Wrestling with Race at the PGA
Posted by
John Paul Newport
(January 18, 2008)
At a dinner Wednesday sponsored by African-American Golfer’s
Digest magazine, a club pro from Detroit named Butch Rhodes
estimated that he is one of only about 40 blacks who are
full members of the PGA of America (that is, not including
apprentices).
A PGA of America official later put the figure at around
131, including apprentices, but still – from an organization
with more than 27,000 members, that’s not a good showing.
Especially given that there are something on the order of
2 million African-American golfers in the U.S.
I was surprised, but not shocked, by that number. For someone
like myself — I’m white, but have lived for
the last 25 years in racially diverse communities –-
it has always been unnerving to walk the aisles of the PGA
Show and see so few black faces. In fact, of all the large
gatherings of people I can recall being in, the PGA Show
(with 45,000 attendees this year) is consistently the whitest.
The PGA is not unaware of this imbalance. It established
a diversity pavilion at this year’s show (albeit not
in a particularly prominent spot) and on Wednesday swore
in an African-American, former basketball standout and successful
restaurateur Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman, to
its board of directors.
Race has been a particularly hot topic in the golf world
in the last few weeks, following Golf Channel anchor Kelly
Tilghman’s off-the-cuff remark, while jocularly sparring
with co-anchor Nick Faldo, suggesting that the best way
for lesser Tour pros to deal with Tiger Woods might be to
“lynch him in a back alley.” The network suspend
Ms. Tilghman for two weeks and she apologized
both to Mr. Woods and viewers. But the Rev. Al Sharpton,
among others, have called for her to be fired, and the contretemps
lives on.
Golfweek magazine, stacks of which are available for free
on the exhibition floor, deepened the controversy this week
by featuring a large noose on its cover. And there was more
fallout today: The company that publishes Golfweek, Turnstile
Publishing, announced Friday that it was replacing the magazine’s
editor, Dave Seanor.
I happened to be at the African-American Golfer’s
Digest booth yesterday when a
senior editor for the magazine, Ed Wanambwa, plopped down
several copies of the
Golfweek issue and said, “Have you all seen this?”
It created quite a stir among the mostly African-American
people in the area.
Mr. Wanambwa told me that he knew Ms. Tilghman personally
and didn’t believe that in her heart she meant any
harm. But he did think the Golfweek cover was offensive.
“That noose is a very powerful image in our community,”
he said. He also said that his sense of his magazine’s
readers was that many thought Ms. Tilghman should be fired
and were angry that Mr. Woods accepted her apology so readily
(Mr. Woods’ agent called the matter a “complete
non-issue” and said “case closed”) and
that, in general, he didn’t stand up more for African-American
causes.
A few minutes later and approximately 30 yards away, I
asked Rance Crain, chairman of Turnstile Publishing, for
his take on the matter. He acknowledged the cover had caused
“a stink” — PGA Tour Commissioner Tim
Finchem was quoted as calling the cover “outrageous
and irresponsible” — but said he was proud of
it. “It’s the best way we could have represented
that story, unless we wanted to be namby-pamby about it.
People here may not like being reminded of it, but race
is an issue this industry needs to address.”
About This Blog
The PGA Merchandise Show is the world's largest gathering
for selling golf and gear. John Paul Newport and Tim Carroll
report from Orlando.
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