It’s been more than three months since Seth Waugh announced he was stepping down as CEO of the PGA of America. Little has been said since about the progress in finding a new hire.
All that we know is that Chief Championships Officer Kerry Haigh stepped in to serve as interim CEO, but the PGA made it clear that Haigh wouldn’t be part of the candidate pool for Waugh’s replacement, and Spencer Stuart, an executive search firm, was chosen to help in the process.
Golfweek has learned that the PGA of America interviewed 10 candidates and narrowed its list to two or three finalists, who were interviewed in New York City while the search committee was there for the Ryder Cup “One Year Out” press conference and associated events on Oct. 8. The search committee is believed to consist of seven members – three officers and four other board members – including Gideon Yu, one of its independent directors and a former COO at Facebook and YouTube.
With the PGA’s annual meeting being held in a few weeks in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from Nov. 4-8, it is expected that a decision on a new leader could be imminent so that a new CEO could be introduced to the membership during their national gathering.
“That would be a missed opportunity if that didn’t happen,” a source said.
Who will fill those fancy loafers (sans socks) of Waugh remains a mystery.
“They’re pretty tight-lipped about it, and I didn’t hear who made the finalists,” an industry insider said. “Culturally, they’re really looking to have someone who can connect with the PGA membership and bridge the gap between these guys making seven figures in their Ivy Tower in Frisco and the club pro who is working 12-hour days six if not seven days a week. How can they make the average PGA professional’s life better? So I think they’re trying to bridge that gap with whoever they choose as a leader.”
Finding the right person for the job is doubly hard for this very reason because the position demands multiple skillsets.
“One of the perennial challenges that the PGA has had is you got two very different businesses going on. You’ve got the championships, which is the golden goose, and they feel a strong need to future-proof those assets in some way, so, they’re probably going to want a CEO who has experience with those kinds of leadership and management decisions on $100-$200 million businesses, and then they’ve got the 30,000 members in the association side. It’s a very different…
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