KEY POINTS:
Billy Payne's career is what you might call a life fulfilled. It includes being a college football star in the 1960s, amassing a tidy fortune as a property lawyer in the 70s, leading the bid to bring the Olympics to Atlanta in the 80s, chairing the organising committee for the games in 1996 and becoming chairman of Augusta National Golf Club in the first decade of the 21st century.
Such has been the rise and rise of Payne. This week he presides over his first Masters tournament since he became only the sixth man to lead the world's most famous private golf club, which was founded in 1932. Payne brings a number of firsts to the role. He's the first man in his 50s to be in the job since club and tournament founder Clifford Roberts passed through that stage of life in the decade after World War II.
Payne's the first club chairman who never knew Roberts or Bobby Jones, the duo who started the Augusta tradition. Payne is also the first chairman from Georgia.
Payne was appointed last May. Incumbent Hootie Johnson, who'd achieved worldwide infamy because of his staunchness in the face of severe criticism over having no women members, selected him.
Installing Payne as the new public face of Augusta National is an enlightened move. He's a young-looking 58-year-old compared to the austere septuagenarian Johnson. He brings an international reputation as a leader and sports administrator. He's known to the international golfing press because he's been chairman of the Masters media committee for the last six years.
Augusta National and the Masters have always been innovators, not just in golf but in professional sport. The Masters was the first tournament to recognise and cater for the needs of the paying spectator. It has always provided the best television coverage and last year offered live coverage on the internet.
Payne's task now is to ensure that Augusta National's reputation as a leader in golf is maintained. He is open-minded about developing a specific Masters tournament ball as a method of reining in the ever-lengthening distances players hit because of advancing technology. He will oversee the development of what is expected to be the world's best practice facility on what is now the public carpark. (The cash-rich club is constantly buying neighbouring properties as replacement car parking areas.)
He wants to use modern technology to expose the tournament to much larger world audiences.
But on the, for some, vexed question of women members, Billy Payne's attitude seems not that different to his five predecessors. Asked soon after his appointment if a female was likely to be admitted in the foreseeable future, he replied tactfully "we have no specific timetable to address that issue."
* Next week Peter Williams reports from the 71st Masters at Augusta National.
