Don Rea Jr. removed from PGA Tour board, silenced after Ryder Cup snafu

Has PGA of America President Don Rea Jr., been quietly removed from office after making waves at the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black?

It sure seems that way. The PGA Tour confirmed that Rea, who was elected the 44th President of the PGA in 2024, for a two-year term, is no longer a member of either the PGA Tour Inc. or PGA Tour Enterprises board as of November 2025. As first reported by The Quadrilateral’s Geoff Shackelford this morning, Rea has been replaced in that role, which traditionally has gone to the president, by the association’s vice president, Nathan Charnes. It is believed to be an unprecedented move for a sitting president to step down from that role.

But Rea, a member of the Southwest PGA Section, a PGA Master Professional and owner of Augusta Ranch Golf Club in Arizona, has been silenced since the Ryder Cup concluded in early October after he fell under scrutiny for failing to apologize for the unruly American fan behavior that crossed the line with Rory McIlroy and other European Ryder Cuppers. He also was criticized for his part in an awkward trophy presentation in which he said that Europe had retained the Cup rather than won it outright. Rea also went viral in a video that showed him doing karaoke on Saturday night while the U.S. side was getting pummeled.

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Rea hasn’t been the mouthpiece for the association in any of its recent press releases and persona non grata since the Ryder Cup. He attended the PGA Show in January but in a scaled down role. Instead, Charnes, general manager and director of golf at WingHaven Country Club in O’Fallon, Missouri, has been quoted in press releases announcing the selection of Terry Clark as the PGA’s new CEO and in a separate announcement that Jeff Babineau was being named the PGA’s Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award winner. Rea has developed a reputation for not being shy around a microphone, and has fallen into the category of PGA president that finds hearing his own voice too intoxicating during his various press conferences. It’s pretty telling that he hasn’t been allowed to make a comment representing the PGA’s 31,000 members in a simple press release.

The board positions for the Tour are even more telling. Shackelford pointed out in his newsletter that Rea’s name and picture has been replaced on the PGA Tour’s web site that depicts the members of the two boards for the for-profit and non-profit entities. A PGA spokesperson hadn’t responded to Shackelford, he confirmed via text, or to Golfweek. Efforts to reach Charnes or Rea at their places of work also were unsuccessful. But a Tour spokesperson acknowledged that Charnes has replaced Rea but stopped short of answering which side initiated the moved before this story went live. [The Tour also confirmed that the term of Mary Meeker, the first female to serve as an independent director, concluded at the end of 2025 as she completed her second term, the maximum allowed in the Tour’s revised bylaws, creating an open seat, and a replacement is currently being sought for that role. There is also an open seat for the role formerly filled by Ed Herlihy.]

Rea’s term ends in November and Charnes is next in line in the typical path to the PGA presidency. Rea wouldn’t be the first PGA president to be removed from office during his tenure. In 2014, Ted Bishop, the 38^th PGA President, was unceremoniously impeached after he made a sexist remark on social media. Bishop was ousted from his volunteer job less than a month before his term was to end. But a more likely scenario may be for the PGA to allow Rea to technically remain in office while no longer having any sort of public facing role, such as speaking on behalf of the association at the PGA Championship in May. This would follow in accordance to the playbook the PGA ran in 2018 when then-president Paul Levy was allowed to serve out his tenure despite being charged with a misdemeanor DUI, a much more serious offense than Bishop’s that could have resulted in loss of life or limbs.

While no official word has been given for Rea’s recent silence, it appears the final months of his tenure as PGA president will be less controversial and keep him far away from the public eye.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Don Rea Jr. removed from PGA Tour board, silenced after Ryder Cup snafu