ADVANCING THE GAME
"The journey of African Americans in golf mirrors our larger journey in this country. It is a journey reflected in my own family." (USGA)
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There are days when I wonder how I ended up in golf, a game that I love so much but one with no connection to my childhood.
I still remember my family driving by golf courses in the San Fernando Valley, with players enjoying themselves on those long California summer days, and nobody in the car saying anything – not my dad, not my mom, not my little sister and not 10-year-old me. Golf was a game played by other people.
The routine was no different at home, where a golf tournament flashing across our television meant we were waiting for the Los Angeles Lakers to come on. Golf might as well have been played on the moon.
The childhood version of me wouldn’t recognize the adult version, the one who smiles as he talks about the game almost daily on Golf Channel, traveling to tournaments around the world and interviewing players after rounds at the U.S. Open.
How on earth did I get here?
I know my story is not unique among African Americans of a certain age, latecomers to the game and its challenges and beauty. By and large, we didn’t come to golf through the front door of the clubhouse. We came through its caddie yards and its kitchens and, sometimes, not at all. In the centuries-old history of golf, we are still relative newbies.
The journey of African Americans in golf mirrors our larger journey in this country. It is a journey reflected in my own family. My late grandfather, who grew up poor in Memphis, Tenn., never swung a golf club in his life and never set foot on a golf course. My late father, who was an attorney, held a golf club one time, hitting a pitch shot in the backyard of a friend’s house. My mother, a schoolteacher and marriage, family and child counselor, has played nine holes in her 76 years.
And yet here I am with a gamer set of clubs in my trunk and a backup set in the garage and too many swing thoughts to count.
My path into this game happened almost by accident. I was fresh out of college and working at the sports talk radio station in Los Angeles when I spotted the station director, Scott O’Neil, carrying a set of clubs through the hallway. We made eye contact, and he asked me if I’d ever played golf.
I told him no, and he invited me to a private country club called Spanish Hills in Camarillo, Calif. I’ll never forget walking onto that emerald paradise, feeling both largely out of place and exhilarated at the same time.
I hit 144 shots. A few of them actually went straight.
The next thing I knew, Scott had gifted me a set of Arnold Palmer Peerless PHD irons. I spent the rest of the early 1990s bouncing around public courses in Southern California – Azusa Greens, the Van Nuys Par 3, Knollwood. I entered graduate school in 1994, the same year Tiger Woods won the first of three straight U.S. Amateur titles. By the time he won the Masters in 1997, I was a full-fledged golf nut, chasing sunsets and emptying large buckets on the range.
I fell in love with golf journalism as well, diving into as many books and articles as I could. I read everyone – Frank Deford and Dave Anderson, Jim Murray and Dan Jenkins, Rick Reilly and Michael Bamberger. I was smitten with the game.
After serving as a beat writer for the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Knicks, I started covering golf for Newsday in 2001 at the U.S. Open at Southern Hills, eventually covering the game for The New York Times and Sports Illustrated before joining Golf Channel in 2012.
With my involvement in the game, my parents started following golf, too. My dad went all-in for Tiger. My mom roots for Tiger but also Jordan Spieth and Jason Day.
One of my greatest regrets is that I never got to play golf with my father, that his long-ago pitch shot in a friend’s backyard didn’t take. I have found solace in rounds with my own children – an enriching reminder of golf’s progress and my own family’s journey in the game – but I know I missed out on something soulful having never shared that walk with my dad.
My triplet sons have helped fill that void with their antics, laughter and unburdened swings. To chase the sunset with them is an indescribable joy, one that so many in this game feel in their bones.
I’m so grateful for my career path and mindful of the work still needed to make this game look more like America. Even with much meaningful progress, the number of African-American golfers fell from 1.1 million in 2015 to 800,000 in 2018, a decline of 27 percent, according to the National Golf Foundation. In 2019, the same year that Tiger won his 15th major championship, African Americans made up just 3 percent of the country’s golfers despite making up 13 percent of its population.
Golf has made great strides on many levels. The USGA’s IDEA Grants Program, which launched in 2021, delivers direct funding to community-based programs like First Tee to improve pathways to inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. In November, First Tee celebrated its 25-year anniversary, a milestone for an initiative that has reached millions of young people through its network of 150 chapters that operate programs in 10,000 schools and 1,700 youth centers. The PGA Tour, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020, committed to investing $100 million over 10 years to aid social justice, diversity and equity causes.
These are important measures, especially considering golf’s muddled history when it comes to race. The PGA of America’s “Caucasian-only clause” kept the PGA Tour from integrating until 1961 – 14 years after Jackie Robinson took his first at-bat for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But that doesn’t mean that golf can’t lead now. I trust that everyone in the game understands the benefits of enlarging golf’s tent, of lowering the barriers to inclusion, of asking the tough questions and dealing with systemic issues that are, in some cases, centuries in the making.
I am also excited to play my part as an example of the game’s growth. In June I’ll be heading back to my hometown, where I’ll be covering the U.S. Open at The Los Angeles Country Club. The little kid in me wouldn’t have believed something like that was even possible. It’ll be seven days of intense coverage on NBC and Golf Channel, and I will no doubt love every second of it.
And when it’s over, I think I’ll invite my mom for a round of golf.