MGA Executive Director Joe Sprague, Jr. was elected President of the International Association of Golf Administrators (IAGA) last month. Sprague recently spoke with NEGM about his career as a golf administrator and his role at IAGA.
Joe Sprague glanced out the window of the spacious conference room of the William F. Connell Golf House & Museum in Norton, where the MGA’s offices are located, and surveyed one of the fairways of the TPC of Boston course. So near and yet so far. “I played a bit this fall, but I generally like to get away from golf on the weekends,” he commented. You’re not likely to spot him on the golf course too often in 2012, now that the duties of President of the IAGA have been added to his already demanding schedule as Executive Director of the MGA.
Although he earned a master’s degree in education and planned to go into teaching, Sprague seemed destined by his genes to end up in golf administration. His father, Joe Sprague Sr., whose entrée into golf was through caddying in East Providence, Rhode Island in the 1940s, became one of the top players in the state and went on to serve as the executive director of the Rhode Island Golf Association for many years. Thus, it was hardly surprising that Sprague found himself swinging golf clubs at age five and caddying at age nine.
Sprague learned a solid work ethic from his father. Although he was a junior member of the club where he caddied (his father was a seven-time club champion), Sprague understood that his work as a caddie was his first priority. “He told me I was a caddie first and a junior member second,” Sprague recalled. “I had to take it seriously. No caddying, no golf.”
Sprague attended Providence College, but did not play golf there. “I was golfed out,” he commented. However, during the summers he worked on the grounds crew at a local course. After graduating, he gravitated to the Philadelphia area, where coincidentally he found himself living ten minutes from the famed Merion Golf Club. He began caddying at the club, which – along with watching Jack Nicklaus win the 1986 Masters on a black and white television — rekindled his enthusiasm for the game. Soon he retrieved his clubs which had been packed away in Rhode Island.
Sprague spent a couple of years caddying on the PGA Tour, with intermittent success. He received some advice from Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon, who he knew from his high school golfing days. Although he succeeded in securing a couple of steady jobs with low-profile Tour professionals, life as a caddie was not lucrative. “It was a great experience,” noted Sprague. “I saw the whole country, and had the [golf] bug back.”
Sprague gave up the itinerant caddying life, got married, moved back to Rhode Island, and pursued his master’s degree while working as a tournament director for the RIGA under his father. “He could be tough to work for,” Sprague recalled. After his father retired in 1990, the RIGA offered Sprague the top job. “I never would have expected to be in that position,” Sprague commented. He observed that his father had laid a solid groundwork. “I just tried not to mess it up.”
Sprague obviously did more than avoid messing up. In 2007, the MGA chose him to succeed Tom Landry as its executive director. “It’s been a great run,” he remarked. “We have a great staff.” The MGA’s three primary functions are conducting championships, administering the GHIN handicap system for more than 90,000 golfers, and running the First Tee program. It also conducts educational programs and provides support to clubs.
Sprague modestly credited the solid work done by his predecessors (Dick Haskell and Landry) at the MGA and explained that under his tenure “we’ve just tweaked things a bit.” Two of his initiatives have been fostering stronger relationships with allied golf organizations such as the NEPGA and the Ouimet Fund, and spearheading an economic impact study in which other organizations participated. During the last two years, the MGA has also introduced its popular Member Days, which allow the general public to play on elite courses. “It’s a win-win, because it provides business to clubs on slow days and provides a great value to players,” Sprague noted.
As president of the IAGA, Sprague will oversee an organization comprised of over 250 golf administrators representing 3.5 million golfers. The IAGA was formed in 1968 as an informal association of golf administrators for the purpose of comparing notes and discussing best practices in the field. Each November, members meet at its annual conference for educational programs and discussions on various topics.
Sprague, who has been an IAGA board member since 2006, emphasized the value of the networking provided by the association. During his one-year term as president, he anticipates doing some travelling and participating in many conference calls, which will focus on planning the November 2012 conference. “It’s a nice honor,” he noted. It’s not, however, likely to lead to playing more golf. That might have to wait until retirement.
About Jack Ross
I write golf news, commentary and features, and am the editor of Ross' Rulings. I completed an intensive PGA/USGA rules workshop and have officiated at state amateur competitions. I also contribute to Kingdom Magazine and Arnold Palmer's Guide to the Majors, and am a co-author of "Mastering Golf's Toughest Shots: The World's Best Caddies Share Their Secrets of Success" (Sellers Publishing 2012). I serve as communications director for the Professional Caddies Association.
Related posts:
- MGA Executive Director Joe Sprague Elected as 2012 International Association of Golf Administrators (IAGA) President
- Mike Higgins New NEPGA Executive Director
- Sunice Appoints Howie Ellis as New Executive Vice-President of Sales for the United States market
