The

MinorityReport

After a decade of diversity,why the disconnect?

By Naimah Jabali-Nash

“Hello, World,” announced a scrawny 21-year-old rookie from Cypress, CA. He stood behind the podium before his first round as a PGA Tour professional at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open while reporters fired questions. His name was Tiger Woods. He was the Tour’s newest “It Kid” and deservedly so—with six consecutive USGA championships under his belt, a comfortable $60 million in endorse-ment deals (the highest for any golfer to date) and an infectious smile. Golf had a new face. One who was young, gifted and black.

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The

MinorityReport

After a decade of diversity,why the disconnect?

By Naimah Jabali-NashSubsequently, Woods

became the poster child for diversity in a sport where the only spectrum of color came from the shades of green grass it was played upon. His “I am Tiger Woods” com-mercials became a ubiquitous message for junior golfers nationwide much like that of the “Be Like Mike” slogan in the early 90s. And after his historic 12-stroke vic-tory over Tom Kite at the 61st Masters, a shockwave hit the golfing nation. It was labeled Tigermania. Programs sprouted across America to introduce the game to minori-ties and underserved com-munities. A sea of red polo wearing juniors with cuddly

tiger head covers bobbled up and down fairways. The golf industry was booming, chil-dren of all colors were being handed irons with a smile—golf was looking like the face of America.

That was 12 years ago. According to the National Golf Foundation’s most recent report on minority golf participation, 37.9 mil-lion Americans over the age of five play golf, 2.3 million are African American. Today Tiger Woods is the only PGA

Tour member of African American decent, Jim Thorpe and Jim Dent reside on the Champions Tour, and there is no African American repre-sentation on the LPGA Tour. But that wasn’t always the case. Not when Calvin Peete was playing.

“When I first came on the Tour in 1975 there was a good 10-12 black golfers on the Tour at that time. There was a togetherness because of the fact that when we first came on the Tour, blacks before me had it much worse,” Peete remembered. “We stayed in some of the cheapest hotels in town. We used to ride together in one car to the golf course to try and save on gas. We would

go out to dinner with each other. We had a great relation-ship. And naturally we talked about golf, giving each other tips, some played practice rounds together. We were very close knit.” More than three decades later the presence of the African American Tour player has regressed.

Unlike most golfers, Peete was introduced to the game when he was 23, from what he describes as an affinity before even taking his first stroke. “It just felt like the club and I belonged together,” he said recently from Jacksonville, FL. Peete’s apprehension to pick up a club came from a simple observation. “I didn’t know black people played golf,” he quipped. “All the golf courses that I had driven by on the highway, the only people I seen out there were white people. I was really sur-prised when guys would say, ‘Man, let’s go play golf!’” And play he did. Peete went on to become the most successful African American Tour player prior to Woods. He played on the 1983 and 1985 Ryder Cup Teams and won a total of 12 times on the PGA Tour. His most notable win being the 1985 Tournament Players Championship.

Today Peete, whose wife Pepper is the Executive Director for The First Tee of Jacksonville, conducts junior clinics once a month. “Not to raise any more Calvin Peetes or Tiger Woods,” he explained. “But I try to let them know how important golf can be in their life. It’s another opportunity to keep our kids occupied. Golf is a very lonely sport. You’ve got

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to tear yourself away from the crowd and then be dedicated to the game if you’re trying to get to another level. And that’s very hard.”

But there is a fundamental difference between just keep-ing children occupied and preparing them for careers as Tour professionals. It’s a qualitative distinction seen in programs like The First Tee and The David Leadbetter Golf Academy. Established in 1997, The First Tee’s mission is to impact children’s lives by instilling core values through golf. Since its inception The First Tee has introduced the game to more than 2.9 mil-lion youth, but hasn’t pro-duced a single Tour player. In 1991, acclaimed swing guru, David Leadbetter signed with IMG Academies, a series of microcosmic breeding grounds for aspiring profes-sional athletes. Two years later, The David Leadbetter Golf Academy was born. Twenty-one Tour profession-als have emerged from the Academy to compete on the LPGA, Nationwide and PGA Tours. The discrepancy?

Cost. From $38,000 for non-boarding students to $51,000 for boarding, students at the Academy have access to the world’s top trainers, nutritionists, psychologists and coaches—a luxury not afforded to the youth of The First Tee.

“The glaring deficiency that’s most visible is money,” said Mike Cooper, Director of Diversity for The World Golf Foundation. “You look at the Tours (LPGA and PGA) and the lack of African American participants out there. The problem starts way before that. Those are elite athletes—the top 160 in there profession. There’s the problem of training and access, but there’s all kinds of constraints that need to be addressed prior to them getting to that level. I don’t

think it’s only money.”The NGF’s research indi-

cates that golf participation directly correlates to house-hold income. Participation amongst minorities mirrors that of Caucasians when household income exceeds $100,000. However, disparity is most prevalent at the lower end of the economic scale where the largest percentage of the population lies. “At incomes between $50,000 and $75,000, rates for whites are between 19% and 24% but for minorities are between 8% and 18%.”

Surely money isn’t the only issue, but it helps. And not every Tour player is or has been a product of opu-lence. “You’ve got to want it for yourself,” exclaimed Peete. “Golf is a game where the little man can compete with the big man on equal terms.” Dead presidents can’t hole a putt, but they will get you into a tournament. It is estimated today that families can spend close to $35,000 annually on green fees, travel expenses, lessons and equip-ment. Suggesting that today’s barrier to entry has less to do with the color of one’s skin and more to do with the depths of one’s pockets.

How can the sanction-ing bodies of golf bridge the gap? At this year’s Northern Trust Open 22-year-old

PGA Tour hopeful, Vincent Johnson, received the first ever Charlie Sifford exemp-tion. The exemption is in honor of Sifford who broke the PGA’s ‘Caucasian only’ clause in 1961, becoming the first African American to earn a Tour card. Out of the 37 regular season events on the PGA Tour available to more than 5,000 entrants, this one exemption is to demonstrate golf’s progression in diversity.

“I think it was such a great initiative,” said Johnson. “At times I think things are unfair when they expect an event to be the big catalyst. Clearly it can’t hurt. I think it helps to what the whole event, the cer-emony and the exemption was about—to spread awareness. That’s all you can do.”

“The biggest thing is get-ting enough involvement and enough interest. If there is enough interest and if you can find the resources from people, groups or companies that want to grow this popu-lation of golfers—it can get done,” Johnson continued. “Golf is so much of an expe-rience game and for many people who don’t have the pocket books to travel, to get tournament experience and to get familiar with all the ins and outs of the game—it’s dif-ficult to make it.”

Golf isn’t glamorized in the African American commu-nity. Cooper argues that the dearth of African American golfers is closer to home. “It’s something cultural somewhere in there that’s not attractive enough of a pathway for them to take as a profession,” he said recently. “I think it’s a combination of

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constraints and what we see on television is a result.”

This cultural disassociation may stem from several fac-tors. Although progress has been made, traces of elitism, bigotry and sexism still linger. “The racism, excuse the use of the word, is not as prevalent as it used to be, but it’s still there, it’s just a little more subtle,” said Peete. “We are one of the few First Tee pro-grams in Jacksonville that has its own golf course. Most facil-ities are just inviting the kids or allowing the kids to come out and practice. I don’t know if they get to play the golf course or not. You don’t learn to play on the practice tee. You learn how to play on the golf course. They’re still trying to hold us back as far as Latinos and African Americans are concerned. They are not ready for a big flux of black kids to be running out and playing their golf courses.”

Growing up I can remem-ber the befuddled looks when asked if I played any sports. The brow was either raised in astonishment or furrowed in utter confusion. My answer always prompted a rhetorical response, “Golf?” “Yes, golf,” I would snap back, annoyed at the same predictable reaction. I didn’t know if it was because I was black, a female or both. It wasn’t until I traveled farther away from my home course that I realized how scarce African Americans (especially African American females) were in competitive golf. I would go from being the only African American girl in my age group to being the only African American girl in the tournament.

But by playing at Langston Golf Course, the first golf course in the nation’s capi-tal for African Americans, I knew I had a place in this game. Everyone at Langston had a story. I listened to the “golf griots” who would tell stories of African American’s long history of triumphs and struggles in the game. I would hear stories of those who had played alongside trailblaz-ers Althea Gibson and Lee Elder. Meet ones who helped nurture careers of those like LaRee Sugg (the third African American woman to play on the LPGA Tour) and watch local heroes compete against Chuck Thorpe at the famed Capital City Open. I related to those men and women.

According to Albert Bandura, psychology profes-sor at Stanford University, social models and one’s perceived relation to such models has an impact on per-formance and what he calls ‘self-efficacy.’ “Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people’s beliefs about their capa-bilities to produce designated levels of performance,” he states. “A way of creating and strengthening self-beliefs of efficacy is through the vicari-ous experiences provided by social models. Seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observer’s beliefs that they too possess the capabilities to master comparable activi-ties required to succeed.” Returning to Langston, I could see traces of that tradi-tion I grew to cherish, but those who passed it on are a dying breed. That era has passed. Now, metropolitan

yuppies walk along those same fairways, lugging their pull carts.

Cooper, claims that out-side the ropes of any Tour event, there is still a lack of minority representation on the upper echelon of the sport. “We need to get some people into some of these key leadership positions at the organizational level so that the ones behind can one see a role model and some hope that they can attain that same level,” he said. Currently 20 accredited universities offer the PGA of America’s Golf Management program, which is devised to cultivate PGA professionals. Once students graduate with a PGM degree they automatically become members of the PGA of America, have the ability to compete in PGA sponsored events and are guaranteed 100 job placement.

“What bothers me is that when the young people give up on the thought that ‘Ok, I’m not going to make it as a player. I’m not shooting the kind of numbers to make it.’ They don’t even look to keep it (golf ) as a career path,”

stressed Cooper. “They don’t go to the industry. They don’t feel that there’s any-thing waiting for them. Once they give up on the dream of making it on the Tour, they get out of it completely.”

According to the Associated Press, out of the 148,000 Club Professionals of the PGA of America, 148 are African American. Currently there is not one African American on the PGA Tour’s executive staff and only three have served on the executive committee in the history of the USGA.

“This is a huge billion dollar industry. The golf industry is not representative of America in any capacity,” said Cooper. “We have to get to the root of the problem and slowly put systems in place that direct candidates on a pathway to get them on that level [PGA and LPGA Tour] as well as in the industry. And only then, can we make the kind of long-lasting cultural change in the game and in the industry that’s needed. We need a cultural shift in golf and I don’t think they—the mysterious they—are going to come up with the solutions.”

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