Teeing off - golfing for African Americans

Black Enterprise, August, 1992 by Lloyd Gite

The story brought national attention to a segregationist policy that had been fought by several individuals. Civil rights organizations, which had not complained about Shoal Creek's policy or Birmingham's exclusionary clubs in the past, demanded that the PGA dump the club as a tournament site. Controversy swept the country and many "all white" golf courses began feeling the pressure to integrate their facilities. With the pressure from corporate sponsors and television networks, many did just that. Even Shoal Creek brought in its first black, though honorary, member - Louis J. Willie, president of the Booker T. Washington Insurance Co. The club's $35,000 initiation fee was waived because his membership status was honorary.

Shortly afterward, the PGA Tour (the organization), which co-sponsors the PGA Tour (the event), the Senior PGA Tour and the Ben Hogan Tour, announced it would not hold tournaments at clubs that discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex or national origin. "We implemented the policy immediately that none of our 118 tournaments would be played at a club facility that exhibited exclusionary membership practices," explains Ruffin Beckwith, vice president of corporate affairs for the PGA Tour. "We demanded that all the clubs demonstrate that they don't (discriminate), that they have minority members and that the club has a wide open membership. We lost a few clubs and a few courses that had been with us for quite a while," says Beckwith.

But many clubs fell into line and opened up their once "whites only" membership rolls to blacks. One such organization was the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The country club's board of directors set up a meeting with the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce (FWMBCC) to ask for the names of prospective African-Americans who would be interested in joining the exclusive club.

"The officials from Colonial and the chamber decided to do three things to change the situation," says Norma Roby, president of the FWMBCC. "Five African-Americans were invited to join the club and they did. We decided to sponsor a joint golf tournament and business opportunities would be offered to black vendors and suppliers," says Roby. In November 1991, the chamber and Colonial sponsored the first annual Celebrity Charity Golf Classic. The tournament, which had more than 170 golfers participate, was a major success, raising more than $40,000 for charities including the United Negro College Fund, the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation and the NAACP.

The PGA Tour has also initiated several programs to bring African-Americans into the mainstream of the sport. "We want to make the minority community aware of the business opportunities in our industry," explains Beckwith. "People don't realize golf is a multibillion-dollar industry with many components and facets. Not only are there opportunities for great players, but if you have an interest in real estate, public relations or television production, the golf industry has those opportunities," he adds. To expose more minorities to the multifarious golf industry, the PGA Tour implemented an internship program this summer for 15 minorities, including Asian, Hispanic and African-American youth. The internships are in a variety of areas within the PGA Tour and with some of the tour's business partners, including Merrill Lynch and Golf Digest and Gold World magazines.