It has been a while since Tiger Woods has stepped on the PGA
Tour and took it by storm. Seventy championships that
include him in second all time with major victories. Not
bad for a player who has been on the tour for less than 15
years. And at the rate that Woods has been playing recently,
going into this weekend’s play at the PGA could bring him one
step closer to having the most Major titles. With that said
and all that Tiger Woods has done with respect to exposing
golf to the world, one has to wonder who will be the next
African-American to step on the course and be a player?
Great question you say? Before we arrive at an answer let’s
take a look at some numbers that will tell you who is
playing the game of golf.
According to findings by the National Golf Foundation,
minorities have a definite presence in golf and the
relationship between income and participation is as strong,
if not stronger, in minority populations. Minorities are
attractive candidates for golf and there is a large untapped
pool of latent demand. Total golf participation by
minorities is 5.5 million with non-Hispanic whites making up
31.2 million. Of the total of minority golf participants,
African Americans make up 2.2 million, Hispanic Americans
make up 1.7 million and Asian Americans make up 1.5 million.
In total golf participation white males make up 64.4%, White
females make up 20.6%, African Americans make up 6.3%,
Hispanic Americans make up 4.6% and Asian Americans make up
4.1%.
Now that you know that the game is growing among African
Americans you would wonder that with golf being somewhat
expensive initially because of the cost of clubs and
lessons, that would preclude many youngsters from playing.
Not so fast. There are more programs set up around the
country to give young people the chance to be introduced to
the game of golf at minimal charge that you have to throw that
concern on the back burner.
Tiger Woods started The First Tee program during his
emergence and makes it easier than ever for you
people to play golf. Its CEO has some history when it
comes to pioneering as he is Joe Louis Barrow, Jr. the son
of the great boxing champion Joe Louis. First Tee has
chapters throughout the United States that give youngsters
the opportunity to learn, play and compete in golf. The
program has corporate sponsorship that makes it a major
player in golf development in America.
So now that you know there are fewer excuses on why African
Americans cannot play, let’s get back to the question on who
will be next to follow in the footsteps of Tiger Woods.
Better yet, who else is on the PGA Tour? The answer? There
is no one in sight. There are few African Americans on any
of the major tours that would include the PGA and the
Nationwide Tour.
Statistics don’t lie. Here’s a look at the number of black
athletes playing at different levels of golf. For PGA and
Nationwide tours, the total players represent the current
money lists.
Black Total
players players
PGA Tour 1 240
Nationwide 0 146
Tar Heel Tour 2 200
NCAA Division I 48 2,491
OCIAA boys’ golf 3 183
Explanations
PGA Tour: Tiger Woods is the only black player. His father
was African-American, his mother is Thai, and Woods has
referred to himself as “cablinasian” to describe his
multi-ethnic heritage that includes American Indian,
caucasian, black and Asian. There are several other
non-caucasians on the Tour, including Vijay Singh, who is
from Fiji.
Nationwide: Tim O’Neal played in 116 events from 1998 to
2007. He currently has conditional status and has not played
in an event this season.
Tar Heel Tour: O’Neal has played
the first two events on the tour.
NCAA Division I: For this survey, 253 of 264 teams were
fully researched.
Information from Division I schools Alabama A&M, Arkansas
Pine Bluff, Charleston Southern, George Mason, LaSalle,
Lipscomb, Mississippi Valley State, Savannah State, Prairie
View A&M, Sam Houston State and Texas Southern was not
available.
Only three black golfers – one each from Mississippi State,
Oregon and Oregon State – play major college golf. Division
I averaged 81 black golfers per year between 1999 and 2006.
OCIAA golf: Freshman Elijah Davis plays for the Liberty golf
team. The total number of golfers on Liberty’s team wasn’t
available. For this survey, 12 of 23 teams were included.
As you can see the numbers are not good. While we pride our
selves on being able to now play at several country clubs
and golf groups have sprung up all around that promote
nothing more that pencil whippers and trash talkers of the
one dollar wagers, there has to be hope that some day rally
soon there will be another African American on TV. Not that
they have to be Tiger Woods because here may not be another
one like him for the foreseeable future from any race on
this planet. It is time though for Tiger to have a new
playing partner on Sunday in the final round and hopefully
in the final pair.