Suzy Whaley’s historic PGA election victory thrills LPGA players

Suzy Whaley’s election as secretary of the PGA of America Saturday was welcome news in golf circles in general as well as to players on the LPGA Tour.

Whaley won the post handily at the annual meeting of the PGA, which just a month earlier fired president Ted Bishop for using sexist and offensive language on social media to insult Ian Poulter.

LPGA golfers, playing last week in the tour’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., reacted with glee to Whaley’s election as the PGA’s first woman officer.

World Golf Hall of Famer Karrie Webb was equally enthusiastic about Whaley’s new position in an organization that has generally been viewed as an “old boy’s club”.

“Suzy has been a great member of the PGA of America and a great player,” Webb said about the Connecticut teaching pro who, in 2003, became the first woman in 58 years to qualify and play in a PGA Tour event. “This proves that the PGA of America are following through on what they’re saying. They wanted to be involved in our LPGA Championship and they want to get women participation up. So they’re true to their word. This shows it.”

Whaley earned more than 52 percent of the 114 votes cast in the three-person secretary race, beating Russ Libby (33 percent) and Michael Haywood (14 percent).

“It’s an incredible moment for all of us ... historic is an understatement,” Whaley, who was so overcome by emotion during her swearing-in ceremony that she forgot to include her own name, told GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard. “Its an incredible honor.”

Whaley, a certified PGA Professional, LPGA member, and instructor at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., made national headlines in 2003 when she.became the first woman since Babe Zaharias to tee it up with the men in a sanctioned tour event. She was also named one of Golf Digest’s top-50 best teachers in 2013.

With the rancor over Bishop’s ouster in the background, Whaley was determined to look forward and beyond whatever obstacles the golf industry must hurdle.

“Our theme for this week was ‘driving the game forward,’ and certainly we’re looking to be inclusive to all of those who want to play the game [and] hopefully I can be a huge part of that,” she said.

“We have enormous opportunities to get women to play the game, young girls and boys to play the game,” added Whaley, who noted such initiatives as the PGA Junior Golf League; Drive, Pitch & Putt Championship; and Get Golf Ready were designed to increase participation. “We’re really looking to expand all those programs.”

Whaley’s path to the presidency involves being voted into a two-year term as secretary, followed by generally pro forma elections for two-year stints each as VP and president.

“I think what [my election as secretary] does say is we are really moving forward into the next 100 years and that we’re looking to be diverse, we’re looking to have more people play the game that perhaps don’t look the same as everybody in that room, that look like our communities,” Whaley told Golfweek’s Alex Miceli. “For that to happen, certainly we need more female leaders, more minority leaders, more people at our golf facilities that look like our communities. Then we really have the opportunity to grow the sport.”