Resort boss always finds a fairway to make a living.

• Author: Brown, Kathy
• Position: PEOPLE

After more than 30 years in golf, Donald Padgett II landed a job that fits him to a tee. In July, he became president of Pinehurst Resort, site of eight championship golf courses--including Pinehurst No. 2, the site of the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Open Championships. He also oversees 571 rooms at its hotel and two inns.

A former professional golfer, he was general manager of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, when Dallas-based ClubCorp, which owns Firestone and Pinehurst, tapped him for the North Carolina job. Firestone is home to the World Golf championships' annual NEC Invitational. "I came from one of America's great golf institutions, but I was presented with the opportunity to come to what I think is America's No. 1 golf resort." He replaces Pat Corso, who left in February after 17 years.

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Padgett, 55, grew up playing golf in Indiana. His father, Donald, was president of the Professional Golfers' Association of America from 1977 to 1978 and was Pinehurst's director of golf from 1987 to 2002. It was natural that the son, after earning a bachelor's in marketing from Indiana University in 1972--and All-America honors as a golfer--would try out for the PGA Tour. He went to its qualifying school but missed getting his Tour card by two shots. He got his card the following year and played the Tour two years.

"I made enough money on the Tour to pay the bills and had enough time to figure out I wasn't going to be the next Jack Nicklaus," he says. "But I knew I wanted to stay in golf." He got a job as a pro at a Carmel, Ind., country club at 24, becoming the state's youngest club pro. He stayed until 1979 when he became director of golf at Firestone...