About two weeks ago, I started getting odd e-mails and a couple of vague phone calls from readers throughout the country asking if I’d heard anything about Tim Moraghan, the USGA’s longtime championship agronomist. I hadn’t, but I started making calls. The bottom line was that anyone who could officially say anything wouldn’t officially say anything, but soon it became clear the grapevine was accurate:
Tim Moraghan and the USGA have parted ways.
Confirmation came in the form of an internal USGA memo that a friend forwarded to me (and which also appears in this Golfweek.com article). The official stance is that the USGA – an organization that always has claimed to put tremendous value on conditions for its big events – decided it no longer needs a full-time person to oversee those efforts.
This stunning bit of news begs a lot of speculation. I heard many things third-hand I won’t repeat here. Instead, I’ll just focus on my personal observations as well as published reports about the current state of things in Far Hills, N.J.
- Tim is an excellent guy and a straight-shooter who, by every account I heard, was a valuable partner to the host superintendents with whom he worked. One superintendent who hosted an event within the past couple of years told me, “For like two years before (the event), as far as I was concerned, Tim was the USGA. He was here constantly and really understood our needs. He’s just outstanding to work with.”
- Tim was always candid with everyone – even jerk reporter types like me looking for a quote or a story. I can say from experience sometimes candid isn’t the best thing to be within a large association.
- From everything I’ve heard and read during the past six months or so, the USGA is going through unpleasant times internally. Despite an enormous surplus of savings (about $140 million, largely from TV contracts), they’ve lost several million dollars each of the past few years. That’s resulted in things like eliminating Golf Journal – which was a wonderful print magazine – a few years back to reportedly cutting staff benefits such as subsidizing college tuition for the children of its relatively low-paid, extremely hard-working staff.
- The current USGA president, Walter Driver, hasn’t won any popularity contests lately. Read the cover story in Golf World from last month and draw your own conclusions.
- According to the internal memo, the USGA says the regional agronomists will pick up Moraghan’s former duties for the major events. Correct me if I’m wrong, but those guys are pretty busy already.
- One thing I know for sure is that Moraghan can pretty much name his own job in the industry. His reputation, plus 20 years of unparalleled experience in prepping courses for majors will be highly sought after. And, I doubt he’ll miss any mortgage payments even if he decides to kick back and chill for a while because his marvelous wife Karen has a pretty good gig: She does PR work for Donald Trump’s golf courses and other noteworthy golf clients.
For the record, I didn’t even attempt to contact Tim Moraghan or any Green Section staff about this. I didn’t want to endanger any of them who might be accused of being an unnamed source.
All we can do at this stage of the game is wish Moraghan the best of luck … and hope the USGA can fix its problems before more of their best people decide to “pursue other opportunities.”
