Mark Wagner has announced he will retire from Club Car effective August 1, 2025. The lessons he has learned along the way are surely beneficial to any corporate leader.
For perspective, the company started in 1958 in Texas and moved to Augusta four years later.
Wagner grew up in the northeast, graduated from Penn State, and was hired out of college to work with Ingersoll Rand. The company would acquire Trane Technologies.
“I put all those 21 years of learning from business leaders at both of those companies to good use. Those experiences were extremely beneficial in developing challenges into opportunities,” said Wagner.
Corporate acquisitions and mergers would result in shifting gears for Wagner from Trane to Ingersoll Rand to Club Car. In 2008, Trane was bought by Ingersoll Rand. In 2021 Platinum Equity acquired Club Car from Ingersoll Rand for $1.7 billion. The following year, Club Car bought Garia, a Denmark-based company known for its luxury golf carts.
International attention was captured when Queen Elizabeth rode in one of the state-of-the-art golf carts at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show. The plush cart was equipped with leather seats, cup holders, a heated windscreen, and Bluetooth capability.
That marked the beginning of another vision for Club Car beyond golf and into leisure and utility.
Driven to Make a Difference
Perhaps Wagner’s drive began with the Penn State motto “Make a Difference.”
“Creating great opportunities for employees and developing rising stars through leadership development has always delivered great results for us and our customers.”
Wagner says the relationships you build internally and externally pave the way for success.
“I just tried to support and grow our leadership team in a fast-growing market.”
Wagner is proud of the team’s accomplishments in his eight years as CEO and President of Club Car. In that time the company has almost tripled its growth which included an $8 million expansion last spring at Columbia County’s White Oak Business Park.
The facility produces the Club Car Urban which comes in two versions. The Urban XR is non-street legal, while the Urban LSV is street-legal. The LSV is being used by universities, governments, municipalities, and manufacturers to achieve their green sustainability goals.
Tariff Tiff
As brisk as Club Car’s business is in the United States, the company has also experienced dramatic growth abroad, especially in Europe where many metro centers forbid gas and diesel engine vehicles for package deliveries and leisure and neighborhood use.
Even before Donald Trump took office and ramped up tariffs against imports, Club Car had launched a successful campaign last year against Chinese imports.
“Those golf carts from China disrupted our business. Their products were not up to our standards. American made, American designed, American tested, American proven; it’s the Club Car difference to provide reliability, quality, and safety. You know, when vehicles are coming from overseas, it’s not necessarily that they’re meeting any of those three things. “
Club Car Bread and Butter and Beyond
As Club Car continues to grow, neither Wagner nor whoever is next to lead the company will forget where it all started, with a golf cart.
The company is the official golf cart of the PGA of America, PGA TOUR Tournament Players Club (TPC) Network, and the European Tour. Even though we are just shy of a month away from the Masters, ironically you won’t see them on the course at Augusta National because they aren’t allowed, however, they will be used to shuttle players from the clubhouse to the first hole and the practice tees.
Just as Augusta National makes a charitable impact on the CSRA, so does Club Car with financial gifts and partnering with area schools to promote interest in the STEM program. In a yearlong partnership between Club Car and Martinez Elementary School, students learned about the innovation and design of Club Car golf carts.
Wagner will be front and center, at least until he retires in August, to make sure the good deeds for the community continue. Club Car and Wagner’s role in the company will transition in the coming months. After he leaves, he may play some golf, take a break, and slow down a bit.
Mark Wagner is committed to the future of Club Car. He will be involved in laying a foundation for future growth.
“I want to make my successor successful,” said Wagner.
Editor’s Note:
Mitzi Oxford is a veteran broadcaster and features writer who also worked at the same television station in Columbus, Georgia as Augusta’s Brad Means! If you have a South Carolina story idea for Mitzi, please email her at mitzioxfordcreative@gmail.com.
