Fred Perpall: First year as USGA president ‘went by like a whirlwind’ | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Hear from Fred Perpall on his first year as president of the USGA, the early accomplishments he’s proud of and what’s next. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral #FredPerpall #USGA
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Fred Perpall: First year as USGA president ‘went by like a whirlwind’ | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the new Chrome tour golf ball from Callaway so we say hello to Fred Pur Paul and thank you Fred for taking the time to join us today when you look back on your first full year as president of the USGA was it everything

You expected it to be well good afternoon Matt thank you for uh having me here um boy my first year as usj president uh it first off I would say it went by like a whirlwind but it probably was a lot more than I expected uh if I had to be honest you

Know looking back you know it’s hard uh you know not to be so excited about the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club you know we got to bring the US Open back to LA for the first time in 70 years and hosted at Los Angeles Country Club for

The first time we got to take the US Women’s Open to Pebble Beach and you know wow what a experience to put the women on the same venerable site that the men uh get to play and watch them hit the same shot thoughts um we certainly announced you know our next

Steps on distance which we hope will secure a better game of golf for the future and you know we updated the World handicap system to promote shorter courses and to Pro promote nine-hole rounds uh as well as increased the portability of the handicap index worldwide um and the millions of people

That play golf we hope you know uh will will lean in on this new World handicap system so we had a lot of good things to get into uh not the least of which was endowing the Walker and Curtis cup so that they last forever securing Ally as

A partner um for our women’s open and then we released a GS3 smart ball uh to help golf courses all over the country improve their putting surfaces so we had a wonderful 2023 and uh you know it was probably a little bit more than I expected during my first year as uh USGA

President so when you run down that Litany of accomplishments from the year that was could you nail down one is there one thing that you are the most proud of in the year that is surpassed you know I think for me um you know standing on the 18th green uh with

My my daughters and my wife at the US Women’s Open at uh Pebble Beach understanding that it was very historic you know for us to bring the Women’s Open you know we’ve talked a lot about equity and inclu inclusion in the game of golf and increasing you know

Sort of equity for our women but to actually celebrate them and to put them on that same vulnerable stage was pretty special and it was made more special uh giving the trophy away to a wonderful champion and having my daughters there with me so that’s probably something I

Will remember for the rest of my life that is very cool indeed Fred so for 2024 what initiatives can we look forward to from the USGA well you know 2024 we got off to buying a few weeks ago at our annual meeting and in no doubt in USGA land and

All eyes are like peeled to Pinehurst um not only are we excited uh you know to celebrate the 25th anniversary of pain shorts historic win at Pinehurst the US open at Pinehurst will actually be our 1,000 1,000 uh USGA Championship wow and so we will CH we will Crown our 1,000

Champion Tiger Woods will be receiving the Bob Jones award and you know I had a opportunity to say hello to him a few days ago and uh you know I myself have been inspired into golf from tigerwood so it’s going to be pretty cool to give one of the great Champions that ever

Existed the Bob Jones award at uh Pinehurst and then we’re opening Golf House Pinehurst uh and the usj experience during the week of the US Open so we got a lot of excitement around 2024 and uh the US Open in Pinehurst look we’re pretty excited that the recreation game has been stronger

Than it’s ever been um we anticipate another great year for all the millions who’ve joined the game of golf during covid and we have golf’s opening around on April 15th um where people will begin posting for you know the World handicap system for the season and with all the

Changes I mentioned earlier we’re pretty excited about that so we got a lot of good stuff to celebrate in 2024 and I hope we’ll get to talk a little bit about probably the biggest initiative we’re rolling out in 2024 at the USGA which is our US national development

Team well you just led me perfectly to exactly where I wanted to go next with you because I would like to know about the US national team and how things are coming together with that yeah well look Matt and I I know you’ve been uh you know a wonderful support of the USGA

Yourself personally and certainly Golf Channel and NBC and all of our Partnerships we we love but I think those of us involved with golf know that at the very beginning of golf like when kids are really young golf is very diverse and then as we move through the

Elite path of golf you know it gets less and less diverse and part of that is the actual Challenge and the resources that it takes you know for kids to play golf it just takes a lot of resources and so we’re hoping with our US national development team we could actually

Defray a lot of the co cost open up more Pathways and create more clarity for all those kids regardless of where they come from and what their parents do for a living that want to play Elite golf so in 2024 we’re going to launch our Junior national team we’ll have six to eight

Boys and six to eight girls and our new team will be led by Chris zambry our head coach also in the coming weeks we’re going to give you know our first 50 grants and this these grants are meant to alleviate the burden of cost and all the barriers that come from

Playing you know Elite competitive golf during the summer so our hope is to give $10,000 per kid uh to kids in need so that they are not restrained by you know the resources it takes uh to play golf we want to nurture every kid in in this

Country who has a desire to play Elite Golf and we we hope that this new um initiative our US national development team will do that and look most of the kids who are not American that are playing Elite golf uh throughout you know the world come from a national

Development program it’s just that the United States we’ve never you know had one and so our hope is by having this program we give every American kid that wants to play great golf at the highest level the resources it takes to do so yeah Fred that sounds very very exciting

Another initiative that spoke to kind of reaching to different parts of the game that can be inspiring and talk about diversity and talk about the variety of things that you do let’s go back to when you were chair of the USGA Committee in 20121 with the Adaptive open first being

Introduced then it was later played for the first time in 2022 at the A4 mention Pinehurst how proud are you now of what that Championship has become and what it represents I mean it’s just for me it’s a wow you know I get I get the opportunity to watch these um wonderful

Americans play golf and you know some of them have physical challenges and they have differences but you know if you’re not inspired just watching them play and the great shots that they’re able to hit despite you know the physical challenges you know it’s just for me it’s the most

Inspirational thing and we know that one of the beautiful things about golf is would golf Mak takes you into and we want that to be available to every American regardless of you know whatever you know challenges they face and so for me it’s been a very inspirational thing

Uh it’s nice to watch now that we actually have to conduct qualifiers because of the demand for this uh Championship that our our now our state golf associations are helping us you know qualify you know and uh our hope is that we continue to encourage and Inspire as many people into this

Beautiful game of golf and uh certainly the Adaptive open is a big stake in the ground in that way you know you mentioned qualifying Fred I have to say the excitement’s already building for qualifying getting underway just a few weeks down the road and getting ready for some national

Championships yeah well you know for us all of our championships particularly our opens but even our amers uh at every level one of the things we pride ourself on at the USGA is that our championships are open and they’re open for all and we think you know and we want to conduct

The most open championships in the world that is almost part of the American Spirit that if you have the desire and if you have the ability and if you have the fortitude you can play your way in it’s one of the great things we love about golf it’s the meritocracy and so I

Can’t wait to see how these fields unfold and I my myself for one I’m excited as the weather turns and we get close to Summer to see all of the drama that will unfold in our championships Fred when you were elected to become president of the USGA you immediately

Became historic you became the first black president of the organization how significant do you feel that that fact is and what message does it send as to the state of Gulf now and for the future yeah Matt thank you for that I mean look I’m I’ve said at the very beginning I’m

Very proud to be the first black president of the USGA I’m proud for what it means for every kid in this country but also every adult in this country that is wondering whether there is a place in golf for them look my experience in golf has been amazing

Mostly because who golf has put me with and most of my mentors in golf have been you know uh you know my seniors they’ve been you know just wonderful white guys that have welcomed me not only into their game but have welcomed me into their life the beautiful thing about

Golf is who golf puts you with I know of nothing in this country not the church not the universities not our schools certainly not our politics that brings us together in the way that golf can when we share the game of golf and we share the fairways we actually are

Making a commitment to share our lives and that’s the beautiful thing about golf in golf we’re just one community and I think we’re at a time in our country where we need more ways to be together more ways to put our arms around each other and more ways to

Develop you know intimacy and relationships across all boundaries and so yes I’m proud to be the first black president of the USGA but I’m proud for what it represents in terms of the way we’ve tried to live our life which is a life that is connected a life that is

Joined and as my good friend I’ve got a good friend Sam R loves to say being together in the game of golf is the best part of golf and together is always a wonderful place to be that’s absolutely brilliant and that phrase together perfectly leads me to my next question I

Want to ask you the you called it the recreational game I I look upon that as 99.99% that part of the game is absolutely booming and no small part of that is due to the efforts and the tutelage of the USGA yet the game and its highest competitive tier is

Something different do you see the dichotomy in that that one side of the game is booming and one side of the game is kind of searching for its direction yeah Matt well look in my home course at Trinity Forest we get the spent a lot of time with professional golfers and in my

Role as USGA president and before this as chairman of championships I get to be around a lot of elite golfers uh both amateur and professionals and we certainly love and respect our professionals because they inspire all of us to desire to play more Golf and um and I’ve got great friends who are

Professional golfers but look if there were no professional golf golf would still exist if there were no professional golf you know every Saturday millions of people across our country and really across this planet would wake up and join their best friends to actually play golf and to be

With each other what we love about golf is what golf makes you into it’s the personal challenge it’s the connection to other others it’s bathing in nature it’s all the goodness and integrity that comes from golf that it actually you know gives you the opportunity to reinforce in your life and so while

Profess na golf may be going through some stress and turmoil the game of golf and recreational golf which is more than 99.9% of golf has never been stronger in this country according to the National Golf Foundation you know 40 million people in the United States are playing golf or identify themselves as golfers

Offsite golf like Top Golf and other forms of simulator golf have given people a wonderful opportunity to test drive Golf and that is leading to more GR Green Grass Golf last year in 23 we had more rounds of Green Grass Golf than we’ve ever had and this growth is being

Fueled by Juniors by women and by people of color it’s the very people we’ve been asking to come to the game and so at the usgaa we’re spending a lot of time making sure that we actually fling the gates open and that we bare hug those

People and that we make sure we we continue to develop programs to let them know that they’re Absol absolutely welcomed and wanted in this great game I love it and so we hope we hope that all of the issues at the professional game get worked get you know will be resolved

And that we can find a way to be back together as one you know group of golfers but we also spend more time thinking about that little boy or girl who is interested in playing the game because we know this game can change their life in a very positive way such a

Strong message of Hope from the president of the USGA Fred peral Fred last thing I want to ask you before we lose your company today is how can we help the usgaa in your calling well Matt I want to thank you for everything that you all are already

Doing and that you continue to do you’ve been a wonderful partner in the sense that you know showcasing our championships we conduct these 15 national championships to give people an opportunity to see golf at the highest level but to inspire more people in I think we need to find ways to continue

To talk up each other in golf and not talk at each other and you guys are the goal standard of that so continue all that you’re doing to Showcase golf at the best level to make sure folks know that they’re wanted and invited and I

Can’t wait to see you all out there in the World of Golf and I want to say thank you for giving us the platform just to describe a little bit about you know what we’re doing and hopefully as we continue to unify showcase govern and Advance this great game it gets stronger

And stronger and it changes more and more lives