Halfway House | Profile
Mr. President
BY TOM MACKIN
The winding career path of Arizona’s Don Rea, president of the PGA of America. How do you go from being a minor
said, ‘You only live once and you can
league baseball umpire and part-time
always go back to college.’ Famous last
UPS driver to becoming the 44th
words. I went to umpire school the next
president of the PGA of America? Ask
year and started working in the minor
Don Rea. He completed that improbable
leagues around the country. And I never
journey last November. And no, he can’t
got that degree.”
believe it either. Rea, who operates Augusta Ranch Golf Club, a par-61 public golf course in Mesa, started on that circuitous path in Scottsdale. “My father was a big baseball fan who traveled there annually for spring training,” said the Las Vegas native. “He always stayed at Woolley’s Petite Suites, and that’s where all of the umpires stayed, so he got to know many
the chin by manager Lee Elia during one intense argument — but more importantly, met his wife Karen, an Arizona native, while working spring training games in Scottsdale. Nine years into the job though, Rea still had not received the coveted call up
“When I was in the middle of my junior
changed his life. A few years earlier,
at San Diego State, he insisted I come visit him, so I spent a week hearing all of the umpire’s stories. Jim Evans and Ted Hendry were starting an umpire school at the old Compadre Stadium in Chandler. My dad said ‘You gotta go to it.’ I wanted to get my degree, but he
@azgolfassociation
experiences — including being bit on
of them.”
year studying aerospace engineering
30
A PIVOT TO GOLF
Rea accumulated plenty of memorable
to the major leagues. That’s when golf during an off-season job as a UPS driver, the last stop on his route was Riverview Golf Course in Mesa (which closed in 2012 and became the site of the Chicago Cubs minor league complex).
