LOS ANGELES − Tiger Woods, recovering from ankle surgery, won’t be at the U.S. Open that starts Thursday. Neither will the impact on golf many thought he’d have.
In 1997, Woods stoked imaginations when he became the first Black player to win the Masters. At just 21, he was the superstar some hoped (and others predicted) would revolutionize the sport by attracting more Black people to the golf course and inspiring the development of top Black pros.
Now look.
More than 26 years later, the 156-player field at the U.S. Open to be played at The Los Angeles Country Club has a clear void: no known Black players.
The caveat: The United States Golf Association (USGA), which conducts the U.S. Open, says it does not ask players about their race or ethnicity, so it’s impossible to confirm there are no Black players.
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But Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA, acknowledges the governing body of U.S. golf missed an opportunity with Woods’ dramatic rise as golf’s leading man.
“I feel like we all watched the Tiger Woods parade go by and then when the parade left, it actually left,” Whan said. “Like it was a great five years.”
Fred Perpall, who in February was elected as the USGA’s first Black president, said, “I think what happens in elite golf is a reflection of the choices we’ve made in the past.”
How did golf fail after rise of Tiger Woods?
For the past decade, Kenneth Bentley has served on the board of Tiger Woods’ foundation. He is keenly aware of the opportunity golf had when Woods burst onto the pro scene.
“When Tiger won the Masters in ’97, there was no infrastructure to say, ‘OK, we want to integrate golf,’ ” said Bentley, who is Black and a member of the Farmers Insurance Exchange Board of Governors. “And I’m not sure in ’97 if the people that ran golf were really ready for there to be an influx of African American golfers.”
In 2010, Bentley set out to create infrastructure when he founded the Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) to develop professional minority golfers.
It involves doing what the golf world failed to do in a sustained, meaningful way. Which is to provide access to top-flight equipment, instruction and opportunities.
This year, for example, the APGA will host 18 tournaments with a combined prize money for $1 million.
“I’ve been at this a while and I get frustrated,” he said. “I get frustrated because I’d like to see programs happen faster but I get energized when I see how optimistic the players are. …
“Certainly there are people out there trying to change the dynamics of golf. But I think it’s just moving slower than what we all felt like.”
How to speed up development of minority golfers
In February, the USGA launched a national development program, and Whan said he’s aiming for grant money “in the neighborhood” of $40 million.
Bentley said he wonders how much of that money will be used to develop minority golfers.
“I’ve said this for a lot of years, but now I’m sitting in a seat where we can do something about it,” Whan said. “We are going to be all in on the U.S. National Development Team, and we’re going to make sure that talented kids, no matter what they look like or where they come from or how wealthy their parents are in the States, have a chance to go − every other country in the world has a country program to foster and grow their youth pipeline.”
So Bentley continues to wonder while providing some math that might be helpful for the USGA. He said he spends about $30,000 a year on each of the 10 players in his developmental program.
“To make a true difference, we’re going to need two or three times that,” he said.
What happens next?
Electing a Black USGA president is no guarantee of creating enough top Black golfers to avoid wondering if there are any at the U.S. Open.
Perpall, serving a three-year term, shared some thoughts on the matter.
“I would love this to be like a shortcut, like that we could just press the magic wand,” he said. “I think what we’re doing with Team USA (through the development program) and investing in more inclusion and more opportunity and more accessibility hopefully changes this trajectory.”
Marcus Byrd celebrates after winning the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Invitational at Torrey Pines Golf Course on Jan. 29, 2023 in La Jolla, California.
It can be done, says Bentley, who pointed to Marcus Byrd, who has won five times as APGA’s top player and this year played in three PGA Tour events.
“Here’s a guy that had no money,” Bentley said. “Grew up in the worst neighborhood in Washington D.C. and now he’s got sponsors, he’s got an opportunity, that‘s kind of what the APGA is about.”
Could it be what the USGA is about?
“Now that I’ve been able to make the connections and played in a lot of these events, I’ve started to figure out the right people to be around, the right people to talk to,” Byrd said, adding of his dream of playing on the PGA Tour, “It’s definitely not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when.”
