Terry Clark has wasted no time getting down to business as PGA of America Chief Executive Officer. That’s no surprise to anyone who knows the former Chief Marketing Officer at UnitedHealth Group, who took the helm as the Association’s sixth CEO in early March.
Clark’s energy, enthusiasm and expertise are well known in the business world, where his experience includes a long career with UnitedHealth Group and senior roles across IAC, with companies in the consumer brand space like Ticketmaster, Expedia, Hotels.com, LendingTree and Entertainment publications. The graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, who has three children with wife Sarah, also spearheaded UnitedHealth Group’s golf marketing programs for its Optum brand in recent years, including its sponsorship as a partner of the PGA TOUR and work with golf media brands and players such as Rory McIlroy.
Clark became a part of the PGA of America Board in 2024 as an Independent Director, helping him build relationships within the Association while learning about the unique role PGA of America Golf Professionals play in the sport and industry of golf. An avid golfer himself, Clark is now purposefully working on ensuring PGA of America Golf Professionals remain the trusted experts in the golf industry while positioning members and the Association for success well into the future.
To share his plans and priorities, Clark recently sat down in his PGA Frisco office to talk with PGA Magazine Senior Editor Don Jozwiak about his first 100 days as CEO and beyond.
How are you feeling after 100 days as CEO of the PGA of America?
Terry Clark: I am feeling energized. If anything, my first 100 days have reinforced what I already believed coming in: Golf has tremendous momentum. Participation is growing at record levels, the game is reaching new audiences, and golf is becoming increasingly more relevant in culture and communities across the country.
But what has impressed me the most is the people behind that momentum – the more than 30,000 PGA of America Golf Professionals. They’re the heartbeat of the game. They’re the coaches, leaders, operators and ambassadors who carry the game forward. I am optimistic that the future of golf is incredibly bright, and we’re going to play a unique role in helping to shape that future.
What sort of reaction have you received from the golf industry and PGA of America Members since becoming CEO?
Clark: It’s been interesting. I’ve spent much of the first 100 days talking to PGA of America Members and leaders, facility operators, a lot of industry partners, players and fans. While their perspectives vary, they’re remarkably aligned around one thing: Golf has an opportunity right now that cannot be taken for granted. The game is in excellent shape, but we’ve got to continue that momentum.
So many of the conversations I’ve had centered around questions like, how do we continue to grow participation? How do we make the game more welcoming and accessible? And how do we ensure that the PGA of America Golf Professional is positioned to thrive as the game evolves?
One of the principles I often talk about in my world is the curse of knowledge – if we only listen to what we believe, or only listen to golf insiders, we can start to think alike. I have the beauty of coming in without a lot of that built-in knowledge or legacy.
I always say, in the case of how we grow the game, let’s start with the golfer – or the future golfer – and work backward. If we do that well, we’ll create more opportunities for people to enter and stay in the game. I look to programs like PGA Jr. League, PGA HOPE and PGA WORKS, and the efforts happening every day at our 41 PGA Sections, and how they demonstrate the power of meeting people where they are and focusing on where the game can go. That focus on the future has put us in a good position.
What have your priorities been in your first 100 days as CEO?
Clark: The first 100 days were hyper-focused on listening and learning, and then helping to align the organization. I spent time with all of those different constituents I talked about – listening to members, the Association’s key stakeholders, our Sections and others – and learning where we’re strong and where the opportunities for improvement are for the future. That has helped me get at our core priorities, and I talk about three areas of real focus right now:
First – and really the most important – is strengthening and elevating the PGA of America Golf Professional. Everything starts there. If PGA of America Golf Professionals become stronger through their career, growing their business and increasing their impact, the entire game will benefit.
Secondly, there’s the idea and the reality of growing the game. A lot of people talk about it, but as we continue to expand our participation and engagement programs, we really help golf, and that helps our PGA of America Golf Professionals and the whole system. We have an opportunity to reach more people than we ever have before, and I think that’s at the core of what we need to be doing as part of our mission.
And then third is how we continue to enhance our championships, whether it’s the PGA Championship, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the Senior PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup or any of our other events. Our goal is simple: We’ve got to deliver world-class experiences that enable us to be the best at what we do. And when we unlock these assets well, they help us introduce the game, introduce our PGA of America Golf Professionals and invest back into our mission.
Those have been the areas of focus. We’ve also been filling out our leadership team and key roles within the organization. We brought in Phil Anderson as our COO — Phil is a PGA Member and that was essential to me to make sure we have a critical leadership role and voice in the room that always represents the PGA of America Golf Professional. We brought in Jeff Clennon as our Chief Commercial Officer, and he brings a ton of great experiences, especially helping shape NBCUniversal’s strategy around sales and commercial aspects for things like the Olympics, Sunday Night Football and other leading sports properties.
How would you describe your leadership style?
Clark: It’s rooted in a lot of listening. It is a lot of transparency – I think that’s extremely important. It’s collaboration, which I’ve had to do throughout my career, and then the accountability that comes with it. I believe the best ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. If I’m only listening to people who are at the board table all the time, or inside this organization, or sitting in Frisco, I’m missing it. I want to empower people to contribute and challenge assumptions. I always say you’ve got to challenge the status quo, be dissatisfied with it and always working to get better. That’ll help us get better.
At the same time, I’m a big believer in focus. Organizations can accomplish remarkable things when their priorities are clear and resources are aligned with them, and that’s the discipline I want to help create. A lot of things are important, but what’s critical? What do we need to accomplish, and how do we move people toward that?
And in the end, I want us to be ambitious. We have tremendous assets: the strength of our members, our world-class championships, our powerful programs. My job is to help bring those assets together in ways that create more value for our members and more opportunities for the game. That’s what gets me excited.
You have a background in golf, including your time on the PGA of America Board, but how do you like being fully immersed in the golf industry and the world of PGA of America Golf Professionals?
Clark: It’s exciting. I believe the majority of people in the PGA of America, and associated with it, are in this because they love the game – it connects purpose and passion, and that’s what I think is so great about this role. I’ve been fortunate throughout my career to work with outstanding organizations and talented people, but there’s something really unique about this role because it sits at that intersection of purpose and passion.
Golf has given me so much throughout my life – relationships, experiences and life lessons, doors and opportunities opening because of it. The chance to be part of strengthening the future of the game with so many others, and supporting the PGA of America Golf Professionals who make it possible, really motivates me. I get energized about the opportunity to work alongside our members, our Sections, our Board, our partners and the team in Frisco and beyond, and hopefully build upon the momentum we have today.
I see this as an exciting opportunity, and I believe in what’s possible for the future. That means strengthening the PGA of America Golf Professional, growing participation rates and elevating our championships. If we can do that, we can do some amazing things. This is meaningful work, and it’s a privilege to be part of it. I talk a lot to our team about the opportunity of a lifetime – I want everyone who works here, and everyone who is part of the Association, to feel like they’re doing their life’s best work. And I feel like that right now.
For you personally, what are you most excited about as CEO of the PGA of America?
Clark: When I think about what gets me excited about the future, it’s the opportunity to serve and make an impact. I want to be able to look back someday, in whatever time period it is, and say we positively moved the PGA of America forward. We’ve got these incredible assets, and when you can make them come together in service of our mission, you can do incredible things. So, I get most excited about that future – one where we have an even greater impact on the world of golf.
I think that includes support of the PGA of America Golf Professional through training, the pipelines of the future, career pathing, compensation – things we have to do to make it an attractive profession to go into and to help them be more impactful when they’re in their role, so they see it as a career they can build around.
And then there’s the opportunity for our championships. I always look at those as the great showcase for what we do. They’re also an opportunity to generate needed resources so we can reinvest back into all we do across the PGA of America as a whole. I look at those as critical areas we need to stay centered on and keep doing better.
First and foremost, PGA of America Golf Professionals come first. I want everyone to understand that – that’s where I start. Every decision we make should begin with a simple question: How does this help our members succeed? If we stay disciplined around that, we’ll do amazing things.
