Teeing off: history of blacks in golf - Special Section: 1994 Black Enterprise/Pepsi-Cola Golf and Tennis Challenge

Any change will likely have been prodded on by enents following the controversy at Shoal Creek Country Club, home of the 1991 PGA Championship. Club founder Hall Thompson's statement that "we don't discriminate in any area but the blacks," met such public outrage that the PGA quickly decreed that all venues, no matter how exclusively private, would have to include minority members.

In the ensuing wake, golf's ruling bodies have begun to attend to some of the problems confronting the future of minority golf. For the first time, the USGA appointed a black man, John Merchant, to its executive committee, while industry leaders have begun holding annual minority golf symposiums to address related issues. Last year's meeting focused primarily on four areas: junior golf, college golf, employment and economic development. "There's still a lot to be done," says Merchant, adding that professional golf is not a priority. (The truth of the matter is there are only 125 guys on the PGA tour at a time.)

Joe Louis Barrow, a member of the symposium, sees more minorities playing the game of late. As a black executive in the golf industry, he is particularly attuned to the game's economic benefits. "The people who are going to lead African-American involvement are the business people," said Barrow. "If you put the business quotient on top of it, as opposed to just recreation, then you have more incentives to do it. Then as they enjoy the game more and introduce their children to it, you'll see more growth."

Retired Chicago housing administrator Elmer Beard concurred, stressing that the game offers an opportunity "to interact with white counterparts for four and a half hours." Beard, who recently became the first black to serve on the directorship of the Western Golf Association often tells young golfers that "golf is walking shoulder-to-shoulder for 6,000 yards."

In an age of Michael Jordans and Ken Griffeys Jrs., how well golf takes off with minorities may bank on the future careers of two bright and promising talents: La Ree Sugg and Eldrick "Tiger" Woods.

Currently playing in Europe, the 24-year-old Ms. Sugg, who is sponsored by Titleist and played for UCLA, appears destined to become the first black woman on the LPGA tour in 15 years. "I try not to think about it," she said last year. "I was the only black golfer in the NCAA tournament too."

Tiger Woods could spell the future of all gold, black or white. Woods, now a freshman at Stanford, has stated that he wants to be the "best golfer ever," and "golf's Michael Jordan." These are heady musings, even for one of such precocious credentials: shooting 48 for 9 holes at age 3, breaking 80 at age 8, youngest ever to win the National Juniors, etc. etc.

Says his father Earl Woods: "If Tiger does develop and bloom, you'll find that kids will be sinking putts instead of shooting baskets."

Perhaps. Either way, golf fathers might take a tip from Earl Woods on golf parenting: "It's a microcosm of life--you want your kid out there on the course with you. They're learning about you and you about them. It develops a bond that wasn't there before. It's called golf."