Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, George S May worked as a management consultant who helped organizations of all sizes to bring positive changes to the way in which they did business. In doing so, he built his own organization of management consultants so that he could train others to help corporations in the future. His contribution to the annals of American history does not end as a management consultant, however. Instead, George S May also made a name for himself as the man who brought innovation, change and the national spotlight to the game of golf. Instead of continuing to treat the game as merely a pastime, George S. May found ways to apply his consulting expertise and turn it into a major sport.
As a business consultant, George S. May realized that the way to bring about long term changes to the game of golf was not as a person who engineered all of those changes on his own and forced them upon others. Instead, as a promoter of the game, he could model certain behaviors and activities to others as a way to encourage positive changes to be adopted universally to the betterment of the sport.
George S. May owned the Tam O’Shanter Country Club in Niles, Illinois. In 1941, he began to host golfing championships at his club, and in this way did his work at promoting the sport begin. George S May first noticed that golfers on the professional golfing circuit were extremely low paid and so played more for the love of the game than as dedicated professionals. As a result, golf garnered few followers and little attention from the wider pool of potential fans.
Knowing that he could model changes that would affect the entire sport, George S. May began by offering huge amounts of money to those who participated in his tournaments, with winner’s purses equaling sums far greater than they could ever earn elsewhere. To earn money to offset these purses, as well as to bring additional fans to the sport itself, George S May began utilizing the best practices he’d seen modeled in other sports arenas and built bleachers at various holes so that participants could follow along as the game was played. He also offered food and drink through concession stands, to enhance the feeling of attending a major sporting event. But perhaps his most innovative change was to invite in television crews to broadcast the game to viewers around the country, cementing its place in the realm of sports. For his innovative efforts, George S. May was included in the list of 100 Heroes of American Golf.
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