By Pete McDaniel
Freelance Writer
The young man approached me in the aftermath of the PGA’s diversity and inclusion event during the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando recently.
“Mr. McDaniel,’’ he said, “I have an idea you might want to pursue.’’
“Oh yeah,’’ I said. “What’s that?’’
“This being the 50th anniversary of Charlie Sifford’s victory in the L.A. Open, I think you should suggest to the PGA Tour that they pair the three African Americans (Tiger Woods, Cameron Champ and Harold Varner III) in the field together in this year’s Genesis (formerly Los Angeles Open) Open.’’
“Excellent idea,” I said to PGA professional Eric Clark, the young man with the timely suggestion. However, that was before journeyman pro Tim O’Neal received the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption to play in the event bringing the total to four players of African American descent potentially in the PGA Tour event. Most PGA Tour events limit their groupings to three players based on certain criteria which would make Clark’s suggestion a longshot.
Still, any threesome of these players would be a marquee pairing and a welcome sight to a certain segment of TV viewers and fans at the tournament and would have strong symbolic resonance as the Tour honors Sifford, the man who broke the color barrier in professional golf.
Harold Varner III, Cameron Champ, Tim O’Neal, Tiger Woods
RELATED ARTICLE: Tim O’Neal Receives Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption to Play in 2019 Genesis Open
As we celebrate African American achievement during Black History Month, I can think of no better way for the Tour to push its message of inclusion and diversity, which has been a grindingly slow process despite the efforts of various initiatives like The First Tee.
I guess slow motion is better than no motion. The name of the game is persistence, a quality personified by Sifford, who was long past his prime when he crashed the invisible gates of exclusion in 1961.
O’Neal’s path to the take-your-best-shot exemption has been fraught with more near-misses and globetrotting than your average journeyman. The 46-year-old native of Savannah, Ga., missed qualifying for the PGA Tour at the 2000 Qualifying Tournament after triple-bogeying the final hole when a bogey would have been good enough to earn a card. He also missed his card by a single stroke in the 2004 Qualifying Tournament.
I first met Tim in the mid-1990s when he led Jackson State University to a berth in the NCAA Division I Championships. JSU, under the guidance of head coach Eddie Payton, became the first Historically Black College & University (HBCU) to make the Division I Championships.
Tim, a gifted ball-striker, was the team’s star destined for success at the next level. Payton boldly predicted that Tim would be greater than Tiger, a fresh-faced teenager at the time.
Fate, however, did not agree. Blessed with the kind of resilience and perseverance worn so well by Sifford, Tim has earned the exemption through years of grinding on the Web.com and Latinoamerica tours, (the latter yielded three wins for O’Neal) Most recently, Tim has been able to keep his competitive edge through competition on the Advocates Pro Golf Association, where he was player of the year in 2018.
Don’t be surprised if he takes full advantage of this opportunity, his seventh appearance in a PGA Tour event. Here’s hoping “7” is his lucky number for no one is more deserving.
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Harold Varner III Opens Up: “So You Wanna Grow Golf?”
Next week’s Genesis Open sends me on a nostalgia trip with the possibility of all four being in the field. In the 1970s, it was not unusual to have an all-AA pairing. That’s because there might have been a dozen or so African American players in the field, including Monday qualifiers. Joining Charlie Sifford at the time were his nephew Curtis Sifford, Pete Brown, long-hitting Jim Dent, George Johnson, Chuck and Jim Thorpe, Bobby Stroble, Lee Elder, Nate Starks, Calvin Peete, Al Green, Charlie Owens and Junior Walker.
About that same time, a transcendent player was watching from his highchair as his father hit balls into a net in their garage in Southern California. That player, Tiger Woods, got an exemption in the L.A. Open and baptism in the big time as a 16-year-old student in high school.
History connects the dots perfectly for Tiger and the rest to write a script this week worthy of Hollywood; one of which Charlie Sifford would have been proud.
ABOUT PETE McDANIEL
Pete McDaniel is a veteran golf writer and best-selling author. His blogs and books are available at petemcdaniel.com
Comments on this topic may be emailed directly to Pete at: gdmcd@aol.com or visit his Facebook page.
