USGA, PGA & PGATOUR... ALL DIFFERENT

I often get the question "Are we going to play by PGA Rules?", my answer usually is "no, we are playing by USGA Rules", which in turn, brings this weird look in the people's faces; like, "who's the 'USGA' anyway? I thought pros played by PGA Rules!" Don't feel bad, chances are that unless you have gone to USGA Rules Seminars, and/or played in state or national championships, you probably do not know the difference.; nor do you know which organizations are in charge of what. Now, knowing the difference will not help your handicap, but it would help your golf IQ. Absolutely no offense meant, but when talking about golf, you'll at least know that the PGA Tour does not organize the U.S. Open, even though it will most likely be won by one of it's members, and, you'll also know that the PGA of America has no "say so" in the PGA Tour. So, here is a short version of the world's ruling bodies: Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Scotland: The oldest golf organization in the world. The first one to have written a set of rules -originally only 13- to play the game by. They organize what many call the "British Open", but what they officially call "The Open Championship", they also rule the "British Amateur" and "British Women's Open". With the exception of Canada, USA and Mexico, the whole world plays golf by their Rules (which are the same as the USGA Rules with a few minor exceptions of what is allowed by "local rules"). They do not have "professionals only" events; they either have "amateur" tournaments or "open" tournaments, which means that either amateurs or professionals can play in these. United States Golf Association (USGA): The second oldest golf organization in the world, and in turn, the oldest in the United States. Pretty much the same as older sister above. They write the rules of golf for this part of the world (same as the ones above). Both, the PGA Tour and PGA of America abide by the Rules of Golf as published and interpreted by the USGA; when one of us PGA Professionals around the country have a doubt about the interpretation or application of a rule, we call the USGA representatives in our geographical section to get an answer. Like "big sis", the USGA organizes national championships for amateurs, or, "open" tournaments (open to amateurs and professionals), thus, they organize the U.S. Open, the U.S. Women's Open and the U.S. Senior Open; all of which can be entered by amateurs and where professionals are not restricted. Such a tournament identifies the best golfer in that category, professional or amateur (which now days, it will most likely be a professional). But, they also organize all of the national amateur championships that you can think of: U.S. Men's Amateur (as its name says, it is only for amateurs), the U.S. Senior Amateur, the Junior Amateur, the U.S. Amateur Pub-Links, the Mid Amateur. All of these have their female counterparts (U.S. Women's Amateur, etc). Qualifying for one of these is an honor, winning it, well, lets see: the winner and runner up of the U.S. Amateur are automatically invited the The Masters and the U.S. Open; same with the women's side; same with the winners of the Mid Amateur and the Pub-Links; which are also invited to the U.S. Amateur as well. In other words, the USGA is for all of you, the amateurs, but it also recognizes that the "open" tournaments will identify the best player in the world in that category. The PGA of America: Founded in 1916, it is the second oldest golf organization in the country, and it is an organization for golf professionals only. In the beginning, the PGA of America ruled the professional tour. If you were a pretty good player, you pretty much had a pretty good job at a famous course. As the number of courses begun to increase, and the number of professionals playing the tour, it -the tour- begun being a lot more work than anticipated and a "commissioner" was named. A few years after, the Tour (tournament players) separated from the PGA of America and formed their own association as by then, most tour players could make a living without a club job, and, as a matter of fact, if you were a tour player and had a club job, you probably did not have enough time to practice. The PGA of America owns -organizes- the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup (when played in America) and now is the nucleus of 28,000 professionals who teach, organize and manage golf operations. PGA Tour: The youngest and the richest. Since 1974, when Dean Beaman became the commissioner in 1974, the PGA Tour has grown to unlimited heights. The PGA Tour owns over 1.5 in assets, and making more. Today's tour plays for somewhere around $200,000,000 a year! The PGA Tour is only for professionals who make a living at playing golf, not at managing courses. When the TV spot says, "These Guys Are Good", they mean it. I'll only say this: any player from whose world ranking is between 100 and 150, can come to our little course in Gallup, and without having ever played it, score 66 or better.. any day of the week, any conditions. I hope these "ABC's" about the ruling bodies of golf were helpful.