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Renee Powell and Mariah Stackhouse stood on top of the ridgeline, separated in age by almost a half century but connected by the bond of a shared ancestral experience and by a love of the game they both acknowledge has not always welcomed those who look like them.
The valley below was green and lush, while sunlight twinkled off the towers of the cityscape behind, just a mile or so to the south but on the edge of another world. Neither woman held a golf club at the time, even though the game at its highest level was another part of their shared experience. This morning at the Bobby Jones Golf Course, a public facility between the Buckhead and Midtown neighborhoods of Atlanta, Georgia, Powell and Stackhouse were there to talk and to share and to educate.
They had only met the day before, the Sunday of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, when Powell walked from the first tee at Atlanta Athletic Club after watching Nelly Korda and Lizette Salas tee off in the final group, to the scoring area behind the 18th green to introduce herself to Stackhouse, who finished her championship just a few minutes later. But while both thought they were meeting for the first time, that wasn’t the case. They had met before, in Miami at a clinic Powell gave at Doral. Stackhouse was 6 at the time and didn’t remember it. Neither did Powell, who gave countless clinics and met thousands of young Black girls in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By the time they met again in Georgia, each woman knew a great deal about the other.
“My parents were very intentional about teaching me the history of the game and about pioneers like Bill Powell and Renee Powell and what they did to advance the game, not just for minority golfers but for everyone,” Stackhouse said. “I think that events like this can be part of a vehicle for change. Clearview golf course and what it stands for in breaking barriers and bringing all people together through the game of golf, that’s what we hope will continue. That’s why we’re here today.”
Located in Canton, Ohio, Clearview Golf Club – or more accurately the Clearview Legacy Foundation – was, indeed, the reason the women were together on Monday at the top tee of the driving range, talking to assembled dignitaries from KPMG, Coca-Cola and other local businesses, as well as nine LPGA Tour players who had stayed in Atlanta an extra day to be part of the festivities.
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