He has been named one of the most powerful men in golf — four places above Tiger Woods.

But Steve Mona, the CEO of the World Golf Foundation, gently dismisses his No 25 ranking in magazine Golf Inc. as he takes his seat in the Fairmont Southampton lobby.

There is no doubt, though, that the 57-year-old, who plays off a ten handicap, sits at the top table of golf’s decision-makers.

His influence within the game has brought him to Bermuda for a second whistle-stop visit to attend the International Association of Golf Administrators’ annual conference. He also attended the last one held in Bermuda 24 years ago.

“If you want to know the truth, there’s a whole bunch of people who are more powerful than me that aren’t on that list,” Mona said. “Trust me on that one!”

His job, broadly, is to “enhance both interest and participation in the game” and he works with the chief executives of all the major golf organisations — the LPGA, The Masters Tournament, the PGA of America, the PGA Tour, the United States Golf Association, the European Tour and the R&A.

His lofty position in the game means he has got to know Jack Nicklaus, his hero and “an absolute gentleman”, well over the years.

But job perks aside, one of the biggest goals for Mona, whose Golf Ready initiative brings 100,000 adults into the game a year, is to have golf reflect society in its social make-up.

African Americans, Asians and Hispanics, he explains, make up 37 per cent of the United States but only 21 per cent of the golf population.

So are there enough black golfers following in Tiger’s footsteps?

“No, is the short answer,” Mona said. “We have to make sure these [Bermuda] kids have role models and heroes that they can aspire to — and they have to look like they do.

“If you have a bunch of guys out there that look like me, that’s fine for guys who look like me, but it doesn’t do much for people who don’t.

“How do you do that? You can’t take someone who is African American, and say ‘here’s a spot on the PGA tour’, they have to be able to compete.

“You have to get them started in the game, get them access, get them on programmes where they can maximise their ability. You fill this funnel up — and some of them are going to make it, some aren’t, just like not all Caucasians aren’t either.”

He hopes the recent Grand Slam of Golf, the last in Bermuda, sowed some seeds of ambition in the Island’s young players.

“I loved the Grand Slam [being here],” Mona said. “The vistas are incredible ... Bermuda’s had a good run and it’s done the Island a lot of good.”

Michael Sims is presently the top player from these shores and teed it up on the web.com tour last year, while Kim Swan, the teaching professional at Port Royal, made it on to the European Tour in the 1980s.

Heroes are important, according to Mona, who believes it is impossible to underestimate the impact of a young Bermudian breaking through on the world stage.

“It would be tremendous,” he said. “To play that parallel out, you are starting to see that in Asia — and I know we are nowhere near Asia — but you start to see people in the top ten of Majors. It just explodes.

“To get a local who grew up here, maybe from humble means, who kind of dug it out of the dirt — that would be fantastic for the perception of the game and for bringing others to the sport.”

He added: “Bermuda certainly has the courses and the conditions. This wind [here] is good — you grow up in tough conditions and you will be a much better player when you get out there — just look at the likes of Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite.”

Arguably, Mona’s biggest contribution to elite golf in recent years has been the rewriting of the criteria for the much-debated World Golf Hall of Fame, one of the companies at the Foundation’s St Augustine headquarters in Florida.

The Class of 2013 included Fred Couples and Colin Montgomerie and their inclusion was hotly disputed by many who cited their lack of Major championship wins.

Couples, despite his popularity, has just one Masters triumph to his name while “Monty”, infamously, failed to win one of the big four during an otherwise stellar playing career.

The new rules identify just four categories — male, female, veteran and lifetime achievement — and stipulate a minimum number of wins, 15, while the ceremony is now biennial and will be moved around the world and held during the week of big tournaments.

The next one, for example, is at St Andrews before next year’s Open where the Class of 2015, which was announced last month, will be presented. The inductees are Mark O’Meara, who won two Majors, Laura Davies, four, David Graham, two, and A.W. Tillinghast, the legendary course designer.

The four were met with general approval but the Major issue remains a thorny one for many. Should you have won multiple Majors to be eligible? Many think so — but not Mona.

“It’s the Hall of Fame,” Mona said. “There’s always going to be subjectivity. Monty is very deserving — eight [European] Order of Merits in a row, his Ryder Cup record is without parallel, captain, and what he meant to Europe, so I would never argue he is not deserving.

“That’s why I think you can’t say he never won a Major so he can’t be considered, because it’s not strictly on your record.

“If it was, you wouldn’t need a committee, you would just look at how many Majors won and it’s ‘you’re in or you’re out’ and that’s just not the way it works. There has to be a certain amount of subjectivity.”

This time around, Mona said there was a 16-persons committee, which included Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Nancy Lopez and Annika Sörenstam, that selected the final four.

“I think the proof is in the pudding,” Mona said. “Not to be immodest, but we did a great job with this year’s class.”