IN CONVERSATION: SANDY CROSS, CDP, CHRO | The Golf

In conversation: Sandy Cross, CDP, CHRO

Founded in 1916, the Professional Golfer’s Association of America consists of nearly 29,000 golf professionals and has a mission of elevating the standards of the profession to grow interest and participation in the game of golf. In 2019, Sandy Cross, CDP, CHRO, was promoted to serve as the rst ever Chief People O cer in the PGA of America’s history.

e Golf Explorer: Michigan’s Journal to Incredible Golf Magazine had the opportunity to speak with Cross about her career, the 26-year journey working with the PGA of America that evolved into her stepping into the Chief People O cer role, and leading with inclusion to create a purpose-driven, values-based, and people-centric environment.

The Golf Explorer: Tell me your story. What led you to the PGA of America?

SANDY CROSS: It is very interesting, because I didn’t set out to have a career in the business of golf. Initially, in undergrad, I was on a pre-law track, and I was playing volleyball in college at the University of Bu alo. I had the opportunity to work in the athletic department while I was there as my workstudy, and a gentleman that I worked for encouraged me to consider a master’s [degree] in sport administration. Ultimately, I went to Kent State University and earned that degree in sport administration. A er graduation, I really looked high and low for a job and applied primarily in college athletics. I think just because I was familiar with college athletics that is where most of my applications were.

I wound up taking a job at a very small sports organization in South Florida called the United States Water Fitness Association as their director of special projects. While it was a great experience, just about a year into it, the company was struggling nancially to the point where—this was back in the days where they would give you a paper paycheck and I remember the CEO giving me my paycheck and saying, ‘hey, can you wait until Monday to cash this?’ I got nervous.

I went to the local employment agency just to have a backup plan in case the Water Fitness job fell through. I did not know it, but the employment agency I went to worked very closely at the time with the PGA of America and they o ered me a 90-day temporary position as what was called the licensing administrator. I instantly said yes. I was like, ‘PGA? Yes.’

I took that 90-day temp job and it blossomed into a full-time opportunity, and my rst 15 years were in the business development department working with our sponsors. I started out on the sponsorship, partnership ful llment side and then I had an opportunity to grow into the sales side.

Why take on the Chief People Officer role?

at is also an interesting evolution. I had the 15 years under my belt on the business development side and I was very fortunate to develop a lot of strong relationships, not only inside the PGA and inside the golf industry, but also beyond golf as well. When our organization and the industry needed someone to lead a new strategic initiative called Connecting With Her, I was tapped to lead that e ort because of the relationships that I had built in golf and outside of golf. e Connecting With Her strategic initiative was designed to bring women into the sport of golf and retain them in the sport. e initiative started because we had commissioned a study with the Boston Consulting Group, and we learned that there were 32 million women in America who wanted to play golf, but were not playing golf for one of two reasons: they had never been invited or they were too intimidated.

Golf, if you think about it, is a sport of invitation. Almost every single person who plays golf was invited that rst time out by somebody else; it is really not a sport that many people take up on their own. My work, and on the Connecting With Her strategic initiative, is what opened my eyes to the broader world of diversity and inclusion.

I went to our leadership and said, ‘I want to take on diversity and inclusion for the organization.’ I started the diversity and inclusion department from scratch, I built the strategic plan for the department, and I went about implementing that. Probably four years into that, our new CEO at the time, Seth Waugh, had a vision for a Chief People O cer role, and that was a brand-new role at the PGA of America—someone who would oversee human resources, which we now call our people team, as well as oversee the diversity, equity, and inclusion practice. Seth gave me the opportunity to step into that newly created role and marry the DE&I with the people side of the business. at is how the journey has evolved.

Can you tell me more about this role and the work you do?

A priority item for me at the outset of the Chief People O cer role was I wanted to see us evolve as an organization from being purely mission-focused, and our mission is to serve our 28,000 members and grow participation in the sport of golf. at is critical and that is paramount, but I wanted us to also become values-based as an organization. At the time, we weren’t rooted as a team in shared values. I went about an e ort to develop shared values for our organization and it was very much an employee-led e ort. ere are four shared values and each of them is supported by ve behavioral statements. Since we launched the values in March of 2020, we have been working to have them underpin our entire employee-life cycle. at is the number one thing in my role, is ensuring that we are living and embodying the shared values and that they are anchoring the employee experience throughout. Also, translating policies into personalized experiences for our employees. What employees expect today is very di erent than maybe just ve years ago or even three years ago.

It is very challenging; we are learning every single day in this new environment on how to live this values-based experience and still advance the strategic priorities of the organization to ful ll our mission, but do it in a way that recognizes employees’ concerns and anxieties and this personalized experience that they are seeking.

What are the four shared values?

Our value statements are: have each other’s backs, practice gratitude, get better every day, and start with clarity. It is like a playbook for our employees; they know how to show up each day and how to interact with one another in a values-based environment.

In our annual performance management process with our employees, they are evaluated equally 50 percent on what they do and 50 percent on how they do it through the lens of the shared values. Gone are the days where we had employees who were crushing it from a ‘what’ perspective, but their ‘how’ was very poor. at is no longer acceptable. Your ‘what’ has to be equally as good as your ‘how.’ at has been transformative for our organization.

In your mind, why is inclusion and diversity in golf important?

Our mission is to serve our 28,000 PGA members and grow participation in the sport of golf. e only way we are going to grow participation in the sport, and ultimately serve our members by driving them new customers, is through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. e demographic composition of our country continues to change, evolve, become richer and more dynamic, and we must re ect the demographics of America in who plays the sport, who works in the business, and who bene ts from the golf industry supply chain. ere are two million jobs in golf annually in this country; it is an $84-billion-dollar-a-year supply chain in the United States alone, and we need more women-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned, LGBT-owned, and disabled-owned businesses bene tting from the golf industry’s supply chain.

It is critically important to not only sustain the

PICTURED: (L-R) SANDY CROSS; GRETCHEN GEITTER, VP OF COMMUNITY RELATIONS, BUFFALO BILLS; LAUREN DIXON, OWNER AND CEO, DIXON SCHWABL; CATHY CROWTHER, SENIOR DIRECTOR, REMOTE OPERATIONS AND PRODUCTION PLANNING, GOLF CHANNEL; OAK HILL COUNTRY CLUB, 2013, PITTSFORD, NY

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I have heard you speak about leading with inclusion; what does that mean to you?

Wherever golf is consumed, or where people are working, the environment has to be authentically inclusive. I believe if you lead with inclusion, and you create these environments in these settings where people can be their whole selves and bring their whole selves, then diversity will naturally follow.

So o en companies lead with diversity and it can become a box-checking e ort. Where, ‘we need this many women, and this many multicultural employees, or this many multicultural players,’ and they may hit those numbers, but those individuals—those women and individuals from diverse backgrounds, or of LGBT identity, or individuals with disabilities—they come into those workplaces and they come into those points of play, and they nd that the experience isn’t an inclusive one, and they leave. If you create the truly authentic inclusive environments rst, then bring the individuals from diverse backgrounds, identities, and abilities into those settings, they are going to thrive, engage, and stay.

What inspires you to keep pushing for equity in the golf industry?

e things that inspire me are the successes that I’ve seen over the years. I know the joys of the sport of golf and what that can mean to an individual, both personally and professionally, throughout their entire life. I want as many people as possible to be able to experience those joys for a lifetime.

What are you most excited about for the future of the PGA of America?

I am just really excited about the growth opportunities that exist for our PGA members when looking at the business through that lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We saw over the last year, as devastating and as tragic as the pandemic has been for so many, the golf industry in a lot of ways has experienced a boom, because golf was and is something that individuals can do in an outdoor setting, in a more safe and responsible way. It is something they can engage in during a pandemic and we saw that happen. I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to retain those individuals in the sport and keep them coming back, and have them invite friends and family and colleagues and customers.

From a jobs and careers standpoint, I always encourage people to follow us at careers.pgahq. com. From a supply chain perspective, anyone who is a business owner, we now have a procurement portal at VRAconnect.org, for the entire golf industry. If you are a business owner, you can register yourself in the portal, and as golf industry entities are looking to do business and bid out opportunities, they go to the portal to nd companies to include in the bids.