Ed Mate had been to Augusta National Golf Club during Masters week once before, about a decade ago. But that was as a spectator for the practice rounds.

This time around, the CGA’s executive director left feeling like he’d wrung the whole nine yards out of the Masters experience.

“I did take full advantage of being there,” Mate said on Monday after serving as a rules official for the four rounds of the Masters. “The whole thing was a lot of fun. It was a lot more enjoyable and less stressful than I anticipated.

“I would describe everything about the tournament as welcoming. They’d ask, ‘Do you have anything you need?’ ‘Is there anything we can do for you?’ They appreciate you being there, and anybody there will tell you that. They just make you feel good. And if everyone around you treats you courteously, you can’t help but reciprocate.”

As with former CWGA executive director Robin Jervey from 2008-11, Mate earned the chance to be a Masters rules official by virtue of serving as an advisory member of the powerful USGA Rules of Golf Committee, representing state and regional golf associations. Mate, the CGA’s executive director since 2000, joined the Rules of Golf Committee last fall, and figures to serve up to four years on it.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, while dozens of people served on the Masters Tournament Rules Committee in 2016, the only representative from Colorado this year was Mate, though former Coloradan Thomas Pagel was also on the committee.

In his rules official role, Mate said he worked the par-4 17th hole on Thursday, the par-3 sixth on Friday, the par-4 ninth on Saturday, and the par-4 third on Sunday. He said he had just three interactions with competitors overall — with Charl Schwartzel on Friday, Dustin Johnson on Saturday and low-amateur Bryson DeChambeau on Sunday.

“It was very simple stuff, but enough to make you feel you contributed,” Mate noted.

Schwartzel’s ball at No. 6 on Friday ended up right next to a pair of sunglasses, leading to an interaction with Mate, though Schwartzel was just confirming how to proceed. He marked his ball, moved the sunglasses and played on.

As for Johnson, after he hit his approach on Saturday right of the hole on No. 9, he couldn’t get his ball to stay in place on the sloping green when he tried to replace it in front of his ball mark, and asked Mate about the proper procedure. Mate told him to find a spot as close as possible where the ball would stay put, and Johnson did just that.

On Sunday, DeChambeau hit his ball behind a temporary immovable obstruction on No. 3, and Mate helped him find his point of relief.

“I felt comfortable” overall, Mate said. “All the rulings I had were so straightforward. I’ve worked a couple of U.S. Opens, and it’s still just golf. I didn’t think of the potential of everyone watching. And I knew if I did have any doubt (about a ruling), I’d just go on the radio.”

Indeed, this certainly wasn’t Mate’s first rodeo — which is to say, major championship. He worked the U.S. Open in 2009 and ’10, and has also served as a rules official at U.S. Women’s Opens and U.S. Senior Opens. He likewise had the opportunity to work this year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, Pa., but can’t commit to that one.

At Augusta National, Mate also enjoyed interacting with — and picking the brains of — rules officials who have worked dozens and dozens of major championships over the years. Also memorable from last week was just the general feel of being at the Masters.

“It was amazing — everything you’ve heard about the Masters,” Mate said. “From the experience standpoint, it’s unlike anything, so unique. It’s like you’re in a time warp, with no cell phones (allowed for fans on the grounds) and the food costs ($2.50 for a Masters club sandwich, $2 for a soft drink and $1.50 for a Georgia Peach ice cream sandwich). It’s the spirit of Bobby Jones and Cliff Roberts: They don’t measure themselves against what everyone else is doing. They do stuff their own way. It’s not a coincidence they’re viewed the way they are.

“There was a great quote (uttered) at a rules meeting: ‘We strive for everything to be the best, and if it’s not, we’ll figure out how to make it the best.’

“And then when you come up to 9 and 18 (greens), there are no corporate sky boxes. On 9 you’re struck by the fact the only things around the green are a bunch of chairs. It’s like a well-attended CGA Stroke Play.”

Mate took advantage of being situated on hole 17 Thursday to take in the experience of the ceremonial opening tee shots by Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, with Arnold Palmer also on hand.

“That was a highlight to be there,” Mate said. “How many other times are you going to get to see (those three greats together)? It was packed. And (Masters chairman) Billy Payne exudes charisma. He’s very impressive, so well spoken and gracious. He didn’t drone on (in introducing Palmer, Nickland and Player), but said just enough.”

All in all, suffice it to say Mate is looking forward to a return trip to Augusta National next spring. After all, as they say, it’s a tradition unlike any other.
 

Rich Langston has lived in Colorado for about 45 years now, but there’s no mistaking his West Texas roots.

He can regale anyone within earshot with mesmerizing tales or anecdotes, complete with that distinctive West Texas twang. And, after 23 seasons as a highly-regarded volunteer rules official in Colorado, he certainly has plenty of material.

For instance, ask him about his most unusual ruling, and he’ll recount a story from the final round of a CGA Public Links Championship in the mid-1990s. That was when he was stationed at the par-3 16th hole at Hyland Hills Golf Course.

He noted how a competitor hit his tee shot into a greenside bunker, and when he took his stance, the ball moved. The player asked Langston how to proceed, and Langston told him to replace the ball and add a stroke. The golfer replaced the ball, took his stance and … once again his ball moved.

“He turned around and I looked at him and he said, ‘What the hell?'” Langston remembers. “At that time, probably a 2-foot-diameter big greenback turtle raises up out of the bunker (from beneath the surface of the sand). Part of his stance was probably mashing that turtle and underneath the sand she was moving around and raised up out of there. I said, ‘Go to a different part of the bunker, drop your ball and forget about that one stroke we talked about.’ We got to looking and I raked some sand and I saw some eggs. I called the golf shop. Eventually 74-75 (turtle) eggs were pulled out of there.

“It was funny as could be. … And by this time there were about three groups backed up on the 16th tee. But it’s sort of like when you make a birdie putt on 18 — something always keeps you coming back. Well, that’s what always kept me coming back.”

But after being a mainstay as a rules official in Colorado since 1993, Langston won’t be coming back in that role — at least not on a regular basis. Langston, who turns 75 years old this week, recently sold his house in Lakewood and will be relocating on Nov. 2 or 3 with his life partner Janet to Bartlesville, Okla., just north of Tulsa.

Though he plans to return next year to work the Colorado PGA Professional Championship and possibly the CoBank Colorado Senior Open, he’ll no longer be the fixture in Colorado golf he has been. That will leave a big void, considering that he estimates he’s devoted about 1,250 tournament days over his lifetime as a rules official — not counting travel days.

“Rich is a workhorse. He carries a lot of the load,” said Mike Boster, a fellow prominent chief rules official. “It’s not going to be easy to make it up. Losing Joe (Salvo, the CGA Rules Commitee chairman who passed away) in April and Rich in the fall, we’re going to be looking for talent. Rich has just been a mainstay of our rules group. Nobody is irreplaceable but it’s not going to be easy.”

How important has Langston been to Colorado golf? Important enough that the Colorado PGA granted him honorary membership, which Langston calls “the coolest, neatest, nicest thing that I’ve ever had in my life.” (At left, Langston was presented with a flag, signed by the players, at the Colorado PGA Professional Championship by executive director Eddie Ainsworth.) And important enough that the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame gave Langston its distinguished service award.

“I’m not sure how you say thank you for all the stuff he’s done for the CGA,” executive director Ed Mate said after Langston worked his final event for the association, the Mid-Amateur, early this month at Lakewood Country Club. “It’s incredible. I’ve never met somebody who loves golf as much. What he does as a rules official is his outlet for that love of the game. He’s just as good as they come.”

Langston has run the gamut with his golf volunteerism as a rules official over the years, working events run by the CGA, CJGA, Colorado PGA, AJGA, USGA, Colorado Open championships, Colorado High School Activities Association, Junior America’s Cup, Kansas Golf Association and college events. He plans to look into helping out with selected Oklahoma Golf Association tournaments, but no longer will work anywhere close to the 70-some tournament days — with the accompanying 30-some travel days — he’s worked this year.

“Even if I didn’t have this move being planned, I would still cut back this coming year,” he said. “And it’s not because I’m an old guy. I’m still 10 foot tall and bullet-proof (said with a smile). But it’s time. When I shut my business down 11 years ago, it was time to do it. There was no other reason.”

Langston admits that his hectic rules official schedule has taken its toll.

“This last year, I think in the month of May and into June I was on the golf course or traveling to and from a golf course 26 out of 34 days,” he said. “I was tired. There were a couple of days I really wasn’t ready to be on the golf course. It wasn’t because of the event or the people or the players; it was me. I was tired. And one time during that stretch there was 13 straight days. Maybe I’d have liked to play a round or two of golf in the springtime. I mean, sometime you’ve got to take your laundry to the cleaners. Sometimes you’re hard-pressed to find time to go get the oil changed in your car.”

But there’s also a care-free reason for cutting back.

“I’m going to be 75. If you hit ‘three-quarters’, what you ought to do is just go play like Lewis and Clark,” Langston said. “You just start a brand-new adventure. And Janet is game for it. I’ve been in Denver for 45 or 47 years, and she’s been here for 24 years. Denver has been good to us, but I’m not going to miss certain things about Denver, and there’s going to be things that I will miss. But as far as taking an hour and 15 minutes to drive crosstown at 6 in the morning because of traffic, I can live without that.”

Langston, who retired 11 years ago after owning a construction business, took a shine to Bartlesville a number of years ago when he was visiting Bryan Heim, a former Cherry Hills Country Club assistant professional who had taken a job as PGA head professional at Hillcrest Country Club in the Oklahoma town. Heim has since returned to Colorado as PGA head professional at Columbine Country Club.

Langston was working the Ping Junior Invitational in Oklahoma when he made the side trip to visit with Heim and his family.

“I just really liked what I saw in Bartlesville,” he said. “It’s a town of 35,000 but the feel of the town is more like a town of 300,000 or 400,000. … They’ve always taken care of the town. So many smaller communities anymore — especially those outside a metro area — have experienced some decay. I hate it; it’s not what I grew up with. In Bartlesville, they’ve taken care of it nicely. And it’s an affordable town.

“Bartlesville felt right. (But) I don’t know anybody there; I don’t know a soul.”

After getting in only four rounds of golf so far in 2015, Langston is looking forward to playing more, rather than just observing others playing. (Though he didn’t do it this year, Langston has shot his age — or better — about a half-dozen times.) And Hillcrest CC in Bartlesville is a Perry Maxwell design, and Langston loves courses designed by Maxwell.

Without a doubt, though, many golfers in Colorado will miss the thin Texan who has long made the Centennial state his home. That’s especially true for the thousands of junior players — and former junior players — Langston has impacted over the years.

“If you find (tournament players) who are in their 20s, 30s, even 40s, they know Rich from being a rules official and being so personal and personable,” said fellow chief rules official Greg With. “He knows every one of them.”

Langston (left, filling divots at Lakewood Country Club during the recent CGA Mid-Amateur) remembers silencing the room at a pre-tournament banquet for the 1999 Junior America’s Cup held at Perry Park Country Club.

“I said I do not enjoy being on the golf course with a bunch of kids,” he recalled. “But I love being out there with young players — and there is a difference.

“I don’t in any way, shape, fashion or form think that I have helped ‘sculpt their youth’. Hey, that’s for their mom and dad to do. But I enjoy being around young people. What I’ve always found is, you treat them with respect, and it comes right straight back to you.”

One of those instances came at the 2013 Ram Masters Invitational at Fort Collins Country Club, where a one-stroke penalty incurred on the final hole by freshman Jimmy Makloski, who was making his college debut, made the difference between host Colorado State finishing second or forcing a playoff for the team title. Langston was the rules official who dealt with the matter, one in which Makloski addressed his ball on the green and the ball subsequently changed position. When Makloski and then-assistant coach Bret Guetz acknowledged that Makloski had addressed the ball, Langston informed them it would be a one-stroke penalty.

“About two weeks later and I saw Ray (Makloski), Jimmy’s dad,” Langston said. “I said that was probably one of the toughest decisions I ever got brought into. Ray looked at me and said, ‘We were glad it was you.’ That was as big a compliment as a person could ever have. In all likelihood Jimmy would have been able to secure the (team) victory for CSU (if not for the penalty). You’ve got to remember this was his freshman year and his first (college) tournament. There’s not many people around that exhibited the class that Jimmy showed and that Bret showed. But you know what? In this business that’s what I’ve grown to expect.”

And people in Colorado golf have known what to expect from Langston (left) — nothing less than his all.

“I remember once I teed off (for a round of golf) and my phone rang,” he recalled. “I’m walking down the fairway talking to a member of the (Colorado PGA) who was on the Western Slope and he had a member-guest four-ball going on (and had a rules issue). It was important to him that he get it right. For God’s sake, if you can get something right by making a telephone call … it takes more maturity to do that than it does to make a wrong decision. I’ve always told every pro I’ve dealt with, ‘Don’t ever hesitate to call me.’ I don’t care what day of the week it is; that’s why I gave you my cell number. You owe it to your constituency: Get it right.”

And Langston can be assured as he leaves Colorado that he got it right.
 

So much that he once had them ingrained on his chest.

Well, sort of.

When Lis and Dustin Jensen first worked for the CGA, they shared an apartment. Even now, Jensen can’t help but chuckle when recalling one episode regarding Lis.

“He was a diehard about the Rules of Golf,” said Jensen, now the golf coach and associate director of alumni relations at Jamestown College in North Dakota. “He sat out on the patio at our apartment and was reading the original Rules of Golf or a book like that and happened to fall asleep. He was catching a suntan and had his shirt off. He fell asleep with the book laying on his stomach, and he ended up having the outline of the book burned into his stomach. We thought that was pretty funny. He loved the Rules of Golf to the point that he would burn them into his chest.”

Considering Lis’ deep involvement with the Rules, who could be surprised that after being highly respected in his seven years as the CGA’s director of rules and competitions, he’s earned his way onto a bigger stage?

After wrapping up an almost-decade-long stint with the CGA on Friday (April 19), Lis will go to work — starting Monday — as an LPGA Tour rules official. In fact, he’s scheduled to make his debut at next week’s North Texas LPGA Shootout in Irving.

So how well does Lis (pictured) know the Rules of Golf?

He has gotten ever so close to perfection — without quite reaching it — the last couple of times he’s taken the PGA/USGA Rules of Golf exam.

He said he’s scored 99 on the test twice, tantalizingly close to perfect scores. Considering a 92 or better is good enough to qualify for officiating at a U.S. Open, a U.S. Women’s Open or a U.S. Senior Open, a 99 is pretty rarefied territory.

“He’s as good as I’ve ever seen in a Rules situation — and I mean that,” said CGA executive director Ed Mate. “He’s like a five-tool athlete; he can do it all. He understands the Rules and the principles behind them. He’s a people person and he works well in a group. And he’s level-headed.

“It’s tough to lose him, but it’s gratifying to see people like Pete and Thomas Pagel (a CGA staffer from 2003-08 who is now senior director, Rules of Golf & Amateur Status, for the USGA) achieve their goals. It says a lot about them, and about the CGA.”

With Lis not being officially hired by the LPGA Tour until April 1, Mate said that the current CGA staff will handle his tournament and related duties during the 2013 season. CGA director of operations Briena Goldsmith will take the lead in that regard, but Mate and other staffers will be juggling tasks also this year. Then Mate will look to fill Lis’ position in the 2013-14 off-season.

As for Lis, he’ll be one of eight regular LPGA Tour rules officials. In that regard, he’ll be fulfilling a longtime professional aspiration.

“My career goal has been to work on a tour,” the 32-year-old said. “It’s bittersweet (leaving the CGA) but it’s the perfect time in my career to have this opportunity, especially as a single guy. But the Colorado golf community has been great to me. (The CGA staff) is like my family. I’ve gotten to know them not only professionally but personally. I owe this opportunity to the CGA and USGA for taking a chance on me as a Boatwright intern in 2003. They taught me so much.”

As with the majority of the CGA staff, Lis came on board as a USGA P.J. Boatwright intern. The internship “is designed to give experience to individuals who are interested in pursuing a career in golf administration, while assisting state and regional golf associations, as well as other non-profit organizations dedicated to the promotion of amateur golf, on a short-term, entry-level basis.”

Before he received the internship at the CGA, Lis had been an assistant golf professional in Massachusetts, and he had never before been to Colorado. But of the five or six state and regional golf associations he was interested in for a Boatwright internship, the CGA was the one that responded to his queries.

So Lis started his year-long internship in February 2003, and late in 2004 he joined the CGA’s full-time staff as assistant director of course rating and handicapping, a post held held until 2006. Then he took took over the rules and competitions job he held for seven years.

“Every event I was doing what I love to do,” he said. “On the golf course is my favorite place to be, talking to players and hearing stories.”

But it certainly wasn’t all easy. After all, Lis often had to make the final call regarding enforcement of the Rules and handing out penalties. Lis wasn’t afraid of making those tough calls, even if it involved penalizing a defending champion at the HealthOne Colorado Open, or some players in contention at a CGA championship.

Although Lis sometimes received “blowback” in such situations, he knows it comes with the territory.

Overall, he’ll look back on his experience with the CGA very fondly. And based on the feedback Lis has gotten since telling people he was leaving to take the LPGA job, the feeling is mutual.

“I’ve heard from staff, rules officials, players, and they’ve all been very supportive,” Lis said. “It’s been overwhelming. They’ve thanked me for my time here, and I’ve thanked them for helping me learn. I’m going to miss everyone in Colorado, though I’m going to be around for a while.”

Indeed, Lis said he plans to live in Colorado until probably the late summer or early fall. And, yes, he said he is scheduled to work the Solheim Cup Aug. 16-18 at Colorado Golf Club, where the best female golfers from the U.S. and Europe will square off in their biennial matches. Sometime after that, Lis plans to move to the Orlando area, where he has some family, and which isn’t far from LPGA headquarters in Daytona Beach.

In the meantime, given that he has off weeks here and there, Lis said he may even volunteer for a CGA championship or a USGA qualifier sometime this year.

Speaking of tournaments Lis has worked over the years, some have left an indelible memory. Eric Wilkinson, now the CGA director of junior competitions, remembers Lis getting his Rules cart stuck in the mud at Heritage Todd Creek Golf Club during the 2010 CGA Senior Match Play.

“I think in his efforts to get the cart out, he completely caked himself in mud,” Wilkinson recalled.

Wilkinson also remembers working the 5A boys state high school tournament with Lis at Eisenhower Golf Club in 2008. When the two arrived at the gate to the Air Force Academy, the sentry wouldn’t let them pass since the tags on the CGA van had expired. The guard didn’t believe Lis when he said they were there to run the tournament, so one of the club professionals came to the gate and drove Lis and Wilkinson in so Lis could conduct the rules meeting a day before the tournament started.

Wilkinson recalls Pete saying, “How the (heck) are you supposed to convince a guard with an M-16 that you are there to run a golf tournament?”

To avoid another problem when they returned for the first day of the tournament, Lis drove all the way back to Greenwood Village that night to switch out the vans.

It’s all in a day’s work for a person who lives by the Rules.