USGA program celebrates 30th year

Far Hills, N.J. – Thirty years ago this month, Elbert S. Jemison’s idea – the Members Program of the United States Golf Association – came to fruition.

The program, which has more than 900,000 advocates today, was born in the Oval Office at the White House on Dec. 18, 1975. Arnold Palmer, the only national chairman the program has ever known, handed a pen to President Gerald Ford and signed him on as the first of what were then called “associates.”

The occasion took place in front of a small gathering that included the likes of Palmer’s wife, Winnie, and daughter Amy, USGA executive director P.J. Boatwright Jr., future president and executive director Harry Easterly, USGA executive committee vice president Sandy Tatum, executive committee member Kenneth Gordon, and Jemison, who held the role of associates program chairman.

“Arnie and I got together to set out a strategy of what we would do, and we agreed that [Ford] would be the first Associate,” says Jemison, who served from 1970 to 1974 on the USGA executive committee and followed up with three more years as an association officer (treasurer in 1975 and secretary in 1976 and 1977). “Arnold said he’d be the second associate and I’d be the third, because you know, the president and Arnold have a little more clout than me.”

President Ford and Palmer gave the program a face; Jemison provided behind-the-scenes elbow grease to get it off the ground.

“A funny moment while we were in the Oval Office,” says Jemison, “I remember President Ford kind of pulling me aside and asking, ‘How many do you think will enroll in this program?’ So then he said, ‘So far we have you, Arnold and myself and none of us have paid yet.’”

Jemison, who will celebrate his 50th year as a USGA committee member in 2006, still stays involved in the program. The 92-year-old Ford, contacted for an interview at his office, is still an avid golfer and fan according to his publicist, Penny Circle. And Palmer, at 76, is still as committed to the cause as ever.

“It has created a great deal of support for the USGA,” says Palmer. “I would like to see the program accelerated in the years to come.”