Q&A: Evansville native Nathan Charnes is new secretary of PGA of America

EVANSVILLE — Nathan Charnes is still bewildered anytime you bring up the next journey of his career. Because in the not-so-distant past, he was just a teenager playing competitively at McDonald Golf Course on East Morgan Avenue.

The Evansville native is a Harrison High and University of Evansville grad. For the past 18-plus years, he's been a PGA professional at WingHaven Country Club near St. Louis. In November, Charnes was elected the next PGA of America Secretary. That puts him on a direct path to be the PGA of America President in 2027.

The Courier & Press caught up with Charnes to discuss his upbringing in Evansville, his career in golf and his future within the PGA of America. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

C&P: What is your background? Where did you go to school?

Nathan Charnes: Born and raised in Evansville. I went to Harrison High School and graduated in 1997. I ended up going to the University of Indianapolis for a year but transferred back to Evansville and did three years at the University of Evansville. I think it was December of '01 (when I graduated).

C&P: How did you start with the game of golf?

NC: At a very young age. My dad (Greg) was the head golf professional at Oak Meadow Golf Club for almost 30 years. I think he started there in 1977 and worked until 2004. He was later the general manager. As a kid, I played a lot of sports. I naturally gravitated towards golf and grew up playing at Oak Meadow getting lessons from my dad.

C&P: Oak Meadow would obviously be on this list, but do you have any favorite courses around Evansville?

NC: As a kid, I always enjoyed playing Oak Meadow and Evansville Country Club. But at Harrison, we always played McDonald. I thought it was an awesome little 9-hole course. That was our home course. You just played golf at that age. You didn't think about the conditions. You just played. I always enjoyed playing the City Tournament. Victoria National was getting built when I was leaving town. I've played it a few times.

C&P: How did you get on a track to becoming a PGA professional?

NC: When I graduated college, I didn't know if I wanted to get into the business. I took another job and hated it. I quickly learned maybe golf is where I should be. I signed up for the PGA program, took the playing test, passed that and quickly went through the three levels to become a PGA member. At the same time, I was getting ready to get married and also knew there wasn't a lot of opportunity in Evansville.

My dad was at Oak Meadow. Evansville Country Club had just hired a new golf professional. I started looking outside of Evansville for employment. Worked for about a year in Hopkinsville (The Links at Novadell), but it really wasn't a good fit. A year after that found a job in St. Louis.

C&P: What made you stick around the St. Louis area for nearly two decades?

NC: St. Louis was just luck. My wife and I wanted to move to a big town and we looked at all the bigger cities around Southern Indiana. We looked at Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, Cincinnati and St. Louis. I had just finished the PGA program and the only job at the time that I could find, that fit the level of where I was, was St. Louis. I came back for a second interview and still wasn't excited, but my wife was. She said 'Let's give it a shot.' We had no kid and no mortgage. We could always move back. Blink your eye and it's 19 years later. It's home.

St. Louis is a good town. We're about 40 minutes west of downtown. We get there if we want to go to the Arch or a Cards and Blues game but not in the craziness. Lots of things and opportunities here for my family that we wouldn't have gotten in Southern Indiana. It's a good place to raise a family.

C&P: You were recently elected the next secretary of the PGA of America. What is that process?

NC: The PGA has 41 sections across the country. Ours is the Gateway (eastern half of Missouri and southern third of Illinois) and you're in the Indiana section. I had gone through all of the chairs locally and in 2018 was elected to serve on a national board of directors. After my term, I was nominated to be a candidate for national office. A pretty intense campaign process. You have to get your family – Charnes is married with three children – and facility on board because you're gone a lot. That turns a lot of people away from the process. I spent 14 months, it's literally a campaign.

The election was about seven weeks ago in Phoenix at the annual meeting of the PGA. I'll spend two years as the secretary of the PGA and then two years as vice president and then two years as president.

C&P: Going from a teenager who played at McDonald to the eventual 45th president of the PGA, how do you sum up this journey and trajectory your career has taken?

NC: Pretty cool, isn't it? I'm speechless. When I started the campaign, there were three candidates. I felt like I was starting the race in third place. I was very prepared for the process and connected well with the PGA delegates. The campaign couldn't have gone any better. It hasn't really sunk in yet even though I've started the job that I want. To go from small town Evansville, Indiana playing for Harrison at McDonald to over here even now. WingHaven is a great club but you're not going to see it on a Top 100 List or hosting a Tour event. It's a good club with great people.

To go from all of that to the eventual president of the PGA, there are no words to describe that. Don't get me wrong. It's awesome and I'm excited and humbled. I'm excited for what the future is going to bring.

C&P: As someone who has worked within the PGA, what in your opinion is key to keeping the game growing?

NC: That conversation has changed over the past few years. The pandemic provided a boost to the golf business as a whole, especially on rounds of golf and play. Now I think it's on the stewards of the game: your owners of your facilities, your PGA professionals that teach and your club managers to continue to offer good experience on your golf course whether you're public or private or resort. It's up to us to continue to make sure golf is available to the masses, it's fun and enjoyable and it's quick but also affordable.

We're in a difficult spot. We've never been busier and never been a greater demand on our golf courses. We've also never been more short-staffed like the other industries. There is a recruitment and retention issue that we're facing. We also have to make sure golf stays affordable for 90 percent of our patrons. If we get too expensive, we're going to price ourselves out of the market. That circles back to recruitment. In order for us to attract more people in our business, you have to pay them more. We're in a delicate spot right now.

Follow Courier & Press sports reporter Kyle Sokeland on Twitter @kylesokeland.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Q&A: Evansville native Nathan Charnes is new PGA of America secretary