The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Whan brings passion to new position as CEO
FAIRFIELD — When he was considering whether or not to become the new CEO of the United States Golf Association, Mike Whan reached out to five friends for advice.
Two were LPGA board members. The others were Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, Seth Waugh, the CEO from the PGA of America, and his predecessor, Mike Davies, who Whan said was not in on the selection committee to determine his successor.
“One person said (don’t take the job),” Whan said. “It was a hard decision. Mentally, I thought I’d go down a different path. I always tell my kids to stay undecided in college and life as long as you can. Once you decide, then there are right and wrong answers.”
A month into the job as CEO, Whan remains full of energy, much like his 12year tenure as LPGA commissioner. The original plan was to “retire” and travel with his wife this year.
Instead, he is providing his vision of where he projects the USGA will be. Whan was the guest speaker at the Kolbe Conversations breakfast held at The Patterson Club Tuesday morning.
The breakfast was a fund-raiser titled “Let’s Talk Golf.” All donations are going toward Kolbe Cathedral High School, a private Bridgeport school. Whan is in town for the third U.S. Senior Women’s Open being held at Brooklawn Country Club beginning Thursday.
Whan remembers being in the pitch meeting when Brooklawn CC was in the running to host the 2021 Solheim Cup that went to the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. He liked what the club had to offer to host championship events.
“It makes sense to me (Brooklawn CC hosting the U.S. Senior Women’s Open). Not only is the club good and rich with history,” Whan said. “It’s a great location. It’s nice for the
players sometimes to fly into New York and play something here this time of year.”
Whan, 56, is a passionate person, especially about the sport he helps preside over. He said he makes it a point to respond to emails from the general public or from his 14,500 Twitter followers.
And those fans are just as passionate, if not moreso. Whan wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Who wouldn’t want a sport with fans who are that passionate?” Whan said. “We might complain about the act that fans are nuts or they don’t like our decision. But I would rather have people love my sport and be really engaged than me trying to get you to care about my sport. … It’s better than silence. Silence is indifferent and silence in sports is the beginning of the end. Indifference means totally disconnected. Indifference is what kills sports, not engagement.”
The questions or comments he has gotten the most so far have to do with driving distance and where the USGA championships should be held. It’s more comments than questions.
Whan is as concerned about people designing and building courses that could measure over 8,000 yards to try and offset how far people are driving the ball. He would also like to see range finders used for all championship play and, if he could go back in time, 12-hole courses to play in two hours in the essence of time.
“That’s about the attention span for young kids, Whan said.
He also would like to help create a USA Development Team to help develop and discover young female players earlier, as do other countries.
“I have to think every day about making sure golf is better for my kids’ kids than it was for me as a kid,” Whan said.
Growing an event like the U.S. Senior Women’s Open is something that Whan will help make happen. Growing more opportunities for the senior women to play events around championships won’t be as easy to accomplish.
“I promise this event is not going anywhere,” Whan said. “But the women’s (seniors) don’t have that many competitive playing opportunities. As Tiger used to say, ‘I need reps?’ A lot of these players don’t get reps. That worries me more than this tournament. But I do believe this event will help that happen.”