Around The Block With Joe Dey Jr.

We walked on.

"Here's one you probably don't know." His voice was calm. "I was on the 1st tee at the 1953 U.S. Junior in Tulsa , when this crew-cut 13-year-old sauntered up about 30 seconds before his tee time. Naturally, I dressed him down. 'Young man,' I said, 'if you had been a little later, you'd be going to the 2nd hole 1 down.'"

He smiled at the memory. "And that was my introduction to Jack Nicklaus ."

I looked for a phantom 13-year-old, but I saw nothing but darkened houses and empty lawns. "No visual for that one," Dey said with an apologetic shrug. "It's a rights issue."

"Speaking of Nicklaus...." I wanted to get Dey talking about his Tour years.

"Jack won the first Tournament Players Championship," he said with a brisk nod. "Labor Day weekend, 1974. Atlanta Country Club. The purse was $250,000. Actually, Jack won three of the first five, which gave our tournament a real boost."

I turned to a fresh page in my notebook. "You left the USGA to become the Tour czar. Why?"

"Czar isn't the right word." He frowned. "You know, the last czar, Nicholas, contracted hemophilia, was assassinated and burned. Nothing like that happened to me."

I didn't bother to correct him. "Commissioner, then."

Dey stopped in the middle of an empty intersection. "I wasn't even thinking of retirement from the USGA . My job remained interesting, and I was happy. But I was disturbed by the endless rumpus between the touring pros and the rest of the PGA . It was hurting golf. I thought long and hard and decided that I had an opportunity to help stabilize a very important part of the game. So I took the job." He lifted his left arm in a showy manner and stared at his watch. Then he started walking again.