September 8, 2020 | BY AAGD STAFF
“Black Lives Matter,” so says Jerry Tarde with Golf Digest/Discovery Communications. Watch and listen to this informative teleconference that was hosted today by Dr. Michael Cooper, chairman of the We ARE GOLF Diversity Taskforce and James Beatty, executive editor, African American Golfer’s Digest, who also serves on the WE ARE GOLF Diversity Task Force. Beatty is also the founder of the African American Golf Expo & Forum.
Cooper and Beatty talk golf, diversity and inclusion with Jerry Tarde, editor-in-chief at Golf Digest. Tarde shares his long 43-year history of working at Golf Digest and his early interest in Black golf—citing his very first article that was written while attending Northwestern University for the Philadelphia Bulletin on The Green Ladies, a Black women’s golf organization.
“A lot of people are living in a bubble and don’t recognize the challenges that minorities have, especially Blacks.” -Jerry Tarde
Tarde says that there are so many issues surrounding race and that it can be frustrating for one company to try to solve them all. However, by focusing on one thing, such as employment, Tarde believes that a company could help make a difference. This, says Tarde, is why Golf Digest joined in an opportunity to be the Title Sponsor of the upcoming February 2021 African American Golf Expo & Forum.
“I think golf has lived in a bubble for a long time.” -Jerry Tarde
Tarde started as an intern right out of college going to work for Golf Digest, his first job in journalism. Afterward, he was named Editor in 1984, at age 28, achieving a professional goal he had long dreamed of.
In 2019 Condé Nast was sold to Discovery Communications and Tarde continues to be a strong force with the company.
“As a spectacle of competition, golf is one of those forms of recreations that drives your entire life,” says Tarde in the interview. “I think it (golf) covers your entire life, and one of my motivating drives is to share golf with other people….there are a lot of values that we all could learn from golf when it is played at its best.”
