The Scottish Invasion

by Richard Tufts

1962

Richard Tufts arguably did more for the game of golf than any USGA President in history. An article in the July, 1999 issue of Golf Digest magazine by Frank Hannigan at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HFI/is_7_50/ai_54949042 lists Mr. Tufts' major accomplishments for the game. The following is quoted from pages 87 and 88 Mr. Tufts' 1962 book: �The Scottish Invasion�.

�It was not until 1941 that the USGA took any particular interest in the problem of proper national handicapping. Except for some work on women's handicaps done by the Women's Committee, the Association had struggled along with the old Calkins system which based handicaps on the five best scores as related to the established par of the course. As the interest handicap events grew, various associations established their own systems, those most widely used having very little in common either in the methods used or in the results obtained. In the hope that a standard system could be worked out the Association appointed a handicap committee in 1942 and after years of hard work and some compromise the USGA system has finally become generally accepted as the standard. Again it was the good work of a committee made up from outside the Executive Committee membership which rendered this real service to golf. This change (and other committees) have taken place because an Executive Committee of fifteen men has looked at the game of golf and has decided that the game would be better able to serve the people of America if certain things were done. The leadership has come from those who serve in a voluntary capacity but little of this could have been accomplished without the able management of the staff at Golf House led by the young reporter who came to the Association at the opening of this period, Joseph C. Dey, Jr., Executive Director of the United States Golf Association.�