Augusta National Golf Club, host of the most prestigious major in golf, The Masters, is getting a new chairman. William Porter Payne, a.k.a. Billy, announced on Wednesday that he was retiring as chairman of Augusta National. The club named Fred Ridley as his successor. He is just the seventh chairman in Augusta National’s history and the first who has ever played in The Masters (Ridley won the 1975 U.S. Amateur and competed in the Masters from 1976 to 1978).
The Masters’ Billy Payne steps down as Augusta National chairman
The most powerful man at Augusta National is retiring and Fred Ridley will be his successor in guiding the club and the Masters into its next era.
Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
Payne’s tenure lasted 11 years. He joined he club in 1997 after serving as the CEO of the Atlanta Olympics and then became chairman of ANGC nine years later. The position is one of, if not the most powerful in golf but also comes with intense scrutiny, as we witnessed during several memorable and sometimes contentious Payne press conferences each Masters week.
Under Payne’s leadership, Augusta:
- Admitted its first female members — Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore
- Created the Asia-Pacific amateur championship with the winner getting an invite to the Masters
- Created the Latin America amateur championship with the winner getting an invite to the Masters
- Created the Drive, Chip, and Putt Championship for girls and boys ages 7-15
- Enhanced and continually pushed its digital media and streaming coverage
- Developed and expanded the operational and hospitality infrastructure of the Masters with Berckmans Place and a massive new media center
With its website and infrastructure development, Payne worked to “modernize” the business of the Masters below the surface without the staid “tradition unlike any other” looking dramatically different on the surface.
What Payne did not do:
- Any significant course changes as a successor to Hootie Johnson, the one who oversaw much of the Tiger-proofing that adapted the layout to the modern pro game. Payne’s chairmanship saw the loss of the Eisenhower tree on the 17th hole and the recent purchase of land from adjacent Augusta Country Club, rumored to be used for lengthening the par-5 13th hole. If that change in Amen Corner at the 13th hole happens, it will commence under Ridley’s watch.
- Allow cell phones on the property. No matter how ubiquitous mobile phones became in society, and at other golf events where host organizations relented and allowed them, the Masters was never going to permit them on the grounds under Payne. If you were seen with one, you were promptly reprimanded and/or removed.
In April, Payne was asked if ANGC would relax its cellphone policy. The quick and terse response was “You’ll have to ask the next chairman.” So it wasn’t going to happen with Payne in power, and Ridley is probably not going to change it either. In the end, the text message, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, camera-free environment created a kind of ignorance-is-bliss bubble that was enjoyable, if for only one week a year.
Ridley is the last U.S. Amateur champion not to turn pro and has had a distinguished career now at two of the most exclusive bodies in the game. He was President of the USGA from 2004 to 2005, and then became chairman of the powerful Masters competition committee in 2007. Between the amateur career as a player, and his executive positions at two of the most powerful organizations in the game, Ridley, before he becomes lead dog at ANGC, already boasts an accomplished career. He also, however, featured prominently, and not always impressively, in Alan Shipnuck’s inside story of the ruling on Tiger Woods’ notorious penalty drop at the 2013 Masters.
Ridley is only the seventh chairman in history because the position was held for 45 years by Clifford Roberts, who founded the club with Bobby Jones. Payne cited the two founders in his hand-off remarks on Wednesday.
“I am now proud to call upon my good friend Fred Ridley to lead Augusta National and the Masters to a future that I am confident will hold new promise, while always being faithful to the principles of Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts. Fred will be an excellent Chairman who will serve with my complete and enthusiastic support.”
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