USGA sets committees

Walter W. Driver Jr., has been nominated to serve a one-year term as president of the USGA by the nominating committee of the United States Golf Association. The election of officers and the full 15-member USGA executive committee will take place Feb. 4, 2006, at the USGA’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta.

Driver will replace Fred S. Ridley, who completes the second of his one-year terms as president. Ridley will retire from the executive committee following 12 years of service, including four years as chairman of the championship committee, the group responsible for the conduct of all USGA competitions.

Upon becoming president, Driver will lead the Association’s professional staff and nearly 1,400 volunteers who serve on more than 30 committees.

Driver is chairman of King & Spalding, an international law firm with more than 800 lawyers. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Texas Law School. He began his service to the executive committee as general counsel in 1997 and was named to the committee two years later. He served two years as treasurer and the last four years as vice president.

The other nominated officers of the executive committee will be: James E. Reinhart and James F. Vernon as vice presidents; Emily R. (Missy) Crisp as secretary; and Fredric C. Nelson as treasurer. Nelson has served as general counsel for the past three years.

Besides Nelson, the three other new members of the executive committee will be William M.  Lewis Jr., Pat McKinney and Steve Smyers.

Lewis is the co-chairman of Investment Banking at Lazard in New York City. Previously, he spent 24 years at Morgan Stanley following his graduation from Harvard University and Harvard Business School.

McKinney is a developer of golf course communities and is the immediate past president of the South Carolina Golf Association. He has served on the USGA’s Mid-Amateur Championship committee since 2000.

Smyers is a golf course architect whose works include Old Memorial in Tampa, Fla. He has served as a consulting member of the USGA’s equipment standards committee since 1999. He was a member of the University of Florida golf team and has competed in 17 USGA championships and three British Amateurs. He and his wife, Sherrin, who competed on the LPGA Tour from 1984 to 1997, played a leading role in establishing a chapter of The First Tee, a USGA-supported facility, in their hometown of Lakeland.

The other seven returning members of the executive committee will be: Craig Ammerman, Dr. Lewis H. Blakey, James T. Bunch, Irving Fish, James B. Hyler Jr., Cameron Jay Rains and Loren Singletary.

“These individuals from diverse backgrounds possess a wide range of skills and will bring significant expertise to our executive committee to meet the evolving challenges facing the USGA,” says F. Morgan Taylor, chairman of the 2006 USGA nominating committee.

Other current Committee members who will retire along with Ridley at the upcoming annual meeting are Paul D. Caruso Jr., Mary Bea Porter-King and Bruce C. Richards.

“The USGA greatly appreciates the work that all of these retiring volunteers have provided to the Association,” Taylor says. “The rotation of Committee members is a natural part of the nominating process and ensures a number of qualified people have an opportunity to serve on the Executive Committee.”