Golf Promoter George S May
George S May was a pioneering management consultant who worked with businesses of all sizes throughout the first half of the twentieth century, helping to bring them to higher levels of success. But beyond his savvy in the business world, George S. May also applied his particular brand of business genius to the realm of sports, where his innovative techniques helped to bring the game of golf into higher profile and popularity. George S May treated golf as though it were one of his clients and in need of the benefit of his expertise in management. In this manner, the game was revolutionized.
The way in which George S. May helped to revolutionize the sport of golf wasn’t through participation in the game itself. Instead, by working behind the scenes in different ways to benefit the golfers, he was able to inspire positive changes to both how the sport was changed, as well as how it was perceived by the public. As a highly experienced consultant, George S May used his expertise to help influence others to change, rather than his will to force any changes upon others.
George S. May owned the Tam O’Shanter Country Club in Niles, Illinois, and began to use his club as a way to help promote the game of golf beginning in 1941. Before he became involved in golf promotions, players were paid very small amounts for tournaments that they played in and won, and even small amounts if they didn’t win. It was truly a sport that was played for love of the game instead of for monetary reward, and as such, it didn’t garner large amounts of attention from the public.
Sensing the need to help model necessary changes, George S. May began to host championship golfing events at his club that offered prize money exponentially larger than had ever been offered before. But what he did to earn back that prize money is also what helped golf to gain its own footing in the realm of sports. Instead of continuing to close off golf as a private event, he put up bleachers to invite paying spectators to watch the action, hole by hole. He sold concessions to raise even more funds. And then he introduced the game of golf to an even larger crowd of spectators, by allowing live broadcasts of the tournaments at his club via television. For all of his innovation and hard work, George S May is included in the listing of the 100 Heroes of American Golf.
