Location: Tulsa, OK
Writer: Byron M. Perry
Follow on Twitter @BPerry918
The 104 edition of the PGA Championship returned to Tulsa last week. It had been 15 years since all were dazzled by the ability of the best golfers in the world, with Tiger Woods letting the world know the show was all his own.
Golf is quickly becoming a 100 billion dollar industry, there are professional events around the world with purses that have been growing year over year. Participation in the game is at an all-time level either at the practice range, the actual course or even video games. All of these areas changed back in 1997 when Tiger turned professional.
Two years ago in preparation to host another one of these marquee events, Southern Hills Country Club made the decision to undertake an 11 million dollar renovation project to rebuild all eighteen greens with an underground turf management system that heats and cools the grass to ensure the surface area is in championship quality similar to Augusta National Golf Club where the Masters is held. The renovation also removed trees, reconfigured bunkers, lengthened holes all to bring the course back to its original design from its original architectural style. The purse for the PGA Championship was 15 million with the winner taking home 2.7 million. As an African American golfer, the obvious impact of Tiger cannot be overstated. What I hoped to find right here in Tulsa was, “Where has the game moved regarding diversity?”
Let’s first get something clear. When the PGA of America moved a small city into Tulsa in order to host this championship there has never been as much opportunity in the game of golf at every level. The PGA held an event through its PGA Works program titled “Beyond the Green” specifically for Tulsa area high school students to highlight the efforts being made to illuminate to the masses that golf is a diverse sport, with areas available for individuals with multiple talents, backgrounds, and style. The PGA has also been a huge advocate to the First Tee Program of which Tulsa has an excellent chapter headed by Janice Gipson introducing scores of children to the game of golf on an annual basis. Across the country First Tee Programs have accomplished the same mission, yet the two significant questions remain, ‘How do we sustain diversity in golf at the youth level AND how do we get more players of color on the PGA Tour?’
One-on-one coaching, opportunities to develop either in practice or on the course, and the access to tougher venues of golf to test a player’s game are the critical steps that golfers must ascend in order to succeed at the highest level. Harold Varner III didn’t take his first golf lesson until he was 16yrs old, and today Varner is a fixture playing in major championships.
Wyatt Worthington II is a product of the First Tee Program at which he met Tiger Woods. This meeting was the moment that Worthington decided to pursue a career in professional golf. The issue is closing the gap during the crucial Junior stages when players must try and fail, build and re-build their swings, compete, lose, and hone their mental games. Golf is an expensive sport no one disputes that. At each step that I am here to discuss today the financial component must be addressed. Fortunately, the resources that can assist in bringing the necessary funds into communities of color are not out of reach.
The issue is again access to the seats at those boardroom tables surrounded by those of influence in order to make sure the decisions of where to provide funding have input from those who look like those who will be served. The process of building youth golfers in communities of color has been slow because without a full understanding of perspective and situations the outcomes will continue to be small and at a poor pace.
Billy Horschel grew up in Grant, Florida and picked up the game while he was young. Horschel didn’t grow up a country club kid, learning the fundamentals by hitting golf balls over a pond. Stories like these can be told by many professional golfers. Horschel arrived in Tulsa this week to compete in the PGA Championship with 6 wins on the PGA Tour and 2 European Tour wins, also the host of an American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) tournament along with one of his corporate partners to provide an opportunity to youth to compete.
Horschel goes even further by also hosting an Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) event on a TPC course to provide opportunities for minority golfers to compete in a PGA setting with the goal of preparing them for the highest level of golf. Horschel ‘Gets it’, understanding that for minority youth to grind it out and succeed as he did, they need to see golfers that look like them, see other golfers like them pushing them towards the PGA Tour. This is a CURRENT player on the PGA Tour working day to day on his pro game, using his platform to build access for youth of color, sitting at the table with corporate sponsors and working to grow the game. “The game has been good to me, and I want to be good for golf.” Words by Billy Horschel, that speak directly to increasing diversity in the game of golf.
The PGA of America at many levels recognizes that in order to grow the game golf it has to be taken to communities of color, not in all cases having youth from communities of color come to the traditional hubs of golf. The game can be taught, and players can fall in love with the game to pursue it without getting to the golf course. The amount of technology to simulate courses, evaluate performance and create video of players to review swing elements available today allow coaches to work with players indoors or outside.
The direction of resources into communities of color toward facilities that allow youths to access them when they can, even when there is no daylight, or optimal weather conditions is critical. Too many youth golfers once they reach age of 16 need to work in order to assist their families. Youths in these situations need access to facilities that provide alternative hours so that the golf work can still be completed. It’s the same scenario that youth basketball and football players follow with early morning workouts or lighted bubble facilities instead of the stadium settings.
It is also important to add that the minority community do more to assist youth golfers of color. The avenues bringing youth to the game are succeeding yet a missing component is the lack of role models. The story of Earl Woods training his Tiger is the bar, however, countless PGA professionals tell the story of learning and playing the game for fun to follow that significant figure in their lives. We must allow these young people to join our regular groups and play alongside us, talk the game with us, and experience courses with us.
At the same time for many of us African American golfers who have reached the level of membership at private clubs, we must lobby our clubs to create opportunities for junior golfers preparing for tournaments to have access to the private club courses that in many cases offer a more difficult test of their games. Not only do private courses assist in the level of play, but also the social aspect associated with the game.
Collin Morikawa who at 25 years of age turned professional in 2019 and then won the PGA Championship in 2020 grew up playing the game at Chevy Chase Country Club in California. As one reads Chevy Chase Country Club and envisions the type of surroundings witnessed this week at Southern Hills Country Club, that would be wrong. Chevy Chase is a 9-hole facility with no driving range. Morikawa learned playing that 9-hole golf course alongside a diverse group of adult members who worked on their games hitting the necessary types of shots when the balls were below their feet, to the right and left to avoid hazards, and with varied trajectories due to the winds in the canyon setting Chevy Chase is built into. We also must incorporate our youth golfers of color into our charity golf tournaments. No matter the numbers we need to provide youth golfers of color every chance available to get repetitions in a competitive setting.
The 104th PGA Championship Tulsa hosted provided changing weather conditions, a historic challenging golf course, the return of Tiger Woods, and on Sunday the rise and collapse of a bright young player in Mito Pereira only to crown Justin Thomas as champion after a playoff against Will Zalatoris. Golfers cannot claim there was any area the PGA Championship of 2022 fell short of providing drama or must-see moments. I also left Southern Hills inspired by the game growing in the areas of diversity. The avenues are visible so that if it takes Southern Hills another fifteen years to host a legacy event like the PGA Championship, the champion just may come from the efforts to grow the numbers of golfers of color today.
