George S. May, founded the George S. May Company, one of the world’s premier business consulting firms catering primarily to small and medium sized businesses. George S May also played an important role in popularizing the game of golf in the United States. Throughout the 40s and 50s, he was a preeminent golf promoter and held a number of tournaments at his country club, the Tam O’Shanter, in Niles, Ill.
George S. May was an avid golfer, but given his passion for business, it is not surprising that he became more interested in the business side of the game. This interest eventually eclipsed his interest even in playing golf. George S May’s reputation grew as a result of his keen business insights, flair for promotion, innovative ideas and vision for the future of the sport.
May has been awarded the high honor of being listed as one of Golf Magazine’s 100 Heroes of American Golf. The book Chicago Golf: The First 100 Years by Tom Govedarica has a chapter called “The George S. May Decade: 1951-1960.” George S. May was inducted into the Illinois PGA (Professional Golfer’s Association) Hall of Fame on October 9, 1992, with an award plaque reading, “Illinois Professional Golf Association Hall of Fame Award Citation Honoring Mr. George S. May.”
Many of today’s standard golf tournament procedures, including those adopted on the PGA Tour, are products of George S. May’s innovative thinking. Between 1941 and 1958, May hosted the game’s greatest players for a 10-day tournament each year at his Tam O’Shanter Country Club in Niles, Ill.
George S May ran the All-American Open, World Invitation, All-American Women’s Open and Women’s World Invitational for seventeen years, and paid out nearly $2 million in prize money, including winner’s checks of $50,000, an astronomical sum for a sporting prize at the time. Typically at that time, the PGA Tour was playing for comparatively small purses. May, on the other hand, offered first place prizes a full five times what a pro could earn by winning another tournament.
George S May was anointed golf’s King of Promotion, and once he was on the club grounds at his Tam O’Shanter events, spectators enjoyed an atmosphere more like a carnival than a golf tournament. He sold concessions, erected bleachers, put up the first scoreboards, and made players wear uniform numbers, all in an effort to bring new fans to tournament golf.
The fertile imagination of George S. May introduced many innovations to PGA golf, including the first live national broadcast of a golf tournament, bleachers at key spots on the course, leader boards, short-wave radio to update scores, access for ticket holders to the clubhouse, golf carts for club members, monthly minimum dues for club members, and the installation of telephones at each tee for members’ use.
The golf tournaments at Tam O’Shanter Country Club turned out to be exceptionally popular and also very valuable in promoting the name of the George S. May International Company.