Must Read: "The Failed Coup At The USGA"

Nothing brings bliss to the start of my week like a Ron Sirak story on the implosion that has become Glen Nager's USGA Presidency. A collapse we learn will forever end Nager's connection to the USGA when he steps down Feburary 8th.

A little backstory is necessary before we get to the latest Golf Digest piece titled, "The Failed Coup At The USGA," which serves as a bookend to an earlier story on the Fox TV deal.  And as usual, if this is all too Inside Baseball, the scroll button is your friend.

Nager, was in year two of a presidency going along swimmingly enough with a very disciplined roll-out of the anchoring ban, great addresses about reducing water usage and a behind-the-scenes move to simplify the Rules of Golf was doing exactly what we'd hoped for from a USGA president: bringing a fresh perspective, using his expertise (law) to usher through important initiatives, all while appearing to respect vital traditions of the game.

And then, something peculiar happened.

Whether it was the inability to disguise a mancrush for the Rupert Murdoch empire, or the same logic that thought a Supreme Court seat could be had with Jack Abramoff's help, Nager almost singlehandedly steered the USGA's television contract to Fox Sports for 12 years. The deal is at a dollar amount that will never work financially on a network that has not televised golf beyond the local team-play level. Worse, the deal is tainted because evidence has surfaced that suggests a tainted process and which will have the USGA staff working very hard to get their message heard beyond the Bermuda Triangle's of Fox Sports 1 and 2. For 12 YEARS.

According to Sirak in the just-posted, January, 2014 Golf Digest story, Nager tried to remedy the Fox stink-bomb with an attempted coup of sorts, proposing a CEO position that would have neutralized the Executive Committee and the man he had apparently grown to despise, Executive Director Mike Davis.

According to some unnamed sources, the lawyer-turned USGA president reportedly nominated himself to be the first CEO to keep the likes of Davis and incoming President Tom O'Toole under wraps.

Guessing this John Mummert photo from the U.S. Amateur will not be Mike Davis' Christmas card! (Click image to enlarge)The irony is breathtaking: Nager wanted to create a CEO position to protect the USGA from rogue golf types for the good of the USGA, Inc. You know, like iconoclastic presidents who might be oblivious to the dynamics of the USGA's healthy (current) television partnerships. Or willingly looking past blatant conflicts on his own television negotiating committee, all for a slightly bigger financial net gain that'll end up going to hedge fund fees.

If the Nager behavior spelled out in the two Sirak stories weren't borderline pathological, I mind find the whole affair humorous.

Thankfully, there's a happy ending to all of this if you like golf, but an ominous ending if you are Fox Sports and saddled with a USGA TV contract that the network only really wanted in order to boost subscriber fees, not because they care about golf. I almost felt sorry for the network after reading the latest story, as Nager's clean departure from the USGA means those left behind must clean up the mess he, Gary Stevenson and Sarah Hirshland will be leaving behind.  

Here's the lead paragraph of Sirak's report which, as always, I suggest reading first before taking in this breakdown. And one more time, if this is all too inside baseball, just scroll on by.

After losing a power struggle to bring broad organizational changes to the United States Golf Association, including what sources say was a bid to create a long-term chief-executive position, president Glen Nager will leave the organization for good when his second one-year term expires Feb. 8, Golf Digest has learned. "I have been involved with the USGA for eight years," Nager said, "and after I leave I won't be a part of it again."

FYI: only two past presidents have not gone on to serve as chair of the Nominating Committee. (The "NC" signs off on all Executive Committee appointments and indirectly shapes the USGA's future). One past president ended his life before he could be asked to serve, and one had a business tie that was perceived as a fatal conflict of interest (but my how that looks so quaint compared with new standardbearer for conflict, Gary Stevenson). 

With his declaration, Nager will be the third president to not continue serving in an ex-officio role, the first to do so voluntarily. Well, voluntarily being a relative term compared to...too soon, too soon.

Anyway, Sirak describes the "coup" as directed primarily at incoming president Tom O'Toole, though I have two sources who say Nager wanted Dan Burton and Diana Murphy retired from the Executive Committee as well. All three will be officers in 2014, so it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they probably voted against the Fox deal, because they are thought to be otherwise sympatico souls when it comes Nager initiatives like the anchoring ban, water usage, slow play and simplifying the rules.

According to sources, Nager, who described himself as a "lame duck" in an interview with Golf Digest, wanted O'Toole removed from the 15-person Executive Committee and passed over as president, and he wanted Davis to report to a chief executive. A high-ranking USGA official says Nager wanted to bypass O'Toole because he considered O'Toole too close to Davis, a longtime USGA ally, to work effectively under a chief executive. "Tom and Mike are almost the same person," the source said.

Other sources say it was Walter Driver—the chair of the USGA Nominating Committee who served a contentious term as president from 2006-'07—who said to Nager, "You are not going to do this."

What a world: the hubristically-challenged Goldman Sachs USGA President who introduced private jet travel perks, Crackberry fussing during competition and bringing in more Nager types like, Glen Nager, ended up being the one to say enough already.

Nager, commenting in this quote to Sirak, displayed a particularly long reach by patting himself on the back:

"I am maintaining my commitment to confidentiality—apparently others haven't," Nager told Golf Digest. "I hold myself to a higher standard. It is not appropriate for me to discuss this while I am still in office. The issue that needs to be discussed is what makes for a great organization as opposed to a mediocre organization. I am trying to be as dignified and gracious as I can. Not everyone loves me. But leadership is a lonely responsibility."

Lonely? I think we might have answered a few questions with that statement.

Get this man a Pyramid of Success, pronto!

As for the assertion that Nager wanted to be the first USGA CEO, he flatly denied it and I kind of believe him.

Says Nager: "I would be unqualified for that position. I have been a partner at Jones Day since 1990, and if you look back at my [USGA] inaugural speech you will see that I made a commitment to my mentor and this law firm to return after two years. If you put one and one together [the two one-year terms as USGA president], you will get your answer. Look, when people don't like the message, they attack the messenger. Frankly, I find that offensive."

My sources also believe he wanted Hirshland rewarded for the Fox deal with a new title of COO. Rewards are not coming for those who gave the USGA this fiasco!

Either way, let's just table the whole CEO thing for now and ask the first question that comes to mind: is the USGA in shambles after this coup?

I'm not sure who said this to Sirak, but it suggests that for all we poke fun at staid blue blazer types obsessed with Roberts Rules of Order and afraid to act on things like golf ball distance, the current structure worked when a "lonely" wolf lost sight of the mission.

"The reality is, we have a president out there on an island," says a senior USGA source. Says another: "The headline, as I see it, is: The USGA rejects a challenge to its governance structure."

Sirak's sources say Mike Davis now has a chance to reclaim power lost during his and previous administrations.

"There is no question that Mike is sounding more emboldened as a result of this experience," says a high-ranking USGA official.

The clash ultimately was between what USGA insiders are referring to as "the golf guys" versus "the corporate guys." The golf guys won, at least for now.

I think I read about that whole golf guys v. corporate guys thing on a blog somewhere.

And now to Nager's baby and his cianide pill all wrapped in one: the Fox deal.

Part of Nager's thorny relationship with many USGA operatives began with the way those TV talks were handled. Disgruntled staffers and committee members thought longtime business partners NBC and ESPN were not treated with enough respect during the negotiations, nor were they given commensurate consideration for their loyalty.

O'Toole and Davis were part of the five-person USGA negotiating group for the TV contract, with Nager, senior managing director for business affairs Sarah Hirshland and Executive Committee member Gary Stevenson. But O'Toole and Davis, seen as the golf guys in the group, were marginalized in the negotiations. The other three, viewed as the corporate component, ran the talks.

Davis was at Chambers Bay on a site visit the week of the TV deal finalization. Had he been dispatched there to keep him away from the negotiations? Was he perhaps assured that even though he was away, there would not be a rush to decide the winning bid?

It turned out there was a rush because the decided-upon winning bidder, Fox Sports, was in negotiations over their new sports channel's per-subscriber fee. So even if it meant announcing the deal on the eve of the PGA Championship, helping the new partner was a priority. "FS1" launched Saturday of PGA week, but up until the day before the launch, Fox was in negotiations with several major cable companies over the subscriber fee and thus needed good news announced ASAP.

Fox Sports 1 launched with a per-subscriber fee of 23 cents instead of the hoped-for $1 rate. The USGA deal did not move the fee needle one cent.

Most frightening of all: Greg Norman was talking to Fox Monday of the week when the final bids were due Tuesday and the USGA Exceutive Committee was voting on Wednesday. Seemingly all but TV deal committee members Mike Davis and Tom O'Toole knew the deal was going to Fox until it was too late. (Which makes Davis' unfortunate characterization of criticism over the deal something he needs to remedy for his own credibility, even though we now understand the circumstances were trying. Still...)

Sirak also addresses the wretched decision to Friday News Dump Tom O'Toole's presidency announcement.

Less than three weeks after the Walker Cup ended on Sept. 8, the USGA announced its nominations for officers and Executive Committee members who will take over in February. In the seven previous years, only once were the nominations announced before Oct. 19, and five times the announcements came in the last week of October.

Knowing how disciplined and nauseatingly corporate USGA messaging has become under Joe Goode Organizational Practice, this was President Nager getting in one final lick before he packed up his Tonkas and stomped off the playground.

And then there is poor Fox losing its biggest ally. That's right, I'm feeling sympathy, even though Fox forced their way into what will be a financial black hole for years to come. (Note: it's financial black hole because only one USGA event makes money for a network and Fox has no other golf properties to package ads with to help stem losses on .0001 events like the U.S. Mid-Am.)

We now learn Nager is giving up the traditional past president role in future nominations, working as a rules official, captaining a World Amateur Team and dining on shrimp appetizers at the Hotel Del Coronado while worshippers fawn over the man who re-worded the Rules of Golf. But he's also abandoning the network he pushed into place.

Though FOX says it's too early to talk about its plans—the first U.S. Open it will broadcast is in 2015—multiple sources say FOX is contractually obligated to stage a full dress rehearsal at a tournament venue in 2014. The thinking is that FOX will try to get a full-field mini-tour event at Chambers Bay in Washington, site of the 2015 U.S. Open, in June 2014 on the same calendar week the 2015 Open will be played.

Considering they still haven't been able to hire a producer, I'm guessing the Shark doesn't have to map out a flight plan to Chambers Bay just yet. 

Nager steps down for good on February 8th. Dating back to late August, the rumor mill has suggested Nager and Davis have been on "barely speaking" terms. So I'm pretty sure Davis and other staffers will have a very nice holiday season knowing Nager is on his way out for good.

Yet considering what Davis and the staff face in teaching a television network how to televise golf the USGA way while repairing relationships torched by Nager and his cronies, Team Davis will need all the holiday down time they can get. It's going to be a long few years ahead.