MICHIGAN PGA CENTENNIAL (1922-2022)
PART 2: The second 25-year segment of the Michigan Section PGA (1947-1972)
This is the second of a four-part series produced in celebration of the centennial year of the Michigan Section PGA.
Mr. Rules, Warren Orlick, Makes Michigan and National Impact
By Greg Johnson
Warren Orlick, dressed like a PGA professional from a foregone era in suit coat, tie and plus fours, shared a greeting and handshake with legend Gene Sarazen, stopped to chat at a table where six-time Masters winner Jack Nicklaus and his wife Barbara were dining with Robert Trent Jones Sr., among others, and then spied and made his way toward a table that included a golf writer from Detroit he recognized, Jack Saylor of the Detroit Free Press.
It was lunch time in the early 1990s inside the clubhouse at Augusta National during a Masters Tournament week. As he approached the table where Saylor was seated, he was introduced by Saylor to the group as golf’s Mr. Rules from Michigan.
“How many Masters is this for you now Warren?” Saylor asked. “I don’t count them any longer Jack, I just count my blessings that I’ve made it to another one,” was Orlick’s response.
A part of golf’s elite leaders nationally and internationally as well as considered one of the leading experts on the rules of golf, Orlick is arguably the most prominent PGA golf professional ever to call the Michigan Section PGA home.
He was president of the section from 1956-58, but a leader through his 29-year career as head professional at Tam O’Shanter Country Club and before that an assistant to Wilfrid E. Reid at Indianwood Golf & Country Club.
In 1971-72 Orlick was the 17th president of the PGA of America. He’s the only golf professional to have led both the PGA of America and the Michigan Section. Horton Smith, a playing legend who was the head golf professional at Detroit Golf Club, was president of the PGA of America from 1952-54 but never served as president of the section.
This fall John Lindert, the director of golf at Country Club of Lansing, will become just the second Michigan professional to serve as both president of the section (2008-09) and the PGA of America. He is currently the vice-president of the PGA of America.
Mark Wilson of the Professional Golf Management Program at Ferris State University, a past chairman of the PGA of America Rules Golf Committee, and like Orlick a Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member, said Orlick historically was the first PGA professional from the U.S. who was considered to be a peer of individuals from the USGA in terms of rules knowledge and contributions to the rules of the game.
“PGA professionals got involved in the rules of the game in the 1950s and Warren was the leader of that, the very first chairman of the PGA of America Rules of Golf Committee,” Wilson said. “He was an integral part of the rules committee at the Masters. He had regular phone calls with Clifford Roberts (co-founder of Augusta National and the Masters with Bobby Jones) and met with him in New York about various aspects of the tournament and how it could be improved.”
In 1990, Orlick lost the use of one of his hands due to health issues. While going through his rehabilitation he established a weekly adaptive golf clinic. He went on to start adaptive golf leagues and tournaments, and in 2002 was presented the Rick Knas Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to Michigan’s athletes with disabilities.
Also during the era and remarkable for the PGA of America, but with less impact at the section level, the PGA Tour split from the PGA of America in 1968. Led by some of its top players including Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, the Tournament Players Division split from the PGA of America and five years later would become known as the PGA Tour.
To read the full piece by Johnson, go to: michiganpga.com
