Derek Sprague officially started his new job Jan. 18. He is the first person to serve the PGA of America as CEO after previously holding the position as the association’s president from 2014-16. Sprague succeeds Seth Waugh, who stepped down in June.
A PGA of America member since 1993, Sprague had served as the general manager of TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, since January 2018. He turned professional in 1989, beginning his career at Malone Golf Club, located in the northern tip of upstate New York, about three hours north of Albany or Syracuse. He grew up on the course’s first hole and spent 27 years at his hometown layout, a 36-hole, semi-private facility. The PGA sought someone who had a deep understanding of what being a member of the association entailed and Sprague, as he put it, “checked all the boxes.”
“The membership spoke loudly that it felt it was time for a PGA member, and the board took its time to find the right candidate,” said longtime PGA member Bill Hughes, who Sprague succeeded at TPC Sawgrass. “His background, experience and everything he’s done with the Tour, everything he did as a PGA officer, I think he’s primed for this opportunity.”
With PGA Demo Day kicking off the 72nd annual gathering of PGA professionals this week in Orlando, Golfweek sat down with the PGA’s new leader to discuss
GWK: Was this a job that you aspired to?
DEREK SPRAGUE: No. You know, it wasn’t even on my radar until Seth’s announcement was made at the end of June, and then so many people started texting me, calling me that said this is the perfect job for you.
So, then the search firm reached out to me and asked if I was interested. I said, yeah, I’d be willing to consider it. They said, you’re definitely on the list and then we’ll let you know the process, and then the process took like six months. It was similar to when I ran for office (at the PGA), I didn’t have that on my radar, either, until people were saying, hey, you ought to do this. That’s how I’ve operated my entire career. It’s not really gunning for something. It’s like if people feel I can help them, then I’ll step up and see if I can help.
GWK: Why now do you think there was such an emphasis on a PGA pro being the CEO?
DS: Well, we had one 20 years ago in Jim Awtrey, and many things are cyclical, and I think that the officers and the board — 30,000 strong, and hearing from them, as well, why don’t we have a PGA member as the CEO? and it was similar when Pete Bevacqua was CEO, and he was hearing the same thing: why don’t we have a PGA member in the C-suite to make sure it goes through that PGA member lens.
We have majors on every Tour, the Ryder Cup and our spectator championships, but then we have 30,000 members and associates that want education, want employment opportunities, want to grow in their profession, and we have a large number of our 30,000 that like to play, and we have all those championships, as well.
GWK: One thing I kept hearing was that there’s been a bit of a Wall Street versus Main Street backlash among the PGA pros. Do you feel that exists?
DS: No, I don’t think so. I think both Pete and Seth were both influenced by PGA professionals. I want to say they understood the role of a PGA professional because of their influence and they loved the game of golf and stuff like that, but I think for a number of our PGA members, they don’t hear all those stories if you’re not in governance in the organization. I think an outsider looking in would maybe see that persona of both of the last two CEOs.
Anyway, I think both of those prior CEOs had the member first and foremost in their minds, just didn’t have the credentials behind it.
GWK: As the well-respected GM and operator that you are, there are several PGA pros on the board that can influence the direction of the association. Some wonder why does the PGA need another PGA member as CEO?
DS: Well, again, similar to what I said in my prior answer, they just want to make sure that the PGA member is making decisions, informed decisions based on the experience that I’ve had as a PGA member running clubs and really fundamentally understand what our PGA members need, and I think being in the CEO seat now, I can help balance what the board is saying and I can also – we have a number of PGA professionals that are employees of PGA of America and employees of Frisco, making sure they’re getting aligned and saying — for the non-PGA members that didn’t come up through the traditional grass-roots roles, I can help bridge that gap between our 30,000 strong, our board, our officers, and the team in Frisco. I think that’s where my past governance experience will really help to bridge that gap.
GWK: Given so much of the revenue is generated through media rights for the organization, why would the PGA not want a CEO who kind of has extensive experience in those areas that make the most money to maximize those deals to support the association?
DS: Yeah, that’s a fair question, but again, those rights usually come up every decade, so it’s usually a 10 to 12 year decade, and even if you had a CEO that came from the media industry, they would most likely go outside — there are experts in this area that they would hire anyway just to validate their gut instincts or their knowledge of the media landscape. I know Pete went on to be the president of NBC Sports. I know we used media consultants because I was in those discussions in the early days when I was in office and when Pete was the CEO.
Again, I don’t think that is a necessary requirement. Certainly I don’t have the day-to-day experience of negotiating media contracts. We have great people on our team that do, but we’ll still engage media consultants because our landscape as you know is changing, streaming and cutters and all that stuff. We’ll start those discussions probably in two to three years to get ready for 2030 and ’31.
GWK: The last three CEOs have all been in the position around six years. Are you planning to be in this role for a long time, or do you see yourself kind of grooming Craig Kessler or someone else as a successor?
DS: Yeah, I think, one, there is no timeline if hopefully my health allows me to stay in the role. I’ve always said in any position that I’ve had, you’ll know when the time is up. So I’m not putting any timeline on it. I’m going to pour my heart and soul into it for as long as I can and they’ll let me know or I’ll let them know, one way or another, when it’s time to go.
GWK: What was the determining factor in your selection?
DS: You know, I never look backward, and my grandfather is a great influence. He had some inventions, and I said, why didn’t you ever patent these things. But when they started to talk to me about my career, and like I said, I don’t rest on any laurels. I come to work every day.
When you look at I’ve got championship experience on the other side, so I have a really good understanding of what clubs go through, what the memberships go through, what the process is for hosting championships. When you go from when I was at Liberty National from 2017 to running seven Players Championships, so I have the championship experience, I have the governance experience. I check really many boxes according to what the officers have told me. So I think that was a determining factor.
We’re in the golf business; we think it’s a large industry, but overall it’s a pretty small industry when you look at it, and then when you start looking at, hey, we want someone that can understand championships, we want someone that can understand our governance model at the PGA of America, check, check, it just goes down the line, and then when you look at my grass-roots upbringing of working at a golf club, small town USA, came out of one of the smallest 41 PGA sections, I understand what the sections go through, the funding needs, the lack of resources for our smaller sections. And now north Florida, and I went through Jersey, did a couple years there. North Florida is one of the largest sections, so I have that experience and understand that they have different challenges being a large section. Geographically it’s spread out and they have a number of life members here in the state of Florida. I think checking that box and having that governance experience, and then also being president of the PGA, again, another checked box. They wanted someone who understood their governance model and know what it means to be the president of an officer. When a recruiter started sharing that and the officers started sharing that, I was like, okay, I guess that makes sense. I didn’t go there to blow my own horn. I’ve never been one to do that. So it’s nice they feel that way, and I go back to the end of June when Seth’s announcement was made and everybody starts to say, oh, who could be the next CEO, and then all of a sudden you start to make these qualifications, and it narrows the field pretty quickly.
GWK: What do you plan to attack in the first 100 days or so on the job?
DS: One thing, and I officially start this Saturday [January 18] for PGA of America, and I had an officer call this week, and I plan to be in Frisco on Feb. 3rd in my office there. They said, we have a lot under our umbrella I think with the officers and the board to guide me what their top priorities are.
What I’m hearing is we’ve got a big year. Our championships are right around the corner, Ryder Cup year, a lot going on there, major metropolitan markets being more challenging. That’ll be a great culmination to 2025 championship season, going to some great venues this year.
So one, I think 30, 60, 90-day plan, I’ve got to get to know the team at PGA of America, I’m a big process guy. Like how’s the flow of information internally and how does that help our 30,000 strong or how does that help our corporate partners, how does that help our championships. I was on a call with our corporate partners last night right out of the gate and they’re all excited for me to be there and help them with the renewal process.
It’s already starting. Again, I’d say focus on internal, focus on our priorities for our officers and board, and then we’ve still got — this year we’ve got to finish moving the Palm Beach headquarters and staff, so I’ve got 40-plus people down there that we’ve got to figure out the move to Frisco for them. Then make sure that we’re delivering the services to our 30,000 strong.
Then also PGA Reach has some great programs, PGA Hope, PGA Junior League, Drive, Chip & Putt. Drive, Chip & Putt is right around the corner at Augusta and then PGA Junior League season starts and then our member championships. A lot on the horizon. So I’m just taking it all in.
Then as you know because you report on golf, we have a lot of new leadership in the industry. Many of those people hopefully I’ll see next week at the PGA Show. We’ve already connected via email and they’ve been really gracious in saying let’s get together even at the show or at Augusta, players even, and start to wrap our arms around the industry.
Q. What initiatives that the PGA currently has do you think serve the members best?
DS: Well, I think for our members, we’ve got all our associates, 4,000 or 5,000 associates in the program of PGA university making sure we provide the most cutting edge and relevant education for our current members, employment opportunities and making sure — I’ve heard from a number of search firms that — and I think this is true probably in a lot of industries, but looking for PGA members to run their clubs. I think when we look back at the pandemic, it’s the PGA professional who helped navigate the pandemic. We were fortunate it was an outdoor sport. It was really fortunate in Florida we never closed in Florida, and I can’t tell you how many members here are so grateful to our PGA team here for making sure all the protocols were followed for safe entertainment and recreation.
I think a lot of clubs saw that, hey, our PGA professionals stepped up, and now we just want to get them to the next level so they can be most influential at their clubs. I’d say employment and educational opportunities for them, as well. That would be a priority.
Q. What’s one initiative that you really want to grow?
DS: Well, I think we have a lot of work to do with PGA Reach. That’s just a great charitable arm of our association, and we have some great programs there. As president Don Rea always says, just helping our patrons everywhere with this program, it saves lives. Every time they do these programs, you’re hearing stories where these people have said, I was getting ready to end my life until I found golf. You can’t put any dollar amount on that or any words on that.
We just hired Jenny Lewis to run PGA Reach there for us. I’ve just met her for the first time last week, and look forward to really helping that initiative, and under that umbrella we have PGA Works, which is another great program for giving the underprivileged golfers in this country an opportunity to play championship venues. We’ve got a lot of great things going on in that space, but we need to get more organized and sustainable for the long haul.
I will help get our corporate partners behind that program because when they start to hear those stories and when you’re going from youth getting in the game all the way to helping our patriots sort of have an exit strategy from protecting our freedoms, I think that’s full circle and it’s just a great story to tell with PGA Reach.
GWK: What’s one grass-roots program that you see making a significant difference?
DS: I said this when we purchased PGA Junior League when I was in office (as president), in the not-too-distant future, we’re going to have players that played on the PGA Junior League team that are going to play in the Ryder Cup. Again, for them to sort of go from their beginnings to the highest competition, best in the world, I think that’s going to be a great story to tell. PGA Junior League has been a home run, and we continue to tweak that. If you talk to PGA professionals, they say that’s the best program we’ve done in our organization in years, if not ever, for growth of the game. That’s a good one.
GWK: Along those lines, the PGA stopped supporting financially Get Golf Ready. With that being the case, correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t think the PGA has a single adult player development program. Is that something you’re concerned about?
DS: No, but what we’ve heard from our PGA professionals in that regard, when Get Golf Ready came out, so many of our PGA professionals have great player development programs, so they’re like, I’ve really got this great program for beginners, adults, whatever, why do I have to abandon that and go with Get Golf Ready? I was in office and we were saying, no, you’ve just got to track the metrics because our PGA professionals know if they can get a non-golfer to play, that’s great for clubs, and then if you can get someone that plays a little bit, if you can get them to play more or play better, there’s correlations there that have been proven, if you play better golf you’re going to play more, and that’s good for the club industry and the golf industry.
So I think, again, I wouldn’t put too much on abandoning that because our PGA professionals have their own great programs. For example, here at TPC Sawgrass, we have the Ops 36 program for juniors. We’re also doing an adult Ops 36. They’re getting creative with taking successful programs like Ops 36 for juniors and making that into adult programming. No matter what label we put on the program, our PGA professionals are manufacturing golfers for the industry, and our PGA professionals are the ones saying, hey, we’re going to teach you how to play this game and become a lifetime golfer.
GWK: Along those lines of an improving golfer is golf’s best customer, are you an advocate of having a PGA pro on the range offering free instruction?
DS: I mean, it depends on the club. There’s models out there, I know PGA professionals that they’ve been employed by their club and they’re paid a certain amount which includes providing free instruction, but the old adage there’s nothing free, they’re being paid, just paid differently. Then you have the model where you only get paid by the lesson. But there’s all sorts of models out there, and the thing to know is that our PGA professionals are providing the best instruction, no matter what model they’re using.
GWK: The U.S. national team was born under the PGA roof. Now the USGA is running it. Do you see the PGA getting involved more with it?
DS: Yeah, my initial dialogue with Mike Whan already we’re planning on getting together hopefully in the next 100 days and talking about initiatives like that and how our PGA members can support the national team because, again, that’s what our PGA professionals do, whether it’s in their PGA Junior Championship, Junior Ryder Cup teams, stuff like that. So we already have a lot of that experience. It’ll be interesting to see what USGA and Mike have to say about how we can support that initiative, because again, that’s one thing that my style is to bring people together and say the game is bigger than any association or organization, and how can each of the stakeholders contribute to make the game better.
GWK: What’s the biggest challenge the PGA faces and what do you see as the solution?
DS: We have a lot of opportunity now with the change in leadership — not that there was anything wrong with the former leadership, but just building new relationships, and the golf industry is very fragmented. A lot of the big stakeholders of championships oftentimes going after the same sponsors, trying to grow the game in their own regard or whatever, and I was in some early meetings probably 10 years ago at the Masters with all those stakeholders and different organizations and seeing how we could work together, because we would all have our own growth of the game programs. So you would see these PSAs on television that say, why don’t we get together, pool our resources because it’s confusing to the consumer. I’ve got a marketing background so I think there’s great opportunity, and my response to that is bringing the stakeholders together to figure out what we can do to grow it together.
GWK: What benefits does the Ryder Cup have for your members?
DS: Well, I think it’s a great platform. It’s the pinnacle of all golf events, and for our consumers to know that it’s the PGA of America, PGA professionals that are behind that event, that that’s their organization, it gives us a great platform that week, like all our PGA Championships on all the tours, it just gives us a great platform to tell our stories of what the PGA professionals do, and additionally it’s a great funding mechanism to help PGA Reach, PGA Junior League, education programs and plenty of opportunities (indiscernible).
GWK: What was your position on paying the players a larger stipend and increasing the charitable money?
DS: I didn’t think much of it, to be honest with you, because I think it’s been 25 years, and the way I look at it, charity is going to be the winner in this because we just increased the charitable giving for all these players, and then you have Captain Keegan has already stepped up and said he’s going to give it all to charity, which is great to hear. At the end of the day, I think charity is going to be the big winner out of this.
GWK: Do you think the amount is the right amount? Tiger was suggesting a million.
DS: I think I saw a quote by Tiger that he was suggesting a lot more than that. That’s not sustainable or responsible. We have to make sure that the event is sustainable for the long-term. It’s been around since 1927, coming up on our 100th. It’s going to be pretty cool here in Ireland. But yeah, so I think the amount is right. I think they ran the numbers, if you did the price index it would have been like $417,000 from 1999, so to round it up to 500 and raise the charitable giving, that’s a win-win for the golf industry.
GWK: That charitable contribution and stipend just jumped from $2.4 million to $6 million. What’s the source for that funding?
DS: That’s one thing that our budget committee and I’ll have to dive into since our fiscal year ends March 31st, starts April 1st, so I guess I should have added that to my first 30, 60, 90 days I’ll be diving into the budget. I think that’s been the challenge within the golf industry is the purse escalation, whether you call this a purse or expenses have increased and buildouts and logistics and everything we’ve seen in these inflationary times in the last five years since the pandemic has put a lot of challenges on. So it’s a matter of making choices and where we direct those funds and trying to be responsible with those dollars and managing that the best we can.
GWK: Along those lines, the Women’s PGA that you have, I was looking it up, the purse in ’15 was $3.5 million and this year it’s going to be $10.4 million, which is great for women’s golf. But is this an event that is making money, breaking even or operating at a loss now?
DS: I haven’t gotten into all those details, and again, there’s another new leader that we’ll have as the LPGA commissioner with that search underway, as well. I think that’s what we’ve seen at all the Tour levels since 2015 if you want to use the last 10 years, is the purse escalation. A lot of that burden has been passed on to our corporate partners as well as consumers, like getting eggs and bread at the grocery store. We have to just figure it out, try to be more efficient and responsible and sustainable in all those decisions that we make.
I’m not comfortable without seeing the finances, but again, that’s going to be, I’m sure, probably a priority by the officers and the board is to take a fresh look, fresh set of eyes. Again, I’m sort of used to that here with my last seven or eight years here with The Players and the Presidents Cup in learning the financial aspects.
GWK: How big a priority is it to find a new title for the Senior PGA Championship?
DS: Yeah, that’s a priority. Again for all the reasons I just mentioned, first escalation, expenses of buildout, running an event is costly. KitchenAid was a great partner for a number of years and sad to see them go, but I think when you look at the people that play in the Senior PGA and it’s the longest running major on the Senior Tour, to me that’s a marketable asset, and I think we’ll have success there finding a partner.
I reached out, like I said, I had a corporate partner call me last night, a guy who heads up our corporate hospitality. I’m so grateful that I have great relationships with these people, these CEOs of these corporate partners already know me from 10 years ago, and they’re comfortable working with me. And as you know, any time there’s a new CEO is that you’re investing in the brand but you’re also investing in the captain of the ship, so to speak, and I think all of our corporate partners are going to be very comfortable and very willing to invest with PGA of America with me as CEO.
GWK: There’s been a rumor floating around the PGA could sell the Ryder Cup. Is that something you think the PGA should consider?
DS: Well, I think, yeah, that rumor has been floating around there, and that’s a deep dive that I’ve got to do with the officers and the board, but as of now, I haven’t even started yet, so I want to do a deep dive and look at all options.
Again, that’s the interesting part of our association. We have these great spectator championships but then we also have our responsibilities to the 30,000 for all the other programs that we run for them. That’s something that we need to take a look at that, take a look at all our assets.
GWK: What do you think would be the upside to doing that?
DS: Again, I don’t know if there’s any upside to it until I do a deep dive on it. I’m a process guy. I’ll get with our executive team, get with the officers and board, and really not only review the Ryder Cup but review every program that we have, whether it’s an education program or it’s a charitable program, whether it’s the Ryder Cup. We need to evaluate all those, look at our initiatives for growing the game, do these assets check all those boxes, and then are they sustainable and what is the SWOT analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for each of our assets.
GWK: What’s the timetable for negotiating the next TV deal with NBC, which I believe runs through 2030?
DS: I think we’ll probably start in two to three years. We did that in 2012 and I think it came up in ’15 maybe, ’15 or ’16 or maybe even later, but we started those pretty much in earnest because it takes a while. You’ve got to get consultants on board, look at all the assets. We looked at KPMG when it was started and we added that to our portfolio. So again, that sort of goes back to your Ryder Cup question. We’ve got to look at all our assets, see what that package looks like and then get ready to go out to our media partners.
GWK: Do you think TPC Sawgrass could be a site for a Ryder Cup some day?
DS: That’s a question for the Tour because with the Players here and Q-school on the Valley, that’s an interesting question, but I think it’s one the Tour should answer for you.
Q. What about Liberty National?
DS: The PGA Tour manages that property for the Fireman family, so I think that’s a question that the Tour should answer whether they’d want to host something like that. It’s a small footprint, just knowing from my two years there, and the Ryder Cup is the largest event in sports, I don’t know quite frankly logistically if it could hold it.
GWK: Under Seth Waugh, the PGA’s position was that golf doesn’t need a rollback of the golf ball. Do you feel the same way?
DS: Yeah, absolutely. I think it affects the game incredibly. Like I’ve said in some prior interviews, I don’t know what recreational golfer or many Tour professionals quite frankly that want to hit the ball shorter. I look forward to working with the USGA, the R&A and the other governing bodies to see if we can come to an agreement that would please our PGA members, recreational golfers at large, and then also this 2028 start date for elite level and ’30 for the recreational golfer. That’s even more challenging for the PGA professional. It’s going to be challenging enough if they do it, say if they pushed it back for 28 and 30 and said we’re going to do it all the same year. I know Adam Schupak is going to be buying dozens of Pro V1s in ’29, the longer ball to carry it, and our PGA professionals are the ones that are governing the rules at the local level, member-guests, club championships and stuff, and they’re going to have to be checking to see if everybody is playing a conforming ball.
When I was talking to a PGA professional yesterday about this, he said, so we checked on the first tee to make sure they’re playing a conforming ball for that hole. Are we then going to go to the 2nd hole, then the 3rd hole, all the way around and make sure they’re not pulling the wrong ball out of your bag? It’s going to be very challenging for our PGA professionals to really govern the rules and a rollback of the ball, and it could take years to do that.
I haven’t been involved in those discussions at that level, so like I said, kind of getting together with the USGA in the next few days and discussing that and learning their viewpoint on that and how it impacts PGA professionals, and hopefully we can come to an agreement for doing that.
I’m a big fan of not having bifurcation. I think one of the most beautiful things in our sport, and people can debate on both sides because it’s done in other professional sports, so that makes golf unique in the sense that you can play the same golf equipment, whether you’re the best player in the world or shooting 100 or whatever. You’re playing the same everything, same golf ball. To me that is the beautiful part of our sport, unlike our sports whether it’s a different sized ball or a different sized field, and then they have different standards or different rules, whatever. To me that waters things down. I want to uphold that integrity of our sport.
GWK: Is this a hill you’re willing to die on?
DS: Yeah, I think so. Again, it’s probably my upbringing in the sport. I’ve been playing the game for a long time, and I really feel strongly about our sport and the beauty of it. Not only is it a lifelong sport, we’re playing by the same rules no matter who you are, same courses, same equipment, and to me that’s probably one of the best things in golf.
GWK: You were on the verge of starting your tenure as PGA President in 2014 when your predecessor Ted Bishop was ousted from that position. Is it time to reinstate him?
DS: It’s been a long time. I saw Ted at a meeting in November and said a quick hello to him. He’s doing a lot of fantastic things at his club in Franklin, Indiana. I think it’s worth a discussion with the officers and the board to see what they think about that. Many that are in the boardroom weren’t there in 2014. You know, again, I have no hard feelings about the situation, and I would be open for discussion on something like that.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA CEO Derek Sprague shares his plan to make the PGA great again
