Don Rea Jr. was elected president of the PGA of America at the association’s annual meeting on Thursday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Rea, who owns and operates Augusta Ranch Golf Club, a public course in Mesa, Arizona, will serve a two-year term. He succeeds John Lindert, the director of golf at the Country Club of Lansing in Michigan’s capital. READ MORE
Tony Pancake was honored with the PGA of America’s top annual honor as professional of the year. Pancake is the director of golf at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana. READ MORE
TAP-INS
LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau enjoyed a prime vantage point at President-elect Donald Trump’s victory celebration last week in West Palm Beach, Florida. The reigning U.S. Open champion, a Trump supporter and occasional golf companion of the former and future president, emerged on stage wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat as Trump celebrated his election late Tuesday as the nation’s 47th president. READ MORE
PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, is under contract to be sold for $425 million to Henderson Park, a private-equity firm based in London, England, according to a report by Bloomberg. The resort, which features six golf courses, has been owned since 2018 by Brookfield Asset Management of Toronto, Canada. PGA National’s Champion Course has hosted the PGA Tour since 2007, with the former Honda Classic now known as the Cognizant Classic. According to the report, the resort would be managed by Salamander, whose portfolio includes another PGA Tour host, Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, site of the annual Valspar Championship. READ MORE
Jim Farmer, a former captain of Great Britain and Ireland’s Professional Golfers’ Association who was known as “Mr. Golf” in his hometown of St. Andrews, Scotland, has died. He was 76. A six-time Open Championship participant, Farmer was a former coach of Scotland’s national boys’ team who helped develop several future Scottish professionals and Ryder Cup players. READ MORE
Canada’s York Regional Police broke up a crime ring that targeted golf carts at more than a dozen courses in Ontario province in recent years, CBC reported. READ MORE
A bronze statue dedicated to Old Tom Morris was vandalized over the weekend, one month after its unveiling at St. Andrews’ Old Course, Scottish investigators said. Global Golf Post’s Lewine Mair attended last month’s unveiling of the statue, a bronze tribute to the late Morris, a four-time Open Championship winner in the 1860s and the longtime “keeper of the green” at the home of golf. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon