PGA of America Brings Adult to Room with CEO Hire

Don Rea has a new duet partner for karaoke night at PGA Frisco.

On Wednesday, the PGA of America announced that Terry Clark will be the new Chief Executive Officer of the association. Clark, the Chief Marketing Officer at UnitedHealth, has been an independent director at the PGA since 2024, so he has become familiar with the inner-workings of the organization.

Unlike his predecessor, Derek Sprague, who walked away from the CEO job at the beginning of the year, Clark comes from the business world first and is not “one of their own” from the PGA’s ranks. That would be more in line with prior CEOs who came from outside executive positions, such as Seth Waugh or Pete Bevacqua, before he got into lobbing grenades at the ACC. Clark is not foreign to golf or major operations, given his seat as a director and his company’s involvement with the Players Championship, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, and a partnership with Rory McIlroy and other golfers.

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So it seems like a good match on paper and comes at a time when the PGA is in desperate need of some gravitas. The 2025 season could be best described as unserious, beginning with the Bozo the Clown press conference routine from its President at Quail Hollow and ending with ugly crowd control issues at Bethpage that were dismissed by PGA leadership as happening “on both sides” of the Atlantic. The Ryder Cup was undoubtedly a commercial success, but a magnet for controversy from early ticket prices, vulgar emcees, fan behavior, and a general unpreparedness or apathetic silence from leadership. This says nothing of the membership the PGA is supposed to serve first and foremost.

Clark should bring an adult to the room and skill to a position that has control, or a portion of it, over two of the five biggest events in men’s golf. The PGA faces some major decisions, such as persistent rumors about selling off some stake in the Ryder Cup to the private equity-backed PGA Tour Enterprises. Then there’s the potential for a new scarcity schedule on the PGA Tour that might open up a return to August for the PGA Championship, enabling more venues across the country to be used. Clark could work with new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp on such a move if it were an initiative. The May date has received mixed reviews, to say the least.

Given the PGA’s recent leadership follies, he should have a fair amount of power and deference from others. Notably, President Don Rea was absent from the announcement on Wednesday, the organization instead choosing to quote Nathan Charnes, the Vice President, who won't take Rea’s position until November. Does this mean Rea has been fully muzzled as reported? What a loss for the content game this year if so. But this new leadership move in Clark does appear to be a gain for the PGA.