And there are even some of the enjoyment things like pace of play that are related to golf-course footprint. Those are all the types of initiatives that I’m excited about … finishing up the ones that are near fruition and focusing hard on the ones that have a good ways to go. And on top of that, putting on fabulous championships, which we hope to continue to do, as 2018 certainly has a wonderful, wonderful schedule of great sites on both the Open and Amateur sides. We’re going to have the special fun of putting on a great new championship with the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club in July.
VG: Where do you see the game of golf heading in the next five or 10 years?
MN: I don’t know that I have a better crystal ball than anyone else. I probably think of this in two ways. One, an essential part of our role is to continue to preserve what’s best about the game—the spirit of competition and the great spirit of sportsmanship that comes with the game. Continuity of the principles of play under the Rules and making sure that golf remains golf going forward. At the same time, we know the world has changed a lot. People have much less time. They’re very focused on technology. They do many different things, and we need to make sure golf adapts to fit the interests of people coming up. That obviously means a focus on shorter rounds, or nine-hole rounds. We have our Play9 campaign that has been highly successful. That may evolve into trying to make sure courses are more flexible than even that in supporting new ways to experience what golf is. I think things like TopGolf have been a great thing for this sport. It’s helped to introduce people to what it’s about and, ultimately, make some people golfers. In that sense, it’s really adaptability. We need increase the diversity and inclusivity of the game. We need to help more juniors get playing. It’s figuring out how to fit golf into busy lives, and figuring out how to fit golf-course footprints into communities. All of these things are about adaptability so that golf, as the great sport as it’s been for 600 years, continues to grow and adapt as the world changes.