Seth Waugh on the 2020 PGA Merchandise Present.
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One other governing-body chief is heading out the door. Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, has stepped down as the pinnacle of one of many greatest organizations in golf.
Waugh, 65, served because the PGA of America chief for six years, however is just not renewing his contract, which is about to finish on June 30. Kerry Haigh, the chief championships officer, will step in as interim CEO, although a seek for Waugh’s everlasting substitute is already underway, in accordance with an announcement launched by the PGA of America Wednesday night.
“I’m happy with all that we have now achieved for our greater than 30,000 PGA of America Golf Professionals and the sport,” Waugh stated in a press launch. “I’ve loved each second serving alongside all of my colleagues, all the varied Officers and Board Members and attending to know so a lot of our devoted Members who’re on the entrance line of the sport that we love every single day of the yr. The day-to-day recreation has by no means been stronger, extra beloved or higher positioned for the long run due to their ardour and the way we have now all labored collectively to make hundreds of thousands of lives higher by our outstanding sport.”
Waugh’s time atop the group noticed the PGA’s premier championship, the PGA Championship, transfer from August to Could, making manner for the PGA Tour’s end-of-season playoffs to wrap up earlier than the soccer season begins. He additionally performed a major position in getting professional golf’s schedule again up and working throughout the Covid pandemic. The PGA Championship was the primary main carried out in 2020 in any case of them had been postponed or canceled.
Waugh’s exit comes throughout a interval of nice change on the high stage of professional golf, notably within the C-suite. Keith Pelley stepped down as DP World Tour CEO in early April, taking a job with Maple Leaf Sports activities and Leisure in his homeland of Canada. Martin Slumbers, head of the R&A, has already introduced his plans to retire from that publish on the finish of this yr.
All through the unrest of the previous couple of years of professional golf, Waugh maintained a powerful relationship with the PGA Tour and its chief, Jay Monahan. The 2 have labored carefully collectively and cast a bond because the formation of LIV Golf was rocking the panorama {of professional} golf. Waugh didn’t shrink back from critiquing LIV, calling the league construction “flawed” in 2022, and asserting in 2023 that “irrespective of how a lot cash you have got, in some unspecified time in the future, burning it doesn’t really feel superb. I don’t see they’re undertaking a lot.”
Waugh’s departure comes on the finish of his contract, but additionally throughout an attention-grabbing time for the PGA of America. The subsequent Ryder Cup, which the PGA of America predominantly owns and operates, is about to happen in 15 months at Bethpage Black, simply exterior New York Metropolis. That the 2025 version is a U.S.-based Ryder Cup and so near a world financial hub, the occasion is predicted to be a mega-moneymaker for the group. However Waugh and PGA of America executives are not less than 4 months behind in naming the U.S. captain.
Waugh had been holding conversations with Tiger Woods the previous couple of months, each earlier than the Masters and after, however Woods has not but made up his thoughts on the captaincy. The 2023 Ryder Cup, performed exterior Rome in October, was received by Staff Europe however will likely be remembered partially for angst surrounding stories about Patrick Cantlay’s not carrying a hat throughout play, an alleged protest towards gamers not being paid immediately for his or her involvement within the occasion.
