Jon Rahm talks with Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club Fred Ridley during the Golden Bear Pro-Am prior to the Memorial Tournament
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley with Jon Rahm in May 2023
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley is a legacy guy.
We know this not only because he leads a tradition-rich club that dates to 1932 but also because of the pride he takes in his place of work. Ridley, who is 71, practices law out of the Tampa office of Foley & Lardner, which was founded in Milwaukee in 1842 when fewer than 10,000 residents populated the city and the streets were still unpaved; in the more than 180 years since, Foley & Lardner has grown into one of the country’s powerhouse law firms with more than two-dozen offices, A-list clientele and $1 billion in gross annual revenues.
His firm’s centuries-long expansion from its humble roots means something to Ridley. When addressing the media at last year’s Masters, he called working for Foley & Lardner a “privilege,” adding, “we exist today because of many generations of lawyers who thought it was important to leave our organization better than they found it.”
Ridley wasn’t plugging his employer for brownie points. He was making a larger point about the chasm in men’s professional golf that had been created by a wave of elite players signing with the upstart, cash-rich LIV Golf tour. In Ridley’s eyes, those pros were in effect choosing loot over legacy, and ultimately that was not a good thing for the game at large. “These players were taking the platform that had been given to them — that they rightly had earned success on, by the way — and moving to another opportunity, perhaps not thinking about who might come behind them,” Ridley said.
The chairman was echoing comments that he had made in a statement in late 2022, when he said of players defecting to LIV, “We are disappointed in these developments.”
Surely, then, Ridley could not have been thrilled by LIV’s biggest coup of 2023: its signing of reigning green-jacket holder, Jon Rahm. Rahm’s LIV leap means come April, for the first time in the Saudi-financed league’s short history, one of its representatives will sit shoulder to shoulder next to Ridley at the storied Champions Dinner on Tuesday evening of Masters week. Much of the frostiness and awkwardness between LIV and PGA Tour players (or perceived frostiness and awkwardness) has dissipated since the 2023 Masters, but still, having Rahm at the head of the Champions Dinner table is symbolism that won’t be lost on LIV brass, including golf-lover Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which underwrites LIV.
When Ridley meets with the press at the 2024 Masters, he no doubt will be asked for his latest thoughts on LIV and the continued upheaval and uncertainty in the pro game. But in the meantime, a Wednesday announcement from Augusta National gave us some insight into Ridley and his club’s view of LIV’s current place in the game.
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