LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. (Nov. 18, 2025) – The USGA has announced that Kevin Hammer of Florida has been nominated to serve as the Association’s 68th president.
Hammer’s nomination highlights the USGA Nominating Committee’s 2026 Executive Committee slate, joined by Brenda Corrie Kuehn of North Carolina and Suzy Whaley of Florida, who have each been nominated to serve on the USGA Executive Committee, a volunteer group of 15 people that provides strategic and financial oversight as the Association’s policymaking and governance board.
Leslie Henry of Texas, Bryan Lewis of Michigan, Michael McCarthy of California and Andy North of Wisconsin have all been nominated to serve a second three-year term on the Committee.
The election of Executive Committee members will take place at the USGA Annual Meeting on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in New York, N.Y.
Hammer, who will assume the presidency from Fred Perpall of Texas, is a former first-team American Junior Golf Association All-American who played collegiately at the University of Florida and has qualified for multiple USGA championships. He spent 10 years as a member of the Florida State Golf Association Executive Committee, including two years as president from 2020-21. Hammer, who is entering his fifth year as a member of the USGA Executive Committee, currently chairs the USGA’s Championship Committee and serves on the Compensation & Leadership Development, Governance, International Team Selection and Nominating committees.
Professionally, Hammer has been with Merrill Lynch for more than 25 years. He currently serves as the managing director of the firm’s Rubin, Hammer, Eaton & Conrad Wealth Management Group, which manages investments for individuals, families, foundations and professional athletes.
“I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Kevin Hammer as the next president of the USGA,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan. “His deep passion for golf, experience and relationships across all levels of the game, and unwavering commitment to our mission make him the ideal person to lead our executive committee into the future. Together, we’ll continue driving the game forward, strengthening its future and deepening its impact.”
Joining Hammer, Henry, Lewis, McCarthy and North in returning to the USGA Executive Committee are: Sinclair Eaddy, Jr. of Maryland; Andrew Biggadike of New Jersey; Dianne Dixon of Florida, David Dorton of Georgia; Virginia C. Drosos of Texas; Cathy Engelbert of New Jersey; Jim Gorrie of Alabama; and David Leitch of Virginia.
Per the association’s bylaws, if elected Kuehn and Whaley will each serve a three-year term beginning in 2026, with the potential to be elected for a second and final three-year term in 2029. They will assume seats vacated by Perpall, who will conclude his term as president at the USGA’s Annual Meeting in February, and Courtney Myhrum of Pennsylvania, who will retire after consecutive three-year terms on the Executive Committee.
Kuehn, a native of the Dominican Republic, earned her business degree from Wake Forest University, where she was a captain of the women’s golf team and three-time All-American with six individual victories, including the 1986 ACC Championship. After a brief professional career highlighted by one victory on the LPGA’s developmental Futures Tour, she regained her amateur status and earned her MBA at Babson College.
Her extensive playing career includes appearances in more than 60 USGA championships, including nine U.S. Women’s Opens. She is a two-time runner-up – in the 1995 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and 2023 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur – and represented the USA in the 1996 and 1998 Curtis Cup Matches and Women’s World Amateur Team Championships, where she also represented the Dominican Republic, in 1986 and 2018. Within her home state, she has twice been named the Carolinas Golf Association Woman Golfer of the Year, with two Women’s Carolinas Amateur and two NC Senior Women’s Amateur titles.
She has been enshrined in the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame, the NCAA Golf Coaches Hall of Fame, the Dominican Golf Hall of Fame and the Dominican Sports Hall of Fame, where she and her father are the only golfers to have been inducted.
Professionally, Kuehn founded Stateside Services Inc., an international export service company that serviced eight countries in a variety of industries. When her father passed in 2005, she took over the family investment firm with the help of her sister. Kuehn has served at the board level at a variety of organizations, including the Corrie Foundation, Las Lagunas Golf Club, Henla Family Office and Valores Leon. She is currently a member of the Carolinas Golf Association Executive Committee and is a strong supporter of junior and women’s golf in her home state.
Whaley, a decorated professional and instructor, is well-known for her innovative leadership and commitment to teaching and growing the game. She was elected president of the PGA of America in 2018 – the first female elected to the position in the association’s history. During her tenure, she guided the Association through the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, launching the $8 million Golf Emergency Relief Fund to support golf industry personnel and spearheading the Back2Golf initiative alongside the CDC to ensure the safe return of play – resulting in record growth in rounds played.
Among her many accolades, Whaley has been named one of GOLF Magazine’s Top 100 Teachers in America, Golf Digest Top 50 Instructor, LPGA Top 50 Instructor, two-time Connecticut PGA Teacher of the Year, 10-time Golf Digest State Teacher of the Year and U.S. Kids Golf Master Kids Teacher. She earned her Master Professional status from the PGA of America in 2018. She has coached more than 300 junior golfers to the collegiate level and led teams at five PGA Junior League Championship finals. She has been honored with the Walter Hagen Ambassador of the Game Award (2023); Metropolitan Golf Association’s Distinguished Service Award (2019); AJGA’s Betsy Rawls Award (2017); Sports Business Journal Game Changer (2015); and the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun’s Margo Dydek Award (2015). She is a member of the Connecticut Section PGA Hall of Fame (2025), the PGA of America Hall of Fame (2023), Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame (2022), Connecticut Sports Hall of Fame and the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame.
Competitively, Whaley played on the LPGA Tour in 1990 and 1993. In 2003, following her win at the Connecticut PGA Championship, she became the first woman since Babe Zaharias (1945) to qualify for a PGA Tour event, playing in the Greater Hartford Open. Among her competitive accolades, she is a three-time Connecticut Women’s Open champion, National LPGA T&CP champion, Connecticut PGA Section champion, Connecticut PGA Club Professional Champion and two-time LPGA Northeast T&CP section champion. She has played in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, LPGA Senior Women’s Championship and PGA Professional Championship.
Whaley, a graduate of the University of North Carolina with a degree in economics, is an advisor for and past president of Golf Nation, a pioneering online and connected TV OTT channel that blends golf lifestyle with video content on a shop-able streaming platform. She also serves as a golf broadcast analyst and commentator FOR PGA Tour Live and ESPN. She previously ran her own coaching business, Suzy Whaley Golf, and was an instructor at Jim Flick Golf Schools before becoming the head golf professional at Blue Fox Run in Avon, Conn. She currently serves on the ANNIKA Foundation Board, is an advisor for Sportsbox AI, and is the honorary chair for the PGA Reach Capital Campaign.
About the USGA
The USGA is a mission-based golf organization whose purpose is to unify the golf community through handicapping and grassroots programs; to showcase the game’s best talent through the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally and 13 other national championships and our museum; to provide unbiased global governance with The R&A through the playing, equipment and Amateur Status rules; and to advance issues important to golf’s future, with a focus on driving sustainability, accessibility and inclusion. The USGA also manages day-to-day operations for the U.S. National Development Program, the country's first unified pathway for American talent, and the World Golf Hall of Fame, preserving and celebrating the legacies of the game’s greatest figures. As a nonprofit association, our work and our team are driven to act for the good of the game. For more, visit usga.org.