Cross & Crescent

Ardmore, Pa. – As Craig Smith, USGA director of media relations, drove through a pelting rain toward Merion Golf Club Sunday morning, he had an intuitive grasp of the moment.

“It’s raining because the sky is sad for Tom,” said Smith, making the transposable statement that very well could reflect many feelings in the golf world.

The Tom would be precursor for the surname Meeks. As in Tom Meeks (Butler 1963). Sunday’s U.S. Amateur championship match represented Meeks’ last official course setup for the USGA’s senior director of rules and competitions. It’s something he’s had a hand in for the past 30 years, learning his trade from the respected P.J. Boatwright, Jr.

Meeks didn’t trace all 18 holes of famous Merion himself. He handled the back nine. Mike Davis, Meeks’ successor as USGA senior director of rules and competitions, handled the front nine. It’s been that way since the Association adopted the two-tee format at Bethpage State Park for the U.S. Open in 2002, said Meeks.

Wearing a white button-downed USGA-crested Oxford, which quickly became transparent from the moisture, Meeks went about his business in the same repetitive nature as he’s done so many times before. He bundled the tools of his craft near his chest like a newborn baby: spray paint can, golf balls and putter with radio at the ready so he could communicate with Davis.

On this dank day, local amateur legend Buddy Marucci, a Merion member and the 1996 U.S. Amateur runner-up, joined him as did three Merion course crew workers who were responsible for cutting the new holes.

In many respects, the work had already been finished. That’s because all hole locations are normally determined a day ahead. Meeks’ vocation was to really serve in a custodial fashion, making sure green speeds didn’t get too fast.

On the par-3 13th, prior to the hole being cut, he placed the paint can on the spot where finalists Dillon Dougherty and Edoardo Molinari would aim maybe twice in the scheduled 36-hole match. Meeks tossed the balls on the ground. He gripped the putter and let loose with aplomb.

“You don’t want the ball to pick up speed as it approaches a hole,” says Meeks. “If it does, we still have time for a change if we need to. The beauty about today is that we only have two players playing.”

Had a change been needed earlier in the week, with a larger field, Meeks would have taken different measures. Davis and Meeks would have gone into warp speed to correct ambiguities.

In this case, that doesn’t happen. After a few perfunctory swings from various locations Meeks grabs everything, giving the seal of approval, and walks off the green. At that moment, he is greeted by superintendent Matt Shaffer and a couple of other guests.

“Last day,” booms Shaffer. “Thirty years. Awesome stuff!”

“I’d rather be setting holes my last day than being told it’s my last day,” replies Meeks, as everyone around breaks into laughter. It’s been this way for him since the U.S. Open at Pinehurst as he’s made his final farewell tour that has included the U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills Country Club, the U.S. Senior Open at NCR Country Club and the Walker Cup Match at Chicago Golf Club.

I’d rather be setting holes my last day than being told it’s my last day

He’s gotten many gifts, including a watch from a television network and a yet-to-be delivered wooden chair from the USGA. Well-wishers always converge. Meeks in his own inimitable way making them smile, plunging the sullen feelings a little further into his soul, except only he knows what it all means, breaking into contradictory mode when asked if he’s at all somber.

“No, no, nope,” he says, a hint of his southern Indiana twang in his delivery. “Like I said last time we spoke, on Wednesday or Thursday, I made the decision three years ago, so I knew it was coming. Yeah, somber I guess to think that it’s all going to end after 30 years.”

When Meeks arrives at No. 14, he has to wait as a crew member double-rolls the green. It gives him time to study the hole location sheet that is distributed daily before each round or match. To no one in particular he glances at the 14th-hole marking on the paper and recites, “Eighteen front, eight to the right.” Meaning paces, from the edges of the green. Then suddenly he lifts his head as though he has an epiphany.

“How do you like this hole location sheet today?” he rhetorically asks. “Pink? Pink!!”

For the record, Meeks has never been in charge of the color selection process. He laughs heartily. He starts talking about his mother, Frances, who this day is celebrating her 88th birthday. He tells a quick anecdote about her penchant for white zinfandel; his buds prefer red because white tastes like a kid’s drink.

When everything is clear, Meeks heads to the green and plops down the balls again. The rain turns into a downpour. He replicates the process again, looking for an abnormality in the speed. He’s found it on 14 with his first offering, then retracts that when he putts from below and side of the hole. Finally he’s satisfied. He chuckles that he probably ought to change his shirt. Not a bad idea because, well, he could go shirtless and no one would recognize the difference from how it’s sticking like an adhesive to his body. Shirt and body look one and the same.

Again, he’s asked to reflect about his time at the USGA before he heads to 15.

“It’s a lot like being Santa Claus,” he says. “Everyday has been like Christmas to me.”

When your office has pretty much been a golf cart for the duration of your career, it’s a well-made point.

Think of all the golf luminaries he’s known, from Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods. And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.

The rain drove down harder. Meeks, mentioning something about changing his drenched shirt again, hops in his cart and drives off, turning ant-like small as he heads toward the horizon of the 15th green.

The job was just about done. Along with a career.

Copyright/Credit: Article by Ken Klavon/USGA. Photos by John Mummert/USGA. Permission to reprint granted by USGA. Copyright USGA.