“Very few blacks will take up golf until the requirement for plaid pants is dropped.”
—Franklin Ajaye, African American comedian
Tiger Woods' longest-lasting contribution to the game of golf ? Perhaps finally shaming country clubs that still discriminate against African Americans, Jews, and other minorities.
An ugly side of the elite cult of golf: Even now, in the twenty-first century, there are golf courses in the United States where Tiger Woods would not be allowed to play because of the color of his skin. And Ladies' Professional Golf Association (LPGA) pro Nancy Lopez, because she's a woman, would only be allowed to play during Tuesday and Friday “Ladies' Days,” if at all.
Even into the 1970s, the Baltimore Country Club posted signs reading, “No Dogs, No Coloreds, No Jews.” Now, at least, the all-male, all-gentile, all-Caucasian clubs usually consider it crass to actually spell this policy out, even when the exclusionary policies remain unchanged.
The venerable Burning Tree Club in Bethesda, Maryland, has never had a woman member or guest in its seventy-nine years of existence. Members' wives are allowed to enter the premises at Christmas-time—but then only to visit the pro shop to buy presents for their husbands.
But progress inches forward … perhaps. In the 1990s, many clubs that had racial or ethnic restrictions actually written into their charters removed them (even if they remained in practice). This was after it was revealed that the site of 1990's PGA championship, Alabama's Shoal Creek course, had not even a single black member. Because of the disparity of the membership at the club, advertisers promptly pulled $2 million of TV advertising so they wouldn't be associated with exclusionary practices. In response, the PGA drafted a policy stating that no PGA event “will be held at any golf club that has membership practices or policies that discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin.”
“I think it's absolutely a coincidence. We have no members from Hungary, either, and none from Lithuania or Estonia. It's a nothing. It's meaningless.”
—Attorney and member Graham Koch trying to explain away the fact that Northwood Country Club in Dallas has never even considered a black member for membership, quoted in the Dallas Times, May 18, 2001
Despite Tiger Woods, black golfers make up only 3.3 percent of all golfers—professional and amateur—a figure unchanged over the last decade.
At last count, only four golf courses in the United States are owned by African Americans, down from an all-time high of seventy, when many blacks ran their own golf courses offering otherwise excluded African American players a place to play.
When asked in 1994 why he hadn't spoken out against racism at private country clubs, Jack Nicklaus suggested African Americans weren't suited for the sport. “Blacks have different muscles that react in different ways,” he said.
“Very few people will voice their opinion in public. But I guarantee you behind closed doors across the country there are people wishing to see Tiger Woods fail.”
—Bill Dickey, president and founder of the National Minority Junior Golf Scholarship Association