Ty Votaw (born February 1962) is an American lawyer and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

executive.

Career

Votaw worked in corporate law for a

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

-based firm before joined the

Ladies Professional Golf Association The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Infor ...

as general counsel in 1991. He served as its Commissioner from 1999 to 2005. In 2006 he was appointed Executive Vice President, International Affairs of the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

. In 2013 Votaw was named Executive Vice President and Chief Global Communications Officer for the PGA Tour, and in September 2014 was named the Tour's Chief Marketing Officer where is responsible for all of the organization's communications, marketing, branding and advertising. Votaw also serves as Vice President of the International Golf Federation. Votaw also coordinated the 2016 Olympic golf movement on behalf of the

International Golf Federation The International Golf Federation (IGF) was founded in 1958 and is the international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the world governing body for golf. The IGF has two membership categories representing the ...

's Olympic Golf Committee and other golf organizations around the world. Votaw served in a newly created position as executive director, IGF Olympic Golf Committee. Golf was subsequently included in the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. In June 2022, Votaw retired as Executive Vice President, International, of the PGA Tour.

Personal life

Votaw was born in

Greenford, Ohio Greenford is an unincorporated community in central Green Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. The community lies along State Route 165 a short distance north of Salem. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area. Gree ...

. He graduated from

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

in 1984 with a degree in journalism and public relations and earned his J.D. degree at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

in 1987. While Votaw was at the LPGA, he and tour golfer

Sophie Gustafson Sophie Gustafson (born 27 December 1973) is a Swedish professional golfer. She was a member of the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and is a life member of the Ladies European Tour (LET). She has five LPGA Tour and 23 international wins in her career, inc ...

became personally close, sparking press coverage because he was still married, though separated (since 2003) from his first wife, Paula Keiffer. The couple were married on June 16, 2006. They divorced in January 2010. As of 2013, Votaw was married to the former Kelli Suire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Votaw, Ty LPGA Tour commissioners Ohio University alumni University of North Carolina School of Law alumni People from Mahoning County, Ohio People from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida 1962 births Living people