As an innovative management consultant who helped corporations of various sizes bring success to their organizations throughout the beginning part of the twentieth century, George S May laid the foundation for his own corporation to help others long into the future. But his contribution to American business did not end with management consulting. Instead, George S. May went on to significantly impact the game of golf and enhance its standing within the overall realm of sports. Treating golf as a business opportunity instead of as merely a game, George S May helped to bring it the attention and fan following that has made it a popular part of sports culture.

George S. May didn’t bring about changes to the game of golf by participating as a golfer himself, but rather as a promoter of the game. He worked behind the scenes to explore different and innovative avenues that he could then inspire others to adopt. Instead of acting merely as a change agent, himself, he modeled various ways in which positive changes could be made throughout the sport in fashions that would be easy for others to adopt.

As the owner of the Tam O’Shanter Country Club in Niles, Illinois, George S May began to host yearly golf championship events, beginning in 1941. He noticed that golfers on the professional circuit were not well paid when they either competed in or won tournaments. Directly related to this, he also noticed that the game of golf simply did not command much attention at the national level and was followed and played by those who loved the game but not without a business purpose to back it up.

When George S May began hosting events at his club, he immediately enacted changes that would catapult golf from a little known game to a high profile sport. Instead of small winnings, George S. May offered huge purses. Instead of closing in tournaments so that they were accessible only by players and a small group of followers, he made it a spectator event by putting up bleachers at different holes and selling concessions like other sports did. Then then George S May applied the biggest innovation of them all when he invited in television cameras to put his golfing events in front of at-home viewers and enhance their knowledge of the game while cementing a larger group of followers. For his contributions, he was named to the list of the 100 Heroes of American Golf.