William Porter Payne (born October 13, 1947) is the former chairman of
Augusta National Golf Club
Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does no ...
, having served in that position from 2006 to 2017 and overseeing the introduction of the first women to the club's membership rolls.
He was Managing Director of
Gleacher & Company, Vice Chairman of
Bank of America
The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...
, Vice Chairman of Premiere Global Services, Inc., Vice Chairman of
WebMD
WebMD is an American corporation known primarily as an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being. The site includes information pertaining to drugs. It is one of the top healthcare websites.
It was foun ...
, and a member of the Board of Directors of
Lincoln National Corporation
Lincoln National Corporation is a ''Fortune'' 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for LNC and its subsi ...
and
Cousins Properties
Cousins Properties Incorporated is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests in office buildings in Atlanta, Charlotte, Austin, Phoenix, Tampa, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The company has developed notable propertie ...
. He is chairman of Centennial Holding Company, an Atlanta-based real estate investment concern.
Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, Payne was a leading advocate for bringing the Olympic Games to Atlanta and, in 1996, he was named president and chief executive officer of the
Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games
The Atlanta Committee for the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, or ACOG, also known as the Atlanta Committee, was an informal name for the Atlanta Committee for the Games of the XXVI Olympiad. The President of ACOG was Billy Payne.
References
1996 ...
(ACOG).
Early life and education
Born in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, Payne played
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
for the hometown
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
; in his sophomore season in
1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
, the
fourth-ranked Bulldogs lost one game by one point, and he caught a touchdown pass in their
Cotton Bowl win.
Payne received his
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
(
A.B.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
)
with honors in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
in 1969 from the university as well as his law degree (
J.D.) from its
School of Law
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
in 1973. While at the university, he was initiated into the
Gridiron Secret Society
Gridiron Secret Society, founded in 1908, is a secret society at the University of Georgia. Gridiron has been called "the highest honor a male student may receive on the University of Georgia campus.". It has also been recognized as one of the "T ...
and the Georgia Alpha chapter of
Phi Delta Theta
Phi Delta Theta (), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad ...
fraternity. He received an honorary degree
Doctor of Law
A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...
s from
Oglethorpe University
Oglethorpe University is a private college in Brookhaven, Georgia. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia.
History
Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1834 in Mid ...
in 1991.
1996 Olympics
Payne first had the idea of Atlanta hosting the Olympic Games in 1987 and began to bring others to support this vision. He first gained support of Atlanta leaders for this effort, including then-mayor
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...
, an ally who helped Payne convince
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
members to award Atlanta the games. Payne's plan for the games depended heavily on private support, leading him to convince sponsors to back the games. In September 1990, Atlanta was selected by the IOC to host the 1996 Games, surprising many.
After winning the bid, Payne remained as the head of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, serving as the chief administrator to organize the Olympics. He was the first person to lead the bid effort and then remain to lead the Games.
Tenure as Augusta National chairman
On May 5, 2006, Billy Payne was announced as the replacement for
Hootie Johnson as chairman of
Augusta National Golf Club
Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does no ...
, home of the
Masters Tournament
The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...
, with Payne taking office with the opening of the club's season that October. As chairman, Payne made some adjustments at the Masters, including a new television contract with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
that allowed for unprecedented coverage of the par-3 tournament, beginning in 2008. Also that same year, a junior-patrons program was instituted, which allows one Augusta National Golf Club-accredited patron the opportunity to personally bring one junior patron (ages: 8-16), free of charge, to each of the four competitive rounds of the Masters. The program is not available on practice round days, and is also unavailable to company patrons.
On April 7, 2010, immediately before that year's Masters Tournament, Payne criticized
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records.
*
*
* Woods is widely regarded as ...
, stating that he failed as a role model. During the
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
documentary series "Tiger",
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
writer Thomas Bonk said the elite golf tournament always has "a thin undercurrent of racism" and called Payne's comments "a public whipping", a characterization backed up by Bryant Gumbel.
In 2011, Payne and his fellow members at Augusta National continued further with diverting from the club's usually uncompromising, tradition-laden ways by establishing another contemporary modification to their featured golf tournament. They sanctioned a video game that features the Masters name, logo, and their fabled golf course. The video game is so technologically sophisticated that if rain – for example – should happen to be falling in Augusta, Ga. on the day an end-user powers up the game from anywhere around the world, rain will also be simulated on the end-user's video screen.
Payne said in a statement: "'
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters' will inspire the next generation of golfers." According to Payne's release, the proceeds from sales of the video game made by Augusta National will benefit a non-profit foundation that promotes youth golf.
At the
2012 Masters Tournament, the public was reminded that some traditions at Augusta National Golf Club (ANGC) still hold true to form as Payne sideswiped reporters' questions about any prospect of allowing a woman (specifically
IBM CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
Virginia Rometty
Virginia Marie "Ginni" Rometty (born July 29, 1957) is an American business executive who served as executive chairman of IBM after stepping down as CEO on April 1, 2020. She previously served as chairman, president and CEO of IBM, becoming the ...
) to join ANGC. Payne explained the issue of who gets invited to join ANGC, which is notoriously known as having
male
Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization.
A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...
-only members, is "subject to the private deliberations of the members." ANGC offered prior membership to the last four IBM CEOs as IBM is one of three major corporate sponsors of the Masters. However, on August 20, 2012, Payne announced that former secretary of state
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...
and business executive
Darla Moore
Darla Dee Moore (born August 1, 1954) is an American investor and philanthropist. She is the former president and a partner of the private investment firm Rainwater Inc. and was married to Richard Rainwater, who founded the firm.
Early life and ...
would be the first female members of the club after 75 years of all male membership.
On August 23, 2017, Augusta National announced that Payne would retire as chairman of the club effective October 16, to be succeeded by
Fred Ridley
Fred Scobie Ridley (born August 16, 1952) is an American amateur golfer and golf administrator who won the U.S. Amateur in 1975, was elected president of the United States Golf Association (USGA) in 2004, and then became chairman of Augusta Nat ...
.
Honors
Payne received the
Olympic Order in Gold at the Closing Ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. In 2014, he was inducted as a Georgia Trustee. The honor is given by the
Georgia Historical Society
The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is a statewide historical society in Georgia. Headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, GHS is one of the oldest historical organizations in the United States. Since 1839, the society has collected, examined, and ta ...
, in conjunction with the
Governor of Georgia
The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor also has a duty to enforce state laws, the power to either veto or approve bills passed by the Georgia Legisl ...
, to individuals whose accomplishments and community service reflect the ideals of the founding body of
Trustees
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...
, which governed the Georgia colony from 1732 to 1752. He was elected to the
World Golf Hall of Fame
The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...
, class of 2019, in the lifetime achievement category.
References
''Atlanta Brave'', Donald Katz, Sports Illustrated, January 8, 1996NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award Bio''Lecture Of Tiger Not For Us'', Ray Ratto, San Francisco Chronicle, April 9, 2010''Racism Still Affects World's No. 1 Golfer'', Scott Michaux, The Augusta Chronicle, April 2, 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Billy
1947 births
Living people
Georgia Bulldogs football players
Sportspeople from Athens, Georgia
Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state)
Presidents of the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games
University of Georgia School of Law alumni
Golf administrators
World Golf Hall of Fame inductees
Recipients of the Olympic Order