With the voice of its 30,000 professionals, the PGA of America is likely the grown-up in golf’s otherwise chaotic room. But that image becomes a farce when its chief executive walks away less than a year into the job. And now, the cracks are beginning to show.

On January 7, the PGA of America announced that Derek Sprague would be stepping down as the CEO. He was roughly twelve months in the role. Apparently, Sprague needed time to care for his aging mother and mother-in-law back in upstate New York, which is far away from the organization’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas. As skeptical as it might sound, in his Golfweek column, analyst Eamon Lynch gives this reason a certain benefit of the doubt.

“Sprague is a good man and deserves to be taken at face value,” he writes. “…But the underlying dysfunction was an open wound during his short tenure, and it’s possible he just tired of it quickly.”

Unlike his predecessors, Sprague was not an outsider. He had worked previously as a former PGA president and a club professional. He became the first person with such a background to hold the CEO position in two decades. To put it simply, he was aware of the institution’s functioning.

Every two years, the PGA of America brings in a new president. With each of them comes new ideas and strategies. That’s peak instability for an institution meant to oversee such an expansive industry.

For more proof of this, one needs to turn the page to his predecessor, Seth Waugh. Waugh left his role in June 2024 and didn’t have a similar background to Sprague (“as anyone who’s witnessed his swing can attest,” jokes Lynch). But he had good corporate experience as the former head of Deutsche Bank Americas. He was the PGA of America’s president for six years, and those years were very successful, financially.

Revenues reached a massive $192 M in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The following year, they dropped to $129 M, and then in 2023-24 climbed back to $172 M, a 33% jump from the previous year. Total assets grew from $407 M to $451 M. It was under Waugh that the PGA expanded its headquarters in Frisco with at least 100 staff.

Yet, he walked away. Of course, the reason wasn’t the numbers but the institution’s overall structure and constant changes. Hence, Waugh chose not to renew his contract, despite earning $3.8 M in compensation in his final year.

“Sprague made no mention of similar concerns influencing his exit,” notes Lynch in his column. “…and as a loyal member, he probably won’t.”

But that, of course, doesn’t mean his reason couldn’t be similar. An example that Eamon Lynch offers cuts right to the core. The world’s most valuable companies, like Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and so on, have an average of 11 board directors. The PGA of America, on the other hand, has a 22-person board, and this unwieldy number betrays an organization that’s become driven less by purpose than by perks and privilege.

That lack of “purpose” became clearer during the Ryder Cup fiasco.

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The 2025 Ryder Cup deepened the PGA of America’s cracks

The entire debacle at Bethpage last year was nothing but a reputational mess. Overseen by the PGA of America, it clearly failed in managing the crowd. From lewd comments at star golfers, fat-shaming some of them (calling Shane Lowry a Teletubby), to physically hurting family members (throwing a beer can at Erica Stoll), the entire situation went outrageously out of control.

Instead of owning up to the mismanagement, PGA president Don Rea Jr. was tone-deaf. He dismissed the criticism, comparing the behavior to “what you could hear at a youth soccer game.” Going a step further, he compared the behavior to conduct seen at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome. The entire situation was flatly insulting to the Europeans, and they hit back.

In an interview with The Times of London, Europe’s captain, Luke Donald, gave a harsh rebuke. “As a leader, you have a responsibility,” he said. “We all make mistakes…just own up to it… I don’t think that’s what [referring to Rea’s response] leaders should do.”

Of course, behind the scenes, the board grew uneasy. Eamon Lynch mentions how some insiders reveal that Don Rea was asked to “stay in his lane.” Someone taunted that Don likes being in front of the camera, and that’s not where he should be.

For any CEO, this entire episode would have been a failed stress test, and maybe that’s why Derek Sprague left. But the test isn’t yet over. The last CEO search took six months. This time, who knows how long the spot will remain vacant?