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Sneak peek at the USGA Museum
By ADAM SCHUPAK
Senior Writer
FAR HILLS, N.J. – When some of golf’s most prized possessions literally began crumbling to pieces in the USGA’s museum, the game’s governing body finally decided its historical preservation needed an upgrade.
After debating moving to an urban setting – even acquiring the famed Russian Tea Room in New York City – the USGA Executive Committee decided to stay put. So it approved a renovation of its New Jersey home, the Georgian mansion known as Golf House, as well as construction of a state-of-the-art wing.
In doing so, the USGA ignored one of the first tenets of business: location, location, location. How much traffic the new facility, which opens June 3, draws remains in doubt, but USGA officials insist their $19.7 million renovation at least will assure the preservation of its treasures and celebrate the American game and its champions.
With a new research center named for Arnold Palmer, the USGA is betting 50,000 visitors will venture to its headquarters in Somerset County, where USGA executive director David Fay says many of “our neighbors include horses, cows and sheep.”
Even if the number falls shy of their traffic estimate, USGA officials seem unconcerned. After wrestling with the question of how to tell the organization’s story to more people, they contend that a virtual museum on the Web, a reinvigorated traveling exhibit and educational initiatives will bring the museum to the masses.
“We know we’re not at the crossroads of America,” says Rand Jerris, the USGA’s director of the museum and archives. “But we’re going to reach more people from here than if we were in New York City. They may not be coming through the front door, but if you total up all the people who will see (our artifacts), it will far exceed the Tea Room.”
The USGA Museum is the oldest operating sports museum in the United States. George Blossom, a USGA committee member, approached the group with the idea of creating a museum in 1935.
It opened the next year in New York City, and since then its collection has grown to comprise more than 42,000 physical artifacts, a library of more than 20,000 volumes, 500,000 photographic images and several thousand hours of historic film, video and audio recordings.
For the first 20 years, the collection was displayed in the association’s lobby, corridors and offices. In 1950, the USGA moved into the first Golf House, a five-story brownstone where it had two dedicated floors to the museum.
At the time, The New Yorker referred to it as “the Louvre of the golfing world.” Soon the USGA outgrew its office space and moved the operation to the suburbs, 30 miles west of Manhattan to an 86-acre campus.
The museum collection has been housed at its current location since 1972 in a 17,000-square-foot building designed by prominent architect John Russell Pope, whose works include the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art. But through the years, it became apparent Golf House wasn’t fit for the task of preserving the USGA’s valuables. In particular, it lacked modern facilities, such as climate-controlled space.
Humidity changes accelerated the deterioration of several artifacts, such as the Wright and Ditson golf ball used by American Francis Ouimet to defeat British stars Ted Ray and Harry Vardon in the 1913 U.S. Open, which gave rise to an American century of golf. Grips on long-nose woods suffered from “red rot,” named for the reddish powder remains of decayed leather; paper turned yellow and brittle; and historic 35mm film suffered from “vinegar syndrome.”
For a time, the USGA museum committee’s mantra seemed to be find a home anywhere but in Far Hills. It explored several urban locales including Atlanta and Monterey, Calif., arguing such a move would boost attendance above the 10,000-25,000 visitors who annually toured the museum at its remote New Jersey setting.
So it came as no surprise that the USGA’s most serious flirtation eventually centered on moving its museum back to New York City. The USGA purchased the Russian Tea Room restaurant and building for $16 million in bankruptcy court on Nov. 18, 2002 (Faberge eggs included). Showcasing the museum’s collection there was part of a larger plan to diversify the USGA’s revenue sources.
The Tea Room’s Manhattan location was tough to beat. (The restaurant’s longtime slogan: 6 minutes and 23 seconds from Lincoln Center and slightly to the left of Carnegie Hall.) Jerris said the USGA’s projections for a Tea Room museum called for 100,000 visitors per year, though The New Yorker quoted him as saying “300,000 visitors (was) a reasonable expectation.”
But support for the move dwindled when the USGA learned the true cost of the project. The addition of a necessary seventh floor to the Tea Room pushed renovation costs alone to $50 million, according to Jerris. The committee deemed such expenses excessive, and in 2004 the USGA sold the property for $20 million, recouping its initial investment and subsequent expenses.
“That was a low point,” Jerris says.
It forced USGA officials to re-evaluate their approach. The resulting discoveries altered the essence of their museum vision. Jay Rains, chair of the museum committee since 2004, says officials were surprised to learn only two museums in the world – the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington and The Louvre in Paris – have a positive clash flow on operations (excluding development and charitable contributions).
That confirmed the difficulties of the museum business, in general, and underscored the limitations of golf exhibits, in particular.
The original World Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst, N.C., flourished on rainy days when golfers had nothing better to do but closed after a drought of visitors in 1994.
An updated glossy version opened in 1998 as the centerpiece of the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla., and promised – along with an adjoining IMax theater – 500,000 visitors in its first full year. But there haven’t been enough rainy days in the Sunshine State, either. Attendance hasn’t met expectations. More guests still come to watch an IMAX movie than to see special exhibits heralding Hall-of-Famers.
“Even with a tremendous marketing effort to drive people there, they haven’t met the original projections,” Jerris says. “People don’t typically just go to a golf museum.”
During the search for a new home, a few voices suggested donating the USGA’s collection to the World Golf Hall of Fame, but those considerations were quickly hushed.
Says Jerris: “The fact is, Mr. (Bobby) Jones gave us Calamity Jane II and Mr. Hogan willed his memorabilia to the USGA because they wanted us to have (those items) and display them, not to pack them up and send them somewhere else.”
In the end, becoming a tourist attraction became a secondary concern. Preserving history was priority No. 1. That’s not to say traffic and revenue aren’t important.
When the museum reopens, the USGA will charge admission for it for the first time ($7 is the most expensive ticket). It’s counterintuitive, Jerris says, but when guests are asked to pay, museum attendance generally rises.
“When it’s free,” he explains, “there’s an assumption that there’s nothing of value there.”
Karen Bednarski, USGA museum curator from 1990 to 1996 and currently executive director of the International Sports Heritage Association, says with people flying less and taking shorter trips, a marketing campaign geared toward communities within a few hours’ radius could help the USGA reach its attendance goals. Jerris says the USGA plans to beef its marketing budget to $550,000
this year to create awareness and $200,000-$250,000 in 2009. That’s a huge jump from past years when the USGA never spent more than $25,000 annually for museum marketing. But if that fails to attract visitors, Jerris says all will not be lost. The USGA has an alternative plan to share its historical wealth.
In conjunction with the reopening, the USGA plans to launch a stand-alone Web site (usgamuseum.com), which Jerris says has the potential to become the Internet home for the history of the game. Museum exhibits will be “repackaged” for the site. Plus, Web surfers soon will be able to view digitized magazines and books from the USGA library and purchase photos from its archives.
The USGA also is expanding its traveling-exhibit program. In partnership with its corporate sponsor, American Express, the USGA last year created a special exhibition of artifacts and historic film footage – titled “U.S. Open Experience” – that was located just inside the main spectator gate during the 2007 U.S. Open. It attracted more than 40,000 visitors during the week of the championship – more than double the number of visitors to Far Hills in a typical year.
“It always was how many bodies came through the door, but it shouldn’t be,” Jerris says. “It’s not a realistic measure of our value to this organization and to the golf community.”
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Adam Schupak is a
Golfweek senior writer. To reach him e-mail
aschupak@golfweek.com.
Posted: 6/2/2008
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