By Steve Eubanks
If the next 10 months progress as expected, the R&A and USGA will field a lot fewer questions on the Rules of Amateur Status. And the amateur game likely will look a lot different.
Last week, the organizations floated a joint proposal to take the arduous, legalized rules governing who is and who is not an amateur, and boil them down to two pages – and, really, three simple rules:
Everybody else remains an amateur if they so choose.
That means, if a high-level amateur wants to appear in television ads for balls, clubs, shirts, shoes, watches or anything else, he or she is welcome to do so while retaining amateur status.
“The promotion and advertising rule that we have today, probably more than anything, led us to this review,†Craig Winter, the USGA’s senior director of rules and amateur status, told GGP. “When you talk about the need to modernize these rules, that was a big part of what we were looking at. Whatever might have happened in this review, something needed to change with where we are relative to promotion and advertising.â€
“One of our main goals was to make the rules easier to understand. We carried that into this review. The complexity the Rules of Golf carried over into Amateur Status and that doesn’t help the golfer or the golf administrator."
CRAIG WINTER
Close followers will recall the controversy a couple of years ago when Lucy Li – then an accomplished junior amateur and a celebrity since becoming the youngest qualifier for the 2013 U.S. Women’s Amateur at age 10 and the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at 11 – showed up unexpectedly in an ad for the Apple Watch. Intense discussions and passionate debate followed. The USGA passed on issuing sanctions, accepting Li’s apology and moving on with only a warning.
At that point the handwriting was on the wall. Between social-media influencers – a flock of people who receive compensation for posting trick shots or breaking into spontaneous dance moves on the golf course – and players such as Tony Romo, who stars in golf shoe ads but continues to play competitive amateur events, the old Rules of Amateur Status no longer apply.
The question is: What does the game under the new rules look like?
“One of our main goals was to make the rules easier to understand,†Winter said. “We carried that into this review. The complexity the Rules of Golf carried over into Amateur Status and that doesn’t help the golfer or the golf administrator. The ultimate result we are proposing is a complete lift (on the advertising, image and likeness portion of the amateur code). We’re proposing that there be no sponsorship-related rules, whether you’re an influencer or you’re actively looking for sponsors to help you with your game.â€
That means reigning U.S. Amateur champion Tyler Strafaci conceivably could have his name imprinted on a brand of golf clubs and still compete as an amateur. There is some precedent for that kind of thing, although it goes back awhile. In the 1930s, A.G. Spalding and Bros. company crafted a popular line of Robert T. Jones Jr. clubs, some of the first with steel shafts painted brown to resemble hickory and therefore to not scare away too many good players. For 90 years, Bobby Jones’ name and likeness has continued to adorn everything from golf clubs and clothing to bourbon and even a golf management company. The Jones Trust, managed by Jones’ grandson, Dr. Bob Jones IV, continues to license his name and image, even though he remains recognized as the greatest amateur of all time.
That has always been the rub. Because the R&A and USGA didn’t want to revoke Jones’ amateur status officially (even after he did a film instructional series for Warner Bros. studios), the ruling bodies created the nomenclature “non-professional†to describe him.
No such semantics will be necessary under the new rules. And throughout much of the world, this isn’t seen as a problem.
“It’s a positive and it’s been long coming, to be honest,†said Peter McEvoy, arguably the greatest English amateur in history and someone who has been intimately involved in the selection of the GB&I Walker Cup teams for decades. “Our amateur game has been a bit more precarious. Players are turning pro younger and younger. In the Amateur Championship, for example, the median age is going down and down. People turn pro young because of finances and the vast majority are not very successful (as professionals). So, what’s happening is droves of young people are dedicating themselves to golf, turning pro at a young age, and (when they don’t succeed) leaving golf altogether. It’s an unhealthy situation.
“Being in charge of the Boys Under-18 Championship for 10 years, the standards have gone way up. To be competitive, even at a junior level, you have to be a full-time golfer.â€
“The situation is slightly different on either side of the Atlantic because of the college golf system. “While some of our amateurs go to the states to play in college, it’s not a huge concern over here.â€
PETER McEVOY
This proposed change helps those kids and their families. It would no longer be a violation of amateurism for a young person to get a local pub to sponsor his travel for the summer. The business owner could even deck the player out in logoed clothing and put a sign on the golf bag.
“All the way back in late 2017, we were looking at a complete lifting of this (name and likeness) rule,†Winter said. “We talked to several other institutions and intimated that this was the direction that we were going to go. Yes, it raised some eyebrows but obviously a lot has happened regarding name, image and likeness in our country since then.
“We know that there are going to be people who look at an amateur at the top level of the game and are surprised by what they are able to do. But we also see that at the lower level. There are so many golfers that want to play but who can’t afford it, or their families need some assistance. So, whether it’s an influencer or someone just walking into their parents’ employer and saying, ‘Can you help?,’ it was always a difficult rule to administer and follow. Ultimately, that’s the reason we went in this direction. We knew we needed to change something. This is the one.â€
Indeed, the local bank sponsoring the best junior golfer in town will be a positive, particularly if the parents aren’t wealthy. Junior golf is insanely expensive. An elite junior and amateur schedule can easily start as high as $15,000, the price of a modest new car. And that’s traveling on a tight budget.
You can expect to see a lot of GoFundMe pages when these changes are adopted. But you can also expect something more. One senior executive from a leading equipment manufacturer told GGP: “Money is going to flow where it has never flowed before. So, we will see.â€
With that money will come those who want a piece of it. One well-known sports agent was apoplectic when informed of the proposed changes. “Did the USGA and R&A actually talk to anybody first?†he asked rhetorically. “This is terrible. You’re going to have agents recruiting middle-school kids. And what if those kids lose interest or simply don’t pan out to be as good as expected? They now have an agent, which is a huge NCAA violation.â€
The R&A and USGA hold no sway over the NCAA, which is facing its own NIL reconciliation process. Last Monday, briefs were filed in the Supreme Court of the United States in NCAA v. Alston, a case involving former West Virginia football player Shawn Alston that could redefine amateurism for all college athletes. At stake is whether NCAA eligibility rules regarding compensation of student-athletes violate federal antitrust law. But until that case is decided, the collegiate lords of Indianapolis will still wield a large and capricious stick when it comes to eligibility.
Outside of the NCAA’s reach, if the top-ranked players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking want to star in an apparel ad or have entry fees and travel paid for by an insurance company, more power to them.
“The situation is slightly different on either side of the Atlantic because of the college golf system,†McEvoy said. “While some of our amateurs go to the states to play in college, it’s not a huge concern over here.â€
Stephen Hamblin, the executive director of the American Junior Golf Association, remains cautious.
“In many ways, it’s good,†Hamblin said of the proposed rule changes. “My concern is the gap between where the R&A and USGA are and where the NCAA is. Hopefully, things change, and that gap is narrowed.â€
Gregg Grost, executive director of the Golf Coaches Association of America, believes that this might be the push the NCAA needs. “The changes are wonderful, logical, fantastic,†Grost said. “The USGA and R&A did it right.â€
Oklahoma State men’s golf coach Alan Bratton agrees: “I think the NCAA is moving in the right direction. It would be easier and better if the NCAA deferred to the R&A on amateurism.â€
“We know that at the very top end of the elite amateur game, players are not left wanting for much,†Winter said. “What we hope to accomplish is to help democratize that to the lower end of the game. We know that it’s not cheap to advance to even a sub-elite level. This is going to make those conversations much easier.â€
The R&A and USGA hope to have the new rules approved in May. They would become effective in January 2022.
Oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the case of NCAA v Alston are scheduled for March 31.
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