It’s me, the amateur golfer.

We haven’t spoken in a while and I’ve been trying to reach you. I know you’ve had a lot on your mind lately and I feel like maybe I’m not at the top of the list of your callbacks, so I decided to send you this letter. I hope it finds you well.

You know and I know that people can drift apart sometimes. I know you’ve had a lot going on lately with work. First, I’d like to congratulate you on all of your recent success. I watched your U.S. Open this year where the winner, Brooks Koepka, earned $2.16 million. I read that this is the first time a winner’s share in any major tournament had exceeded $2 million! And in your Open! That is an impressive amount! I also read the total purse was more than $12 million. That’s also getting up there, isn’t it? I mean in 1996, the year before Tiger Woods won his first major, the total purse was only $2.4 million and the winner’s share was a hair over $400K.

You’re primetime now. Places like Chambers Bay and Erin Hills basically build courses just for you. You’ve really made it when guys start doing that, and now with that TV and sponsorship money… I mean five times the purse from ’96! Wow! And it’s not just Koepka! I read in Forbes that Roger Federer recently surpassed our old friend Tiger Woods as the top earner in individual sports with more than $110 million in tournament earnings. Tiger hasn’t even played much since 2009 and he was still No. 1 eight years later! Pros in your sport are doing really well. LOTS of money out there in the pro game. Your game, after all.

But it’s just… I feel like you don’t notice me anymore no matter what I do. I didn’t want your public success to affect the nice thing we had going, but lately that’s what it feels like. You’ve been making these comments; you’ve been talking to our friends like the media and saying hurtful things. You never did this in 1996, and your research printed in Golf Digest shows I wasn’t all that different back then. Please know that I have been trying to better myself though. For instance, I started using wider and squarer grooves hoping to get better for you… but I really didn’t. You didn’t notice my grooves though until THEY started using them. THEY started calling it things like “bomb and gouge” and saying it changed things. I never felt it changed things for me, and I didn’t think it changed things between us. Then you stuck the dagger in me again USGA, because for years I’d been trying to better myself by anchoring putters to my body. Again, not much success.

In 20+ years, my average index dropped from 16 to 14.5. That’s progress, but not enough to change me completely. I didn’t think it was enough for you to notice. But you noticed Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott for using anchored putters, didn’t you? Then you told me it wasn’t working out for us.

I have to be honest. It hurts. But again, I try to stay positive and think there is a future here. But now I see you in the press saying that I hit the ball too far and this is ruining things again. Talk about sending me mixed messages! Didn’t you tell me last year that I should “Tee It Forward” to help things between us? The next year you’re telling our friends that I hit it too far and am causing a “horrible impact” on your game because you have to lengthen courses? Why was I teeing it forward? Trackman says my average drive is 214 yards! Or were you talking about THEM again? Do you remember me USGA? Do you think about me anymore? Because I’ve been to all of your 11,000 public courses. Tell me how many of those you’ve lengthened because of me.

It’s not like I don’t do anything for you, USGA. I spend more than $2.5 billion on your game. You want to ignore me for the glitz and glamour of THEM, but it’s me who makes you what you are. Without me, you don’t have your sport. You don’t have your TV crews or your U.S. Open bids. You don’t have your “open doctors” adding 600 yards to a course that you’ll eventually say “I” made you lengthen. And you know what? There are 20 million of me, and it’s ME who generates interest in your game. I got 2.2 million people trying your game for the first time in 2015. I got 37 million people saying they were interested in playing your game that same year. These are some of the highest numbers ever, and you ignore ME? You ignore me for Dustin and Jordan and Rory?

Don’t push me anymore USGA. People change and things can change, but remember I was there for you in the beginning and helped get us to where we are. Please remember that before you do anything that really hurts me.

Sincerely,

The Amateur Golfer