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It seemed inevitable that Joe Turnesa Jr. (henceforth referred to affectionately as “Joe T.”) would work in the golf industry. His grandfather, Mike Turnesa Sr., a farmer from Italy, found work early on in this country helping build Fairview Country Club in Elmsford, New York. When the course construction was completed, Mike Turnesa Sr. would become Fairview’s golf superintendent for the next 50 years.
Mike Turnesa Sr. and his wife, Anna, had nine children, including seven sons who followed their father into the golf industry. Son Joe Sr. (Joe T.’s dad) won 14 PGA Tour events and finished second to Bobby Jones at the 1926 U.S. Open; son Jim won the 1952 PGA Championship, was a Ryder Cup team member and played professionally for more than 20 years; son Mike finished runner-up to Ben Hogan in the 1948 PGA Championship during a 10-year tour career before serving as the head professional at Knollwood Country Club in Elmsford, New York; son Phil was the head professional at Elmwood Country Club in White Plains, New York, for more than 50 years; son Frank was the longtime head professional at the Metropolis Country Club in White Plains, New York; and brother Doug Turnesa was the head professional at Briar Hall Country Club in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The seventh son, Willie, won two U.S. Amateurs and one British Amateur, and was the captain of the 1951 Walker Cup team.
Following graduation from Georgetown University, Joe T. began his career at U.S. Rubber, which was an industry force at that time (with the U.S. Royal golf ball). Shortly thereafter, in 1964, Joe T. began his Titleist career with then-West Coast distributor Curly Bates, and Joe T. was given the thankless task of representing Titleist in then-barren but soon-to-become golf-rich Southern California. In the late 1960s, Joe T. joined the company directly as the Titleist golf ball sales representative for metropolitan New York. In his time as a sales representative Joe T.’s performance was exemplary. It was also during this time as a Titleist sales representative that Joe T. was instrumental in the adoption of the Titleist White Coat being worn by the company’s sales representatives when working a PGA Tour event. The White Coat would stand out amongst the crowds so professionals competing each week could find the local Titleist sales representative on site and receive their chit for three dozen golf balls to be distributed directly from the pro shop. Titleist did not have – and has never had – tour select product.
Entering the decade of the 1970s, the company and the Titleist golf ball were on a roll. The Titleist K2A golf ball enjoyed a 70 percent ball count on the U.S. PGA Tour. The company had introduced the hugely successful Titleist AC-108 iron, the first iron to feature the use of tungsten – and then the headwinds appeared. The oil crisis of 1972 darkened the prospects of the golf industry. The company introduced a new golf ball to the market that had not been thoroughly tested and then the company’s founding families made a decision to seek a buyer in order to redeem their equity positions.
In less than 18 months, Titleist’s golf ball counts on the U.S. PGA Tour were between 30 and 40 percent. The Wilson, Hogan and Maxfli golf balls were seen by many to be superior to the Titleist golf ball. In 1975, Joe T. was approached by then-president and general manager Bill Bommer and asked to become the first full-time Titleist player promotion manager. Joe T. would serve in this position for the next 25 years.
There were weeks on tour from 1975 to 1978 when business life could be best described as a living hell. Visits to events such as Hilton Head and the Colonial Invitational produced, at best, dead heat ball counts and frequently golf ball count defeats. There were times during these years when Joe T. was the solitary outpost doing “hand-to-hand combat” with the deep-pocketed sources of Wilson, Hogan and Maxfli.
Working with golf ball research and development, Joe T. helped bring both the Titleist Pro Trajectory and Titleist Low Trajectory golf balls to the tour and the marketplace. And it was Joe T. who would design and administer the first Titleist pool program for Titleist golf ball users on the PGA Tour. By 1980, the ball counts were back in the 60 percent range and by 1982, Wilson, Hogan and Dunlop were in full retreat. With product and people, Titleist and Joe T. had regained promotion momentum.
The early 1980s were days of Titleist in control. Ball count indexes were in excess of 70 percent and time was available to introduce both the Titleist bag and cap visibility program, as well as the first Titleist golf club program on tour. While credit goes to Amana for its pioneering efforts with headwear on tour, it was Joe T. who awakened the golf industry to the impact and value of the weekend visor or cap television exposure. Some of us even remember the early days when Larry Rinker wore our visor in the next-to-last pairing of the 1982 U.S. Open third round – and he did it for free. Everything that was accomplished during those frugal days was a direct result of Joe T.’s tireless bird-dogging and intense personal relationships with the players.
Our corporate history will show that Joe T.’s involvement with our golf club efforts on tour from 1982 to 1986 with players such as Hal Sutton, Payne Stewart, Corey Pavin, Steve Jones, Brad Faxon, Billy Ray Brown, Steve Elkington, Mark Wiebe and Andrew Magee, to name but a few, reinforced and added to Joe T.’s reputation to identify the soon-to-be shooting star.
During his 25 years in player promotion it is estimated that Joe T. logged more than 2 million miles representing the company with the finest players in the game. Joe T. was not just a player promotion expert, but he became a key member of the Titleist golf ball research and development team as well as the quality assurance team. Joe T. defined golf authenticity, but more importantly his passion for the product, for the process, and for the people, resulted in him being seen as the personification of the Titleist culture of excellence.
As the gold standard of someone who committed his life to personal excellence, Joe Turnesa Jr. is a founding member of the Titleist Hall of Fame. Anyone with the Acushnet company today owes much to this man who gave his life for the company, the product, the process and the people.
Wally Uihlein is former president and chief executive officer of Acushnet Holdings, now a member of its board of directors and a special advisor to the chairman.