Billy Payne brought Augusta National out of the past while respecting tradition
A former college football player who was late to the game of golf, Billy Payne still managed to grasp its history, especially as it related to Augusta National Golf Club, where he made a relatively meteoric rise in stature at a place used to a different pace. Payne, who retired Wednesday (effective Oct. 16) as the club's chairman, was fond of saying that he strived to maintain the ideals of Augusta National's founders -- great amateur golfer Bobby Jones and Wall Street financier Clifford Roberts -- men he never met but whose legacy he strived to maintain.
