Dey's observations changed the golf world

Joe Dey was there 83 years ago when historic golfer Bobby Jones took to Merion Golf Club, just miles outside of Philadelphia, to win the U.S. Amateur title, completing the only Grand Slam in golf history.

That’s what Dey made a living out of — he analyzed the game he loved.

In fact, his passion for the game led him to drop out of Penn to become a sportswriter.

Dey’s career started modestly, taking a jobs at the Philadelphia Public Ledger and the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

Very quickly, however, Dey found himself not just in the presence of the greatness that was Bobby Jones, but covering him intently. Dey’s job during the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1930 was to follow Jones and capture every moment on the golfer’s road to the Grand Slam.

Two days after Jones’ win, Dey wrote, “Six days of golf, and at the end Bob Jones had clinched the final crown as unquestioned monarch of all he surveys.”

In his own right, Dey was as a monarch in the golf community for much of his life. Prior to Dey’s death in 1991, he served as the United States Golf Association’s Executive Director and as the first commissioner of the Player’s Golf Association tour.

No matter how much power Dey wielded, his observations were always well-conceived.

In February of 1953, he published an article in USGA Journal about the rules of golf.

“Suppose you were called upon to write a code of rules from playing golf,” he wrote. “Suppose you had to start from scratch, with no previous rules to help you and with only your experience in playing the game to guide you.”

His fascination with assuring that the game he loved was played logically led to him serving a large role in the discussions between his USGA and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews to assure that the rules for playing golf at Augusta, Ga. were the same across the ocean at St. Andrews, Scotland.

This power of observation served as a magnet in the golf world. In Dey’s New York Times’ obituary, Jack Nicklaus commented that outside of his own father and his personal golf teacher, Dey was “the most influential person in my life.

“Every time I had a question or a problem about what was right, I always picked up the phone and placed a call to Joe,” Nicklaus told the Times. “I knew I would always get the right answer, whether it was what I wanted to hear or not. We loved him.”

Now, 32 years after the U.S. Open last descended on Merion, it does again this weekend, as the world of golf turns its eyes to watch Tiger Woods, Rory McElroy and the rest of the world’s best take on the short, yet challenging course.

Despite the hiatus from Merion, before his death Dey was confident that the Open would return.

“I’m quite sure the U.S. Open will return to Merion,” Dey told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1987. “It’s as great a test of championship golf today as it ever was.”

Even in death, Dey’s observations still carry a great weight.

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