If you love golf, this part of the game probably makes you uncomfortable.
Some of us choose not to talk about it, like when we graciously give our playing partner the silent treatment after a triple bogey-induced tantrum.
But it’s there, the elephant roaming the fairways: Golf’s deeply troubling diversity problem.
The issue eminates from a lengthy history of elitism and racial segregation in golf. The game’s overwhelming whiteness is not just engrained in every fiber of golf’s tapestry – it’s symbolic of the chasm between the haves and the have nots.
If you ask someone in the industry whether they want this to change, everyone invariably answers yes. Of course we do. We want the game to be enjoyed by human beings of all races, genders and sexual orientations, chipping away slowly at a homogeneity that was once praised.
Some progress has been made towards that end but, to be frank, there is still a long way to go.
Only three percent of recreational golfers are Black, according to the National Golf Foundation. The LPGA Tour has yet to reach double digits for Black members in its 61-year history, and there are no Black men in the top 80 of the Official World Golf Ranking. There are more promising signs in terms of bringing women into the game – the NGF reporting 40 percent of new golfers during the pandemic have been female – but still only about a quarter of all golfers are women.
Highlighting both of these struggles, it should be pointed out that nearly 90 percent of workers in the golf industry are either white or male – meaning young girls or kids of color coming to the course are generally not encountering role models who look like them. And, overlapping with these issues, golf is still widely accepted as a game for people of means given that golfers report a household income north of $100,000 despite the average U.S. household making less than $70,000.
The USGA distributed $200,000 of grant funding across 20 First Tee chapters ... but this was the first time the money was specifically earmarked for local efforts in inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA).
Diversity and inclusion in the game goes well beyond these realms, but they have been primary areas of focus for many youth golf initiatives across the country.
Some of the barriers have been lowered, but a lot of work needs to be done.
Global Golf Post will have more on this topic in 2022, including a look into a push to help golfers at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) forge a path into the golf industry, but for now we wanted to highlight one important initiative in this space.
This year, the USGA distributed $200,000 of grant funding across 20 First Tee chapters. Grants have been distributed for many years, but this was the first time the money was specifically earmarked for local efforts in inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA).
It’s easy to applaud putting money towards these causes, but the details of what the money can accomplish is what’s really important here. It’s used for training and recruiting diverse coaches that are more representative of the kids in each chapter, addressing transportation costs to get kids better access to facilities, and marketing golf to a wider audience of youth golfers, to name a few areas.
We reached out to two chapters in particular that really demonstrate the power of how the grant money can change the lives of young people and take real steps to slowly reshaping golf as we know it.
Brad Ullman is the executive director of the West Virginia Golf Association, which also oversees a First Tee chapter. Ullman’s team received $10,000 of grant funding to work with the Board of Education in seven target counties to introduce First Tee programming in more than 100 schools, connecting largely with economically underserved areas.
“We’re able to impact counties in our state that have a variety of struggles, like opioid addiction and hepatitis outbreaks,” Ullman said. “We’re talking about kids who are growing up with single parents. Some of the kids are born into being addicted to various drugs. The amount of children who are in foster care or who are homeless or who may only get their meals in school … for us to be able to provide a character education program for them through the game of golf is important for us and for our state.”
The WVGA reports that these kids, who normally wouldn’t come across golf, are coming to their green grass facilities after being introduced to the game through the First Tee school programs. Some of the schools have even started to incorporate golf lessons into their math classes, teaching kids about the physics of loft and force imparted on a ball.
For the First Tee of the Sandhills, golf in and around Pinehurst, North Carolina, isn’t all about the famous resorts that have hosted major championships. One of their typical First Tee classes has multiple kids of many ethnicities, a product of the unique area they serve. Fort Bragg, rural farm land, Native American reservations and urban areas are all included. The program received $12,000 in USGA grant funding to help diversify the coaching pool, trying to attract coaches that better represent the unique mix of demographics. It will also help support an internship program and the building out of a more robust volunteer base.
“If you went to one of our classes which have 18 kids, visually you would probably see four African Americans, three Hispanics, one Native American, two Asian Americans and the rest caucasian,” said First of the Sandhills executive director Courtney Stiles. “So diversity for us is about being more present in the communities where the kids are. A strong mix will come into our programs … finding more diverse coaches, it’s our number one opportunity and problem. It’s exponentially difficult.”
Stiles and her team have taken the tactic of circling “20-minute target zones” where elementary schools, after-school youth programs and golf courses are within 20 minutes of each other. The hope is that it will allow better access since their data shows 70 percent of kids that come to programming live within a short drive of all three.
These are the daily decisions and battles a First Tee chapter faces. In order for the face of golf to evolve, a lot of small victories have to be piled up over a long period of time.
The IDEA grants are several steps forward. And for golf, looking forward to a new future is exactly what it should strive for.
Top: The First Tee of the Sandhills serves a broad demographic in the shadow of Pinehurst's famous resorts.
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