May 19, 2022 – Scottsdale, AZ: Before we enjoy the comfort of our couches for the opening round of the year’s second major, this weekend’s 2022 PGA Championship taking place at Southern Hills Country Club’s Championship Course, let’s reflect on what could have and should have happened after the big boys’ private jets landed so they could tee it up in Tulsa.
What could have and should have happened, and what could EASILY have happened, is that Tiger Woods, who is again deservedly the cynosure of the tournament, should have said to all of his PGA Tour brethren “Hey guys, as we solemnly reflect on the atrocities that took place with the indiscriminate and callous murder of ten Black people up in Buffalo last Sunday, to show the world how important it is that we change the culture of hate, bigotry, gun violence, and bias in our country, it is absolutely incumbent upon me as the standardbearer of our sport to have you all join me for a tour, right here in Tulsa, of the area where the single worst incident of racial violence in American history, i.e. the Tulsa Race Massacre, took place.”
Had Tiger uttered that simple sentence, golf would have properly been used as the social change agent that it has every potential to be. Had Tiger uttered that simple sentence, then perhaps the next 18-year-old white supremacist sitting on the lunatic fringe may have been prompted to do some research about Black Wall Street and the potentially hundreds of Blacks who were murdered by angry whites when 35 square blocks of their prosperous community in Tulsa were burned to the ground just because they were owned by Blacks. Perhaps that next 18-year-old lunatic world be prompted to say “They’ve suffered enough. Let me turn to love and not hate.” Unfortunately, Tiger missed that opportunity to use his platform and to use golf for something bigger than all of his Major Championships combined.
Just south of Southern Hills Country Club one can find the Tulsa Riverside Airport. How ironic. Riverside – Riverside, CA, that is – happens to be the birthplace of golf’s next great superstar, Amari Avery, who, by her very example of inspirational Black excellence, is already showing the world how golf, and one’s platform, can be used as a social change agent. While you sit transfixed on the PGA Tour’s greats this weekend, you would be very well served to flip over to the Golf Channel to watch Amari’s historic bid to win the NCAA Division I National Championship at Scottsdale, AZ’s Grayhawk Country Club. The Tournament runs from May 20-25.
Avery, who has broken many of Tiger Woods’ age group records in her storied amateur career, is now setting and breaking records at the NCAA Division I level as a standout freshman at the University of Southern California. In her young collegiate career which began in January of this year, she has shot ten rounds in the 60s in only 24 career starts. That ranks tied for second all-time in the annals of USC women’s golf. She may own the record for most rounds in the 60s outright, achieved in fewer career starts than any other golfer in history, after this weekend’s National Championship.
In arguably the most exciting NCAA regional championship tournament ever, the PAC 12 Regional Championship at the Stanford University Golf Course two weeks ago, Avery posted a second-round 66 to set up a final round dream threesome against the world’s #1 ranked amateur female golfer, Stanford’s University Rose Zhang, and the world’s #2 ranked golfer, LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad. To call the final round a slugfest is the most accurate boxing analogy of the century.
As the ladies got down to the nitty-gritty to see who would win the individual championship, let’s call holes 16 – 18 the equivalent of what Howard Cosell called “the championship causeway,” i.e. rounds 13-15 from the glory days of boxing. Amari went into the par 5 16th with a two shot lead over Zhang who was doing her level best to impress her Stanford home crowd supporters, not the least of whom was Augusta National Member and Stanford University professor, Condoleezza Rice, who, herself, knows a few things about breaking down barriers.
Amari, the most prodigious driver in amateur golf, smashes her second shot into a greenside bunker in what appeared to be her bid to make eagle. Zhang and Lindblad took more conservative approaches and center cut the fairway with their second shots. Amari, trying to take a page from Jordan Spieth’s miracle bunker shot at the 2013 John Deere classic, failed miserably in that effort, catching the lip and didn’t make it out of the bunker. The ooohing and aahing from the partisan Stanford crowd was deafening.
Avery ended up making a 2 putt bogie, leaving the proverbial door wide open for Zhang to make a late round charge for the win. Zhang, who was putting on a short game and putting clinic all afternoon, had a 12 foot birdie putt to cut the lead to 1. She ended up just missing her birdie, tapping in for par to go to two back.
As the ladies went into the par 3 17th, Amari had a two shot lead with two to play. All the ladies hit the green in regulation. Zhang was away and putted first. As if to say “Y’all can think I’m out of this thing if you WANT to!,” Zhang continued her putting mastery and dropped her birdie putt for some 14 feet. The gallery, which had swelled to a mob at this point, went ballistic. Not to be outdone by any means, Avery stoically lined up her 10 footer, stood over her ball, stepped away to collect herself, then drained her own birdie putt to stay at 2 up with 1 to go. By now it was hard to tell if the raucous cheering was from some Stanford diehards who had changed allegiances or was from the USC faithful who had trekked north for the much ballyhooed showdown.
Preserving her 2 shot lead going into the par 4 18th, history was on the line for Avery. Zhang was up first. It’s not a good sign when you have to yell “Fore!” after hitting your drive on any hole, especially the 18th when you’re in the hunt. Zhang went wide right. Avery was next off the tee and dissected the fairway with a monster drive right up the gut. Zhang punched out with a miracle 7 iron to position herself perfectly in front of the green. Avery lands her second shot pin high right on the fringe some 30 feet away. It should have been a foregone conclusion that Amari had the tournament in hand.
There are no foregone conclusions in golf, however. Zhang chipped up and left herself about 18 feet for par. Amari chips from the fring to just under 6 feet from the cup for par. Zhang eyes her 14 footer, and acting as if ALL putts are supposed to go in, used 270 of the cup’s 360 available degrees to spellbindingly sink her par. You could hear the roar all the way to San Jose. Amari attempts her par putt from the fringe and sails the ball 4 feet past the hole. If she missed the 4 foot comeback putt she’s in a playoff. She lined it up, took a deep breath, and drained her putt for the win and for USC immortality.
Avery has now won three tournaments outright. No other golfer in the school’s history has had a more auspicious start to a collegiate career.
As the PGA Tour faces challenges from upstart rival tours, The PGA Tour may also soon face challenges for fans’ eyeballs from a young lady from Riverside, CA who WILL make golf the social change agent that it has the potential to be.
Leland Hardy (@LelandHardy) is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, financier, and former professional athlete. He is the Founder of RacialBias,org, a certified 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation focused on identifying and helping to eradicate bias in all of its forms wherever it is found in society, Strivers Row Media, the crisis management and media advisory firm, and Nice Time, Inc., a key manufacturer and supplier of healthcare products to First Responders amid the Coronavirus pandemic via www.AmericanPPEsupplier.com. Hardy is a contributing writer to leading sports and finance publications around the world.
