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The Minority Report: Volume II

The Green Magazine revisits golf's progression in diversity

By: Rick Shefchik

(page 1 of 4)

A generation or two before Tiger Woods arrived, golf had a homespun jobs program that ushered minority players—such as, Lee Elder, Charlie Sifford, Calvin Peete, Jim Thorpe and Jim Dent—onto the golf course without the help of committees, foundations or organizations. “Black professionals early on learned because of the caddie programs,” says Joe Louis Barrow Jr., CEO of The First Tee program, the World Golf Foundation’s high-profile initiative to interest young people in the game of golf. “Many caddied, were exposed to the game, and had an opportunity to play the game. With the reduction of caddie programs around the country, we lost a source of opportunity for exposure to golf for a whole group of individuals.”

Caddie programs still exist, but evidence over the past 20 years suggests their dwindling numbers could be responsible for the decreased numbers of minority professional golfers.

The golf industry cannot bring back the caddie shack, but neither is it willing to accept the status quo.

Mike Cooper, Directory of Diversity for the World Golf Foundation, recently received the results of a five-year progress study on attracting a higher percentage of minorities to golf. The report’s conclusion?

“The report shows some significant increases,” Cooper said. “About 13.8 percent of U.S. minorities play golf. But it’s not changing near as rapidly as folks in the industry thought it would.”

But in golf parlance, that’s a number, not a picture.

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