It has taken more than a century, 102 years since the PGA of America was founded, for the first time a woman, Suzy Whaley, to be elected president of the golfers’ association, which currently groups more than 29,000 professionals.
Whaley, 51, director of instruction at Suzy Whaley Golf in Cromwell, Connecticut, became a member of the PGA of America in 2001 and moved into teaching after a brief career on the U.S. Women’s Tour, the LPGA Tour.
She also served as director of PGA instruction at the Country Club of Mirasol in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
In 2002, she won the Connecticut PGA Championship, which earned her an exemption into the 2003 Greater Hartford Open (now the Travelers Championship), where she recorded 75s and 78s and missed the cut. She became the first woman to qualify for a PGA Tour tournament since Babe Zaharias in 1945.
Whaley was first elected to a two-year term as PGA secretary, and has spent the past two years as the association’s vice president. The PGA administers and manages tournaments of the renown of the US PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup (when played in the United States), among other competitions.
The PGA recently hired Seth Waugh to serve as its CEO or chief executive officer after Pete Bevacqua left the organization to take a job at NBC Sports.
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