Breaking It All Down

Through my own golf experiences, going to watch the professionals play, reading journal articles, and reading books, I am determined that golf is going in the right direction to desegregate golf. With the actions of the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods, and many other public figures, African golfers are slowly being introduced to the game and soon enough will the professional tour be diverse just like all the other sports being played today.

My Own Golf Experiences

Whenever my friends and I go out for a round of golf, we do so in a way to relax and enjoy the company of one another. Until I picked the topic of segregation and golf for the topic of my paper I never really noticed that whenever we go out for a round there are few to no African American golfers out on the courses. By living on a diverse college campus one would think that the golf courses would be diverse as well. From just sitting here thinking, I can only recall four or five times where I have seen an African American golfer out on the course during the same time as myself. I am left wondering if this is due to the fact that Athens is in a rural area or wether people are just not interested in golfing while in school.

My Own Opinion

In my view, golf has come a long way in terms of racial barriers since the game was first being played. At first golf was an all white man's game where no blacks were even aloud to step foot on the country clubs or public venues. One of the first steps that were made was allowing the African American's to caddie for the white golfers. This may not really seem like an advancement but it aloud the African Americans to be introduced to the game. They would learn from the watching their white counterparts and even sneak in some range time when they were able to. Later on African Americans were creating their own golf courses so that they were able to play the game. I feel that efforts to create there own professional league and own golf courses show great promise that black are taking the game seriously and should be allowed participation. Recently with the help of Tiger Woods, African Americans have taken up the game but are not really looking to take on the professional part yet as Woods remains the only African American golfer on the pro tour. The PGA is taking measures such as creating organizations to encourage the youth to pick up the game.

The Effects of Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods has positively effected the game of golf by influencing many other African Golfers to join in on the game of golf. This effect is being focused on the African youth. By notarizing the African ancestors of golf, the African youth can have a sense of racial pride and therefore feel good about pursuing golf as a career. Recently to avoid the scrutiny that the PGA has been one of the last sports to eliminate the racial barrier, the PGA has pushed hard on bringing in African golfers to their sport. At times this effort has been stronger from golf than an other sport. The PGA has created organization like-The First Tee, to help build diversity in sport. Also as important to bringing in the youth is to recognize the African heritage when it comes to golf.

Tiger Wods

While many people would consider Tiger Woods to be multi-ethnic, Woods clearly took his stand on toward African golfers when he won the 1997 Masters. He placed his victory in the context that this has been the largest victory for African golfers. By saying this he has become one the most influential people for the African golf movements. Woods turned professional in 1996 and has not looked back since. He rapidly climbed up the golf rankings and has established himself as one of the two best golfers of all time. After winning the 1997 Masters Woods was quick to point out that his accomplishment was just a continuation of the previous African American golfers prior to him. IT was also known that Woods had mentioned that the previous African golfers had and unfair advantage because they were denied access on the PGA tour.

Organization of Paper

In my paper I am first going to describe why and how golf became a white mans game for so long. I will then tell how the African Americans began to make desegregation movements to become a part of country clubs and to golf on public course. I will give specific examples of how this was put to work at different clubs and public venues. I will describe what is being done today to help make sure the movements are being put in affect. I will then explain how Tiger Woods has been such a major factor in desegregation process and what all he has done for the game of golf. I will also explain how Woods has influenced so many African Americans to pick up the game of golf. I will conclude with what the game needs to do in order to permanently change and not just little changes.

Sample Intro

Ever since the creation of golf, the game had been fathered into being a white mans sport. African Americans have been fighting the segregation rules associated with golf and trying to break the barrier that has been formed. Many country clubs and even public courses have been denying African Americans to join their clubs or play on their courses. African Americans golf fanatics have been teaming up with equal rights movement organizations since the beginning to make sure that the racial barriers could be broken and no more segregation would occur within the game. A gold mine was struck when Tiger Woods came onto the PGA tour. The fact Tiger Woods will go down in history as the number one golfer of all time is a huge success for bringing African American to the professional level and to the game of golf.

Making Moves

During the 1920s was a popular time for the African American golfer. African Americans began to become more and more interesting in the great game during these years and slowly began to form their own country clubs. The purpose of these clubs was for African Americans to play the game for recreation or to become a professional golfer. However, the professional level for the African Americans during this time meant only at tournaments put on by the black country clubs around the country. These types of tournaments went on throughout the 1950s in which the African Americans began to work with the NAACP to help them with the desegregation process. To rival with the PGA the UGA was created to allow African Americans to tour professional.

Segregation and Golf

Sports in America have gone through desegregation periods of racial issues except for the sport of golf. Golf is a sport that has seen the most resistance by whites to keep blacks out of their sport. On a professional level golf was the last sport in American to allow African Americans to compete in tournaments. This has resulted in the slow movement of African Americans to gain interest in the sport. The racial barrier movements have recently been stimulated by the success of the only black golfer on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods, who is the number one ranked golfer in the world. The recent success of Tiger Woods has only barley stimulated the movement of racial barriers in golf.

Firestone

When driving up to Akron, Ohio, I was in for a treat as I was going to get to see the world's greatest golfer and my favorite athlete, Tiger Woods. Upon arriving to the course we were searched as we boarded the shuttle bus for safety and security issues. I immediately noticed the security guards were taking their jobs very seriously as they denied people to enter until they emptied out food, cellular devices, and various other non permitted items. On the shuttle ride to the course my friends and I seen banners of the previous years winners and we immediately noticed Tiger Woods had won six of the past seven years he had played in this particular tournament. Walking into the grounds we were free to do whatever we pleased as far as spectating goes. Noticing the galleries that were out following the many different players, I noticed that there was a mix of all cultures watching the tournament. Anywhere from people wearing sweatpants to people wearing suites. My friends and I were with the majority of the gallery wearing plaid shorts and a golf polo. Being more specific, the ethnic backgrounds were dependent on the particular player they were following. People of the Asian culture were mainly following the Asian golfers. There was British press t.v. crew there that was following Ian Poulter who was a British golfer. Everyone however, was following Tiger Woods. It didn't matter where you were from, color of your skin, or how you dressed, Tiger Woods had 85% of the gallery following him around the course. My friends and I contributed to that 85% until Woods finished his 18 holes of golf then we were off to watch the efforts of the other golfers in the field. People were buying the overly priced concession food and drinks like the world was going to end. It did not matter to them though as they were enjoying the wonderful game of golf with thousands of people of different backgrounds.

A Brief History

Golf seems to be one of the sports lacking in desegregation although the success of Tiger Woods tends to blanket this belief. Ever since the beginning of golf, crusaders for the game have been trying to convince officials that golf was not just for the rich and that cities and towns should provide courses for the "masses" to play. The first public golf courses were flooded with people, both rich and poor, who were trying to prove that golf was not a current fad that would pass by eventually. The African Americans who were trying to enjoy this great game, were often disclosed from private white country clubs and kept out of public and municipal courses. The only action the African Americans were getting on the golf course was to serve as caddies for the white members. For the most part, African Americans as young as eight years old would haul around two bags at a time for a full day. Mostly in the north, the African American caddies were occasionally aloud to play a round of golf on Monday's when the course is closed to the members. However in the south, this was not seen as much because the country clubs and courses would often deny the African Americans the right to play.