Meet the man who has done it all on the PGA TOUR

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When Frank Kavanaugh was hired by Deane Beman to join the PGA TOUR staff, he thought he was coming on board to be a rules official. While Kavanaugh did get to make more than a few rulings during his 35 years with the TOUR, his duties extended far beyond those boundaries.

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In those early days of the TOUR, Kavanaugh did a little bit of everything. He served as an advance man who marked the golf course, produced the tee times, calculated the weekly money payout, and delivered or mailed the checks to the players. He interpreted the rules a few times, too.

Back in November 1974, the former high school coach from Kansas City was one of 27 people who worked for the PGA TOUR. He was recommended for the job by his hometown buddy Jim Colbert, who was a member of the PGA TOUR's Policy Board, and hired by then-commissioner Beman as one of two rookie rules officials.

In those days the PGA TOUR was headquartered in Washington, not far from Congressional Country Club, in less-than-opulent surroundings. Kavanaugh said the offices were located in the bottom of an apartment and said a common joke was that the TOUR had more employees in the field than in the office. That's not the only thing that's dramatically changed over the years.

In those days, prior to the establishment of the all-exempt TOUR, one of the two men on the advance team would set up the tee times for the Monday qualifier as well as the tournament. Kavanaugh spent many hours sequestered in a room with a stack of index cards that he used to create the pairings. "The TOUR was run by 3-by-5 cards," he said. Today the tee times are computer generated, completing in seconds a task that required Kavanaugh hours to complete.

Kavanaugh

In those days when the tournament was complete, Kavanaugh would copy names off the handwritten leaderboard, get out a calculator and break down the week's payout "and hope you got it right," he said. He would take the list to the tournament's finance chairman, who would cut the checks. Kavanaugh would mail the checks to the men who had filled out an envelope or carry them to the next venue to be picked up. He often traveled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of checks.

Rules officials were also the guys who set up the course and they didn't like it much when a player would go low on their setup. So you can imagine the grief that Kavanaugh handed out to fellow official Wade Cagle at Memphis in 1977 when Al Geiberger shot a 30 on the first nine, the side that Cagle had set up.

"I called Wade on the radio and said, "Hey, the pro-am was yesterday,'" Kavanaugh said.

But Geiberger didn't slow down when he made the turn and started to play his second nine, the side that Kavanaugh had set up. When Geiberger made a putt for a 29 on his final nine -- giving him a TOUR record 59 -- Kavanaugh's radio buzzed. "No sooner than that putt had gone in, there was Wade on the radio giving me grief," Kavanaugh said.

Kavanaugh said Geiberger's round could have been even lower. When setting the hole locations the previous night, Kavanaugh changed one hole to a spot across the green. Naturally, Geiberger's shot to that hole landed next to where the flag was originally planned.

Geiberger

"Al's caddie told me they would have shot 58 if I'd left the hole where I should have," Kavanaugh said.

His first ruling came at the 1975 Phoenix Open. Kavanaugh was stationed on the first tee and was introducing himself to the players before their round when he was summoned to the adjacent 18th green. J.C. Snead had knocked his approach into the bleachers and wanted a ruling. He asked, "Are you a rules official? Where do I drop?" Snead had the ball in his hand and Kavanaugh pointed out the drop area. He would have a similar conversation hundreds of times over the years, even with legends like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

"Arnold Palmer is just a fine man," said Kavanaugh, who worked Palmer's tournament at Bay Hill for more than 20 years and came to count The King as a friend. But that didn't stop him from properly applying the rules one year at Butler National, a decision that didn't bother Palmer, but didn't sit well with Arnie's Army.

"It was the ninth hole and I denied him relief," Kavanaugh said. "I thought the crowd was going to string me up. They were yelling, 'C'mon, give Arnie relief!' I'll never forget that."

Nor will he forget his first meeting with Nicklaus at the Canadian Open. He was called over for a rule on the ninth hole and didn't know who had made the request until his cart topped the hill and he saw the big afro hairdo of Angelo Argea. He then knew that Jack Nicklaus had requested a ruling.

Kavanaugh drove to the spot and Nicklaus was waiting. "I stepped out of the cart and Jack called me by my first name, even though I had never met the man in my life," Kavanaugh said. "I couldn't believe he knew my name."

Now, 35 years later, both Palmer and Nicklaus have invited Kavanaugh to come to their tournaments as a guest this year. No rulings, only relaxation. It's probably fitting; he's spent more than a year of his life at Bay Hill and Muirfield Village.

Kavanaugh has officially retired to his Asbury, N.J., home, where he'll catch up the to-do list generated by his wife Carolyn. Kavanaugh is the last of the Beman Brigade, the final member of that 27-person team, to call it quits.

He'll be able to put away the walkie-talking, He won't need the key to the electric cart, and he won't have to hold his tongue as often. After more than three decades, he can spend more time in his own bed and less time eating breakfast in a hotel lobby.

But for all the hard work and occasional hardships required of the PGA TOUR Pioneer, Kavanaugh wouldn't change a thing.

"It was a good run," he said.

Stan Awtrey is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.