Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2023 - 37

PHOTO: CHRIS CONDON, PGA TOUR, GETTY IMAGES
others. He believed in me and gave me the opportunity to
achieve things in my life that seemed unreachable, " said Jeff
Knudson, another of George's players.
" He would do anything to help his team, " Conser said. " Once
he stood with me for four hours, helping me when my game
was suffering. "
He remained a paradox. On one hand he was caring, concerned
for every player on the team. However, out with friends he would
make humorous complaints about " The little munchkins. Do
you think they can find me here?
Can I hide from them? " he said to
a friend. It was a ruse, another act.
He cared for the kids deeply.
Back on Tour
After a decade, he left ASU in
1986 to take his dream job as a
PGA Tour official. It was a job
that perfectly fit his personality.
A call
from a player needing
a ruling requires complete
confidence in the correct answer.
If an official makes a mistake the
whole golf world will know about
it. The ruling can mean hundreds
of thousands of dollars to a player.
With his ability to understand
players, his knowledge of the
rules and ability to focus, George
would get it right.
I once asked him what he did
with a week away from the tour.
" I read the Decisions Book cover
to cover every week I am off tour. "
The USGA Decisions Book (since
modified) remains a 500-page,
highly complex read. Nick Price,
a three-time major winner and former World No. 1 golfer, told
me in 1994, " George was respected by the players. "
The days are long on tour for officials, and George worked
weeks on end. Up early to make certain everything is set at the
course, then not leaving until after dark in preparation for the
next day's play. I rode around TPC Scottsdale as he set hole
locations for the day's play. Even though the hole locations had
been set earlier in the week, he spent 10 minutes or more on each
green making perfectly certain of the exact location. George
loved being a tour official.
George was a creature of habit. He worked the same
tournaments every year, staying in the same hotel, eating in the
same restaurants in each town. He did not handle change well.
mngolf.org
For the 65 years he was in golf, he was trapped by his
sexuality. What could he do? Come out? In the '60s a person
who was openly gay would have been ostracized. Had George
been known to be gay, he would have been an embarrassment to
his family, his school, his sport. He stayed in the closet to save
the pain to those that cared for and loved him.
George played the tour from 1968-1973. It was not until 2018
that a PGA Tour player came out, 45 years after he quit the tour.
His secret had to stay locked up.
Homophobia was not unique to
ASU or the PGA Tour in that era.
Would I have called George and
asked if I could travel and caddie
for him, had I known he was gay?
Would I have lived with him in
the early '70s?
Making a Change
After 25 years as a tour official,
he retired in 2010. George's golf
life was over. He had moved to
the theatre. In the early 2000s,
he
started
spending
New York as
time
an avid,
in
almost
compulsive theatre goer. After
leaving the tour, he lived in New
York City for six months a year,
renting an apartment.
He quit smoking and drinking
when he moved from golf to the
theatre. His self-destructive habits
ended when he was free of his
tortured life, even his diet improved.
I called him before my wife and
I went to New York to see a few
Broadway shows. " We have tickets
to see 'South Pacific,' " I said.
" Oh, that's great! " he said. " I've seen it 52 times. "
He saw " Billy Elliot " and " The Laramie Project " well over 100
times. The stories are of young, gay men who were not accepted
by society. His theatre friends said he related to Billy Elliot and
the murdered University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard
in " The Laramie Project. "
Within the theatre community he no longer hid being a
person who was gay, but he never told any of his golf friends.
After a few years he returned to Scottsdale. There is
speculation New York City was physically too demanding with
all the walking.
Before he left New York City, he called a friend from Phoenix
who was a Broadway performer. He presented her with a box
Directory 2023 MINNESOTAGOLFER
37
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Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2023

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