Editor’s note: This is an extended version of the story in October/November 2025 Evansville Business.
Growing up around golf, Nathan Charnes is scaling administrative heights he could’ve only dreamed of.
Charnes, a 1997 Harrison High School and 2001 University of Evansville graduate, was elected to a two-year term as vice president of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America in November 2024. He calls it a prideful moment for his friends and family. “It’s definitely a neat story,” Charnes says. “I grew up in somewhat of a small town, and it’s pretty cool.”
Charnes’ father, Greg, was raised in French Lick, Indiana, about a hundred yards from the eighth green of the Donald Ross Course. A lifelong golf fan, Greg introduced his son to golf at age five. “I don’t ever remember not being around golf,” says Greg, himself a PGA of America life member who across nearly 40 years served as director of golf at Oak Meadow Country Club, boys’ golf coach at Reitz Memorial High School, and men’s golf coach at the University of Southern Indiana before retiring in 2016.
Charnes, who earned a golf scholarship to the University of Indianapolis, transferred to UE after one year at UIndy. He met his wife, Eva, at UE and played his final three collegiate seasons for the Aces. Working at an insurance firm for about a month after graduating from UE, Charnes felt lost. He regained his footing visiting the golf shop at Oak Meadow.
“I didn’t realize how unhappy I was until I walked into the golf shop and knew that being in the golf shop felt like home,” says Charnes, now 46. “Later that week, I made a change and got into the golf industry.”
Because there weren’t many opportunities in Southwestern Indiana at that time, Charnes became assistant pro at the now-closed Links at Novadell in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. His progression as a golf teacher and administrator truly began at WingHaven Country Club, in the Saint Louis suburb of O’Fallon, Missouri. After Joining WingHaven in 2004 — the same year he was elected a member of the PGA of America — Charnes became its general manager and director of golf in 2011. “It didn’t take long for him to become known as a ‘pro’s pro,’” his father says, noting that his son has been a natural leader since his days at Harrison High School, where he graduated in 1997.
Charnes was elected secretary of the PGA of America in 2022 and has continued to move up the ladder. He gained considerable attention by helping establish the PGA REACH, a regional foundation at the PGA’s Gateway Section based in Maryland Heights, Missouri, that has grown into a national initiative. Dedicated to making the game more inclusive and positively impacting the lives of youth, military and diverse populations, REACH has become a flagship of PGA charities and community involvement.
As national PGA secretary, Charnes oversaw membership initiatives and served as an educator for golfers of all ages, while the vice president role is more of a financial position and keeps him traveling about 100 days a year. He admitted that it can be confusing differentiating between the PGA of America and the PGA Tour. Simply put, the PGA of America is all-encompassing, a membership organization of more than 30,000 PGA of America Golf Professionals working to drive interest and participation in the game and provide educational opportunities through learning programs. The PGA Tour essentially deals with pro tournaments for the top-flight players themselves.
Through the years, Charnes has received several honors, including being inducted into the Greater Evansville Golf Hall of Fame and Indiana Sports Hall of Fame, both in 2023. In the Gateway PGA Section, he was named PGA Golf Professional of the Year in 2012 and 2022 and earned the 2021 Bill Strausbaugh Award for mentorship.
From that fateful return to Oak Meadow, Charnes found his calling and united his passion for golf with a purpose. “I love the sport,” he says.
