Trimming the Greens and Mastering the Course:

Newspaper Accounts of

African Americans and Golfing in the Home of the Masters

Sandra Avery

Brandon Emert

Rico Hogan

Allen Scarboro

Keith Wells

Department of Sociology

Augusta State University

Augusta, Georgia

Introduction: The South’s Oldest Newspaper

In June and July of 2002, we began an investigation of the experiences of African American golfers, specifically in the Augusta, Georgia, area. We were supported in this work by the president of our university, himself an avid golfer. This paper focuses on one component of our research efforts. It describes and analyzes news, sports, and opinion articles in the Augusta Chronicle, the regions oldest and most-widely circulated newspaper, from 1942 to the present. We sought answers for three primary questions:

• To what extent were the activities of African American golfers noted and reported in this, the premier newspaper of the city that describes itself as the “Home of the Masters”? What was the flavor of that coverage?

To what extent were the activities of African American golfers specifically in or

Keith Wells

Department of Sociology

Augusta State University

Augusta, Georgia

Introduction: The South’s Oldest Newspaper

In June and July of 2002, we began an investigation of the experiences of African American golfers, specifically in the Augusta, Georgia, area. We were supported in this work by the president of our university, himself an avid golfer. This paper focuses on one component of our research efforts. It describes and analyzes news, sports, and opinion articles in the Augusta Chronicle, the regions oldest and most-widely circulated newspaper, from 1942 to the present. We sought answers for three primary questions:

• To what extent were the activities of African American golfers noted and reported in this, the premier newspaper of the city that describes itself as the “Home of the Masters”? What was the flavor of that coverage?
• To what extent were the activities of African American golfers specifically in or from Augusta covered? What was the character of such reportage?
• The Masters Golf Tournament is a major annual event not only in Augusta but also among golfers and golf-enthusiasts throughout the world. How was the coverage of the annual Masters tournament and of the activities of African American golfers intertwined? Did the connection between Augusta and the Masters color the way African American golfers were described in the Augusta Chronicle?

Early Reports: The Stigma of Blackness

The first substantial mention of any African American golfer or golf achievement in the Augusta Chronicle occurred on November 26, 1942. Oddly enough the article was neither about John Russel’s golf accomplishments nor about golf at all. Although the Chronicle described John Russel as a caddy and “One of Atlanta’s best Negro Golfers,” the first association in the Chronicle between an African American and golf was the golfer as a confessed murderer: “[James Russel] was today charged with the murder of George H. A. Thomas 57 year-old manager of the Black Rock Country Club….Russel went through the safe and stole some cigarettes and golf balls,” the Chronicle wrote. A robbery gone bad and turned into murder is tied both to John Russel’s race and to his ability to hit a golf ball, stigmatizing Blacks who sought a place on the links. Such is our introduction to the Chronicle’s coverage of African Americans in golf.

Even more important, this first association comes after a silence of sixty years. Augusta had been associated with golf long before Bobby Jones, the Augusta National Golf Club, or the Masters Golf Tournament. From the 1880’s through the 1940’s, Augusta was a popular winter resort, with golf as one of its major attractions. The Augusta Chronicle, which prides itself as “The South’s Oldest Newspaper,” and claims to cover the local community, the region, the state and the nation thoroughly and fairly, provides ample coverage of golf and golfers both locally and nationally throughout this period, but it makes no mention of John Shippen or the United Golfers Association, in their own right legendary in the golf community, nor of any other African American golfers or golf activities

The National Experience: Patterns of Institutional Racism

The images and attitudes found in the Chronicle reflect, in many ways, historical national patterns of interaction among white and non-white Americans. Sociologist Marvin P. Dawkins, a Research Faculty in the Center for Research on Sport in Society at the University of Miami, and fellow sociologist Graham C. Kinloch present a model of institutionalized racism in professional sports, a racism that “maintains racial inequality and the exploitation of minorities” (2000: 6). Racism in sports, they point out, “reflects the larger society, particularly its social arrangements, types of inequality, and social dynamics” (5). Between the 1880’s (when formal golf clubs were first established in the United States and when golf began its process of professionalization) and the present, they find four major patterns or stages through which institutionalized racism in golf has moved:

· Minority exclusion and/or exploitation

· Segregation of and discrimination against minorities

· The beginnings of limited desegregation

· Limited minority integration in the face of majority resistance to such changes (6; see also 165).

Calvin H. Sinnette, a physician and oral historian who took up golf while serving in the military, presents a similar argument seeing the story of African Americans and American golf more through the experience of individuals than through the lens of social structure. His pattern describes early “trailblazers” who face exclusion, followed by African American caddies who come to love golf but who are sequestered on the profession’s lowest rungs. Sinnette, like many other commentators, notes that African American World War II military service heightened African American hopes for an integrated society. In that context, he recounts stories of individual African Americans, famous in fields other than golf, using their prestige to attempt to integrate the world of golf and to open new avenues for black participation as amateurs and professionals in the game.

Sinnette finds that renewed segregationist tactics blunted this post-war optimism, with the struggle for equal access to golf moving “from the clubhouse to the courthouse” (1998: 121-138). Today, Sinnette finds greater opportunities for blacks to participate in golf, but also a relative paucity of players: he argues we must build a “pipeline” of new black golfers through programs in schools and colleges before blacks can achieve participation parity among American golfers (184-188).

Our question is shaped by these models by Sinnette and by Dawkins and Kinloch. Our search looks first for congruencies and differences between the story of African Americans and golf in the Augusta Chronicle and in the larger national story. Second we ask how the story of black golfers in Augusta reflects a specifically local flavor rather than simply echoing the larger societal story?

Augusta’s Story: The Chronicle Describes the Scene

Augusta renown as an American golf Mecca grew from providing a home for the Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament. Augusta National has hosted the Masters every year since 1934. It is the only place the Masters has been held. The Augusta National Golf Club, built in 1932, was designed by Clifford Roberts and golf legend Bobby Jones. Following the building of the course and Jones’s decision to make Augusta his golf home, golf developed an almost fanatical following in Augusta. This strong and continuing interest has prompted strong and never-ending local newspaper coverage of professional and local golf alike. However, the first article we found mentioning African Americans in golf, the murder confession of James Russel, occurs ten years after the golf boom begins in Augusta. Many articles written during that time span glorified the sport’s top professionals as well as local golf heroes and events. However, all these professionals and heroes were white, eliding the significant contributions of African American golfers.

The involvement of African Americans in golf coincides with golf’s introduction to the United States. For example, George Grant, an African American dentist and golf enthusiast, invented the golf tee in 1899 (McDaniel 2000: 23, 26; Sinnette 1998: 9) and John Shippen competed in the United States Golf Association (USGA)—predecessor of the Professional Golfers Association (PGA), during the 1920’s and 1930’s, ranking as high as seventh on the tour. African Americans were involved in golf prior to the construction of the Augusta National or the introduction of the Maters, but the Chronicle provides no evidence for that.

Racism Acknowledged and Defended: The Years of Civil Rights Struggle

The next Chronicle article we found involving African Americans in golf appeared on February 8, 1952, headlined, “Golf show moves into South; Negro issues still problem.” The article quotes golf officials, “We have not invited any Negroes [to play in the tournaments].” Further, the article notes, “Several of the events have entry rules which would automatically exclude Negro golfers.” The article reports M.P. “Monk” Wilson, President of the San Antonio Golf Association, saying, “Personally I have not seen any Negroes play and I don’t know of any good colored golfers.”

During the 1940’s and 1950’s, many blacks participated in golf both as amateurs and as professionals, but they played under serious impediments. In 1943 the PGA adopted the infamous “Caucasians only” clause to its constitution, restricting PGA membership and play in PGA-sponsored events to whites (Dawkins and Kinloch 2000: 8). Although the PGA had not formally restricted membership at its 1916 founding, informal policies had excluded African American participation. In response to these exclusionary policies, the United Golfers Association, a predominantly African American organization, was founded in 1921 to foster and reward black golfers (Dawkins and Kinloch 2000: 21).

In addition to PGA exclusionary policies, most golf and country clubs were private organizations with club guidelines prohibiting African Americans playing at the clubs. Further, in the South, most municipal and other public courses also prohibited black access to the links or they limited play to a single day of the week (“Woods Credits Pioneer Rhodes” 1997). Note that the February 8, 1952, article, “Golf show moves into South; Negro issues still problem” stresses “Negro participation… Negroes… colored players…” [emphasis added] as many times as possible. Such stress provides a constant reminder of the supposed difference between black and white.

During the 1950’s African Americans sharpened their struggle for acceptance in the golf world. The Chronicle largely ignored this struggle until talented black golf professionals such as Lee Elder and Charlie Sifford, too well known to ignore, became active in the struggle to end segregation in golf.

Two articles illustrate this period. On July 24, 1959, the Chronicle, in an article titled “Tourney ruled out for Negro golfers” (p. 14), reports an attempt by African Americans to hold a public tournament of their own on a public course in Southwest Atlanta, to show “golfers from other parts of the country that the South is not a bad place to live….” The article details how

Negroes, denied use of a golf course in a city park for a tournament, said Thursday they would play as individuals and would go to court if white golfers are permitted to hold tournaments on the course.

The other article buries African American achievement in an obscure location in the paper. On August 21, 1967, Charlie Sifford won his first tournament in regular PGA competition. A Chronicle article (“Sifford guns 64 for Hartford Win,” p. 8) follows a celebratory headline which simultaneously relegates Sifford to “his place”: “Charles Sifford, 44-year-old Negro golfer… won the $20, 000 Greater Hartford Open.” The placement of this article deserves attention: it appears in the middle of a page, deep in the sports section, squeezed in by four articles on baseball and football. The article also points out that [white] competitors “lost” the tournament to Sifford, rather than Sifford “winning” the tournament based upon his skills. “Opperman’s chance to tie was lost at the 17^th, a par 3, where he missed the green and chipped poorly and missed a 15 foot put.” The pattern where whites lose rather than blacks winning pervades coverage during this period.

An important article concerning African Americans in golf appeared on March 21, 1970 (“Ashe fears for Player’s Life, Limb,” p. 10). Oddly enough, the article concerned a tennis star, Arthur Ashe, publicly warning Gary Player, a white golfer from South Africa, not to play in the United States on the PGA tour. Player had decided “to play a series of matches with several black golfers in America to raise money for the United Negro College fund.” In the article, Ashe is quoted as saying, “’I fear for his [Player’s] life the way things are going in the United States’.” The article continued: “Almost a year later, an unharmed Gary Player resurfaced in the realm of African American golf.

A June 25, 1971 (“Elder Sets S. African Golf Trip,” p. 3B) article reports that “Lee Elder, an American Negro, has accepted an invitation to play in the South African PGA championship.” The article reports Player saying, “Elder was invited as the current leading money winner among the black players on the U.S. tour. Elder ranks 35^th with $34,463.” Three months later the South Africa issue moved into greater prominence: An August 15, 1971, Chronicle article states, “Player believes that US Negro golfer Lee Elder will have no trouble getting entry visas into South Africa to play in the South African PGA championship” (“Financial Figures Are Deceiving, Player Claims”). Player went on to say, “The black golfers in America have been very nice to me and I would like to be able to return a little of their hospitality”.

The Chronicle again brings readers’ attention to Elder’s December 1971 trip to South Africa in a March 8, 1972, article (“Elder’s Trip Helps South African Blacks,” p. 3C). The article begins by saying, “Golf pro Lee Elder was encouraged to stay out of South Africa, a segregated nation ruled by the white minority. Friends feared for his safety”. Elder’s trip to South Africa did some political good: a deal he helped construct is outlined in the article:

No discrimination against black players or spectators in granting of gallery rights and dining facilities at the golf events. –A free hand for the Elder party raising money for a black seminary school which the South African government had discussed closing due to lack of facilities. –Free movement for the Elder group throughout South Africa.

The article uses these accomplishments to contrast the racial situation in South Africa with that in the United States. The article reminds the reader that, “Whites also need papers to enter black areas” [in South Africa]. But, in the end, the headline says it all: “Elder’s golfing trip helped South African blacks.” African Americans in the United States had a better deal that many people elsewhere did, but things could also be worse.

The Struggle for Inclusion Intensifies: Focus on Augusta

The 1970s also witnessed the start of a strong African American push to get into the Masters Tournament. On April 8, 1971, the push was acknowledged in the Augusta

Chronicle. The article—(“Roberts looks to day blacks qualify for Masters, p1C)--misleads. The article states,

The Augusta National’s policy on black golfers is to invite such a player to the Masters as soon as he becomes eligible, but the National doesn’t plan to change the rules especially to allow a black golfer to play. ‘The sooner we have a black golfer, the happier we’re going to be,’ said Clifford Roberts, Masters Tournament Committee chairman, at a Wednesday morning meeting. ‘Sooner or later we’ll have a black golfer in the Masters and we’ll have a black golfer as Masters champion’.

The article continues, “Many stories suggested a black golfer wouldn’t be invited even if he did qualify under the Masters’ 14 methods of earning a tournament bid.” Roberts is then reported conceding,

’Black athletes have been outstanding in various fields of sports, including baseball, football, basketball, and the Olympic games. They have been not only outstandingly capable, but also outstandingly popular with the general public’ [Roberts continues] ‘if we had a Willie Mays in this tournament, I’m sure our television rating and our demand for series tickets would go up… As soon as black golfers make the same effort in golf as they have in other fields of athletics, we’ll have black golfers here. Few have made a serious effort to play tournament golf’.

The business side of the Masters makes itself more obvious than usual in this quotation, as does the fear that integration could be bad for business.

Roberts indicated there have been ‘two or three good prospects.’ [Roberts concludes,] ’We [the Masters invitation committee] were hopeful it [an invitations rule change] would bring in one of those few black golfers who are making a serious effort, but unfortunately it didn’t occur.’

The article then states,

The National had expected to find [sic] an amateur black player to invite, but there have been none. We are surprised some of them haven’t come in on the amateur angle, but I haven’t heard of a single one… I suppose the matter of economics comes into that. All you need to play baseball is an old worn-out mitt and an old baseball. For golf, you need a set of clubs and balls and various other equipment. It’s a matter of economics working against you.

Economics again justifies segregation. The article quotes Roberts conceding that the committee and the Masters are trying: “We haven’t had a year when the champions have not recorded one or more votes for black golfers” (to play in the Masters Golf Tournament).

This issue is taken up in a June 13, 1971, article concerning invitation to the Masters (“Black Golfer Could Play,” p. 2B). The article outlines a rules change for the extending of invitations to the Masters Tournament. “By this announcement the Masters champions, as well are now excused from the responsibility of nominating a player to compete in the Masters.” Just two months before, Clifford Roberts had said that the strongest chance held by African American golfers for an invitation to the Masters Tournament lay in the hands of past champions: they were some of black golfers biggest supporters. Now that chance is removed and past champions lose their official influence on invitations. The most promising avenue for African Americans into the Masters has been closed. In another article the same day, golfer George Johnson paints a brighter picture: “’I’m glad to hear it because I’m going to win a tournament and be the first black man in the Masters’” regardless of the rule changes (“Touring Pros’ Opinion Divided,” p. 2B).

Two years later, US Congressmen try to aid the integration of golf. But

The suggestion by a group of congressmen that black golfer Lee Elder be issued an invitation to the 1973 Masters Golf Tournament was refused by Clifford Roberts, chairman of the Masters Tournament Committee for the Augusta National Golf Club (“National Rebuffs Elder Suggestion,” March 18, 1973, 1B).

The article goes on to say,

The congressmen led by Rep. Herman Badillo, D NY, pointed out that no black golfer has ever played in the Masters Tournament. Congressmen Badillo called tournament committee chairman went “Roberts’ expressed ‘disappointment that no black American player has qualified under the Masters’ qualification regulations a form of subtle discrimination which taints the image of the Masters Tournament.’

The article notes “Elder’s fine record over the last six years and his ranking of 31^st in this year’s [1973] PGA money winners list… The statement by the National pointed out that there are 90 opportunities afforded golfers the chance to be invited to the Masters Golf Tournament.” The Masters offered 90 invitations but did not invite the player ranked 31^st in the world. The headline, “National rebuffs Elder suggestion,” captures the situation perfectly.

A March 26, 1973, article chronicles Elder’s stumbles as he tries to make the tournament (“Elder Looks Ahead,” p. 10). The article begins, “Lee Elder…has but one more chance this year to become the first black golfer in the prestigious Masters Tournament.” The article discusses an Elder quotation—“the Masters changed the qualifying rules to keep blacks out”—now backing up publicly what had previously been assumed. A March 28, 1973, headline sums it all up: “Pro golf chief denies report Masters ‘gag’ rule put into effect” (p. 10). That the PGA commissioner publicly issued this statement suggests at least a fear of sanction should displeasure be voiced.

The issue of the exclusion of blacks from the Masters emerges again the following year. A March 26, 1974, headline points out: “Black golfers know: It’s talk Masters time” (p. 7). Black golfers’ combination of desire and anger is made public: the article begins, “It’s spring. The Masters is coming up. And that inevitably brings for the tired old story of the black golfer….” Did we read that right? For whom is the story “tired”? No African American has joined in on the festivities at the Masters Tournament.

It’s a touchy subject. A black has never played in the Masters, generally recognized as on of the world’s four major tests of golfing greatness. The tournament, annually staged in the Old South stronghold of Augusta, Georgia has been accused in numerous published stories of being segregationist…It’s strictly an invitational tournament, not subject to the rules and regulations of the Tournament Players Division or the PGA or the USGA or any other body. The Masters runs its own tournament…. and it has its own rules.

But the Masters rules seem quite flexible. The article continues:

Incidentally, immediately after the rule was changed to allow winners to compete, George Johnson won the Azalea Open. It was the only tournament on the schedule that week but, because of the small purse, it was ruled a satellite and George wasn’t eligible.

The players went on undaunted. The same article quotes Lee Elder: “I don’t want to be invited to play just because I’m black. I don’t want to be thought of as a black player, I just want to be a player,” and Charley Sifford: “I’ve been out here on the tour since 1954. I have won two tournaments, I haven’t played in their tournament yet. Now I’m concerned about it. I just want to make a living for my family.” The Associated Press writer of the Chronicle article paints the outlines of African American pros’ case.

Jim Dent, one time caddy at Augusta National who has been threatened a couple of times this season also takes a dim view on the whole affair. [Dent says,] ‘Winning a tournament, that’d be my Masters. I’m not saying I wouldn’t go, but I’m not thinking about that. I’m just thinking about winning a tournament.’

On April 23, 1974, an editorial voices excitement in its headline, “Elder is ‘in’!” (p. 4). Elder won his chance to compete in the 1975 Masters Tournament by winning the Monsanto Open Golf Tournament.

Another article on the same day said,

Lee Elder will play in the Masters, the first black to do so. But he isn’t overly concerned about the invitation in the Old South Stronghold of Augusta Georgia”. Elder said, “I’ll be happy to play in the Masters, after his fourth sudden death playoff victory over England’s Peter Osterhuis in the Monsanto Open Sunday” (“No Hedging, Elder Definitely in Masters,” p. 6).

The article also reminds the reader,

‘It almost didn’t happen.’ At first Elder hedged on the decision, ‘I’ll have to weigh that [the invitation] somewhat.’… ‘After coming so close so many times, after leading and then blowing it, losing in playoffs, it has to cross your mind. Yes… I “wondered” about it’ Elder said. [Summing it up Elder said,] ‘I want to cry, but people are gonna say, “look at that grown man crying”.’

Elder appears to be well aware of the attention he was about to receive. One of the greatest accomplishments for a golfer—competing in the Masters—comes to be the accomplishment of an African American golfer. And the difference that makes. As Maya Angelou says of Joe Lewis in his world boxing championship fight: he carried the weight of the race on his shoulders (1970). The man becomes an emblem, a sign, not solely of himself but of a people. He is a fetish: whatever happens to him, all those who he--perhaps unwillingly--represents also endure good or foul. With Elder’s invitation, the eyes of a segregated golf world fall solely upon him.

Limited Desegregation: The Emblem of All His Race

With the Masters just around the corner and an African American first allowed to participate, a February 23, 1975, article announces the line-up:

The United States invitation list for the tournament has been released by Clifford Roberts, chairman of the Masters Tournament Committee of the Augusta National Golf Club. Perhaps the most significant invitee is Lee Elder, the winner of the Monsanto Open and the first black player to play in the Masters (“1975 Masters Tournament Invitation List Released,” p. 1B).

And the hype begins. A March 23, 1975, headline reports that “Masters pressure brings Elder to boil” (p. 3B)—the article itself furthers the pressure. “He has had almost a full year--just one week short--for the pressure to build toward his April 10-13 date” at Augusta National. The article goes on to say,

‘It has changed my life’ Elder said. It has brought him instant celebrity status. It has brought him golfing dates with the President of the United States. It has brought him cover stories in national magazines. It has brought him appearances on network television talk shows. It has brought him a guest spot in a network television special.

However, the naming of all the things the invitation “has brought him” implies that Elder’s skills did not earn these rewards; rather they are adornments of the intersection of the emblem of race and the Masters.

One may also wonder why the President scheduled a golf date with Elder at this point in time. Elder had, after all, previously won tournaments and proven he could play golf. But “qualifying” for a spot at the most segregated golf tournament on the tour grants him access to the status that other—white golf professionals have enjoyed for years. Elder, feeling the pressure, said,

’I know what to look forward to. Everybody is going to be wanting to get me aside for a private interview. I just won’t have time for that. I want to have that one big press conference and get it all out of the way. I don’t care how long it takes. I’m expecting four hours. If it’s longer fine, I don’t care. Just so I can get it all out of the way at once…. I’m nervous already, but I think I’ll be okay’ (p. 3B).

The article concludes, “He has little hopes of winning--this time. But he hopes to avoid disgrace.” Already, he can’t win. Lee Elder himself sees it best: “Can you imagine--can you imagine–what it would mean for me to win it?”

The pressure persists. An April 2, 1975, article reports Elder saying, “‘for a while I couldn’t concentrate. The newspaper, television, the talk shows all wanted me. My phone never stopped ringing’” (“Elder’s Mum, Plans Press Conference Today,” p. 1B). By April 12, 1975, the pressure wins--the headline sings, “It’s all over for Elder, who enjoyed short stay” (3B). The article goes on to slap Elder. “Elder won’t be around when the green coat is held out by defending champion Gary Player.” Elder says in the article,

No I didn’t feel drained after the first round. I did feel relieved. The only pressure was that of keeping the people with me calm. Maybe I should have done something to keep me calm.

The emblem takes the blame on himself; the great hope is smashed.

Nevertheless, Elder’s invitation and appearance did open the gates. African Americans were beginning to be seen not only as capable but also as competitive participants in the golf world. Elder continued playing and was invited to the Masters Tournament several more times. Although an icon of African American golf, Elder was reaching the end of his PGA career. An April 6, 1980, headline reports, “Lee Elder suffers painful 1979 season” (p. 11E).

Limited Integration: Subtle Resistance

As aging African American golf stars Charley Sifford, Lee Elder, and Jim

Dent watched their PGA careers come to an end, a void was created in professional-caliber African American talent. Calvin Peete stepped up as the next African American competitor as this April 6, 1986, headline points out, “Peete: 1 hungry 42 year old”. “Calvin Peete is a hungry 42 year old and the closest the PGA Tour has to a dominant golfer,” the Chronicle reports (p. 4G). But no single African American golfer dominates public attention. This article nevertheless goes on to remind readers that Calvin Peete doesn’t have a “‘major’ tournament among his 12 tour victories.” Here an African American golfer is noted for his ‘exceptional’ quality: he is unlike white stars.

The Masters Tournament again becomes the center of the discussion concerning Peete’s poor performance in the past. The article continues, “’Just about every year I’ve played the Masters, I’ve had at least one good round. But you gotta put four good rounds together’.” While Peete continued his career playing golf, but never winning the Masters Tournament, he is still regarded as one of the best African American, or any race, golfers in history.

Tiger Woods: Exceptionalism Squared

The strategy of focusing on minority golfers as ‘exceptions’ to their race came to fruition in the process of both deifying and framing a very promising young golfer. Although Tiger Woods calls several ethnic strains his own, he is widely seen by most Americans as a remarkable “African American.” The Chronicle setup begins in a September 12, 1996, article: “TIGER WOODS–of mixed-race heritage–has marketers excited about the possibilities of attracting minorities to golf” (“Golf’s Newest Sensation Breaks Down Stereotypes,” p. 5A). Fannie Fione, the article’s author, explores the business side of integration:

A TV commercial shows Woods golfing and says, ‘There are still golf courses in the United States that I cannot play because of the color of my skin. I’m told

I’m not ready for you. Are you ready for me?’

Fione quotes a Nike spokesperson: “‘He wants to be an ambassador of change in golf…His goal is to bring more minorities to the game’.” This 1996 article gives us a breakdown of the numbers:

The National Golf Foundation in Jupiter, Fla., says African-Americans now comprise about 3 percent of the 25 million Americans who play golf. That’s up from 2.5 percent in 1994. [This is where the article gets interesting.] Blacks and golf is not that unusual a combination if you grew up where I did – in Augusta, Ga., home of the Masters. For many years the only caddies you’d find at the Augusta National Golf Course were black. Most of the other workers--groundskeepers, cooks, maintenance people--were black too. That gave many blacks access to the course, and to the game. [Fione then ponders:] Still, I have mixed feelings about golf, the Augusta National, and the Masters Tournament provided many job opportunities for me, my friends and relatives. I worked at the course during the Masters…But we were mainly outsiders looking in unable for most of the years I grew up there, to even view a match as a spectator, let

alone be welcomed to play there. [But all of this seems to be a setup, for:] His [Tiger Woods’s] visibility as a pro golfer can only be an asset in getting more people to see past stereotypes and acknowledge that skin color does not limit what you can achieve when given the chance.

Tiger has been firmly planted in the mainstream, but as token, an emblem. The eyes that once glared down on Elder have shifted his way. Hero or Goat?

Fast forward. April 13, 1997, the Masters Tournament is in progress, with Woods holding an insurmountable lead. In an article headlined, “Black Golfers revel in Tiger’s accomplishments” (p. 4M), the columnist contrasts Elder’s gallery walks to Woods’s presence on the course:

Lee Elder, the pioneer for minority golfers at the Masters Tournament, was walking around Saturday ‘so proud my chest was stuck way out’. It’s Magnificent’ Elder said. ‘I’m so proud and so happy to see something of that nature come about. He’s the bridge of the future and the past’.

Charley Sifford--the article points out he never played at the Masters--ruminated about his past: “The people at Augusta had their rules and I can respect that. I stood up for what was right and I am not ashamed of it. I would do the same thing over again.” The article recalls Elder and Siffords’s time when they held the “emblem” position of “leading blacks in golf.” The article’s tone shows them as failures: Sifford for never playing in the Masters, Elder for never winning it. The” token” African American golfers of a past are depicted as failures in the world of golf, and--even more importantly—as failures to their race.

At the same time that the article deflates the balloons of the old, new air is being pumped, “ ‘More people are just beginning to learn the name of Tiger Woods’ Elder said. ‘Now they’ll read about it every place. A minority winning the Masters and the first major – that’s great for all blacks, even myself’.” Woods is cemented into the all or nothing category. No longer multi-ethnic, he becomes the black icon.

In April 14, 1997, Woods wins the Masters, and the Chronicle devotes practically its entire Masters pullout section to the new champion. A pensive article (“Victory inspires young minorities,” p. 7M) reports on Woods’s impact for African Americans throughout American society. The author, Rob Muslier, does his best to read the future:

The impact of Woods’ accomplishment Sunday at the Augusta National Golf Club – where he became not only the youngest man, but also the first minority to win a major professional golf tournament – will be unmatched in history. ‘What he’s really telling us by what he’s doing out there on the golf course is Let’s focus on social change’ said 66 year old baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks.

Then the author muses about local Augusta youths and their perception of Woods’s victory:

The effect of his monumental triumph was immediately evident among local African-Americans. ‘I’ve never played golf before but now I’m interested in playing,’ said Brianna Holmes, a 16year old Richmond Academy sophomore… ‘It gives me the confidence of not being the only black kid out there on the golf course anymore.’ [Walter McNeil said,] ‘I think Tiger will end up inspiring little black kids now.’ ‘To me, this was just a boring sport, but I consider myself a golf fan now,’ Bing said. ‘I want to learn how to play it, and I’m going to find some way to get out on a course and try it now, because of Tiger Woods.’ [Few question Woods’ ethnic multiplicity:] ‘This transcends the color of skin. I hope that people don’t look at him now as a great black golfer as much as they see him as a great golfer.’ [The article ends with Tiger saying:] ‘I’m in a very unique position where a lot of kids look up to me because I’m around their age group.’ He said. ‘They look up to me in a role-model sense, And I think if I can influence their lives, than I believe that’s what the big guy in the sky had intended for me.’

Woods seems buried up to his neck in the “token” role.

Here limited integration is resisted--by the media, by the public, and by the business community--through a strategy of forcing a racial identity onto Woods—seeing him as role model not for all young people, but for blacks. He drowns in a race foisted on him despite his feeble denials that racial categories do not apply to him. But he doth protest too little. For Woods, to stress the fictitious character of race, that the very notion of race is one of the “master’s tools” (Lorde 1999: 447-450), is to risk too much. Can a person who challenges the institutionalized racism of America expect to receive $40 million from Nike to endorse its products (“Nike Owner Kicks Up Heels,” April 13, 1997, p. 4M)?

The identification of Woods with race—with a race—is furthered in another article the same day. The title of David Westia’s article—“Caddies proud of Tiger’s win”--says it all. One of those so long excluded and limited now stands in the limelight, a ‘credit to his race.’ Barry Adam, a sociologist of oppressive structures, outlines several strategies used by majority elites to maintain oppressive patterns over minority groups. A powerful strategy is to co-opt talented member of the minority, those who excel and achieve at a level unreachable by most, then to showcase that person as bringing honor to the group from which he was culled (Adam 1978)

Westia continues, quoting Carl Jackson, formerly a full-time Augusta National caddy:

‘I just hope Tiger is ready to take the leadership role that he needs to take. Not just in the black community, but for all minorities. He has awakened golf to a lot of people’ [Westia then quotes Edward White, also a former National caddy], “‘I’m quite sure all the Augusta National black caddies are proud for Tiger’…‘I know I am. To have him win the Masters is something to be proud of because the Masters has the tradition of being one of the greatest tournaments in the world. I hope Tiger keeps up the good work and keep a straight head’.

The identification of local African Americans with Woods is the focus of another article the same day written by an Associated Press columnist, Paul Newberry (“Club employees cheer historic victory,” p. 7M). The article speaks of the (predominately African American) Augusta National staff:

He [Isaac Lee, a worker at the Augusta National] wanted to watch a minority tee of as the leader in the final round of the Masters… ‘It’s not as bad as it used to be, but everybody around here knows their place,’ said Lee, a 25 year old black man bedecked in a gold jacket, black pants and bow tie, waiting on a mostly white membership. ‘It’s a good job. As long as they don’t show it (racism) too blatantly, it’s OK’. [But with Woods’s win the future seems bright;] ‘I don’t think the atmosphere is going to be the same around here’.

Woods becomes engulfed in a racial identity. Newberry quotes 17-year-old Ernest Gaines, “’It’s a good thing to see a black man in a position like that’.” Race trumps.

Woods makes the front page of the Chronicle, above the fold, on April 15, 1997, on a date when most readers may have been thinking of the Internal Revenue Service. The headline reminds us, “Tiger win inspires area kids.” According to the writer, Alisa DeMae,

Pupils took up golf stances, planned college scholarships and talked about what it meant when Mr. Woods broke down a major barrier in a once all-white sport. None of these pupils was alive when armed guards flanked Lee Elder as he walked the Augusta National Golf course in 1975, the first black golfer to play in the Masters, and few had been born when the golf club accepted its first black members, 10 years later. But many pupils said they felt a connection with Mr. Woods. [To offer a bit of history, the article reports] It was a history lesson that black people once were allowed to carry golf clubs as caddies, but not swing them as golfers on the nation’s premier golf course.

While Woods’s accomplishments are being discussed, the temptation again is to squash him into a token: “Some teachers used the 21–year old champion to teach lessons in character, composure and professionalism.”

Woods’s misfit with the token role does become problematic at times. On April 16, 1997, Cal Thomas discusses Woods’s background.

Woods, whose father is black and mother is Thai, had a white caddy who he hugged after the final hole. The crowd, which was virtually all white, cheered Woods as if [sic] only his golfing ability mattered. Race was a factor only in Woods’ giving thanks for those black golfers who paved the fairways for him.

Thomas see Woods’s father first through the lens of race—then he tells us that race is not the issue? Thomas goes on, “Woods’ victory was no triumph for affirmative action or quotas. If he is to become a role model, let it be the role model of a son whose father encouraged him to develop his gift.” So, is race relevant or no? Tiger, still not the good white champ he should be, is warned:

As with all celebrities, Woods greatest challenges lie ahead. The marketers, agents and other assorted leeches will try to make an icon of him, promising millions and the fame that goes with achievement. So much money and fame at an early age has ruined more than one person in many professions. His electronic Web page is already loaded with the stuff of celebrity. He says his goal is to win more golf tournaments than any other golfer. It is a worthy objective, but he should ask himself on the road to that goal what he will be if he achieves it? … Fame, like fire, can be a wonderful experience if properly controlled. But allowed to get out of hand, it can burn, or even kill the one who does not treat it with respect. Will Tiger Woods be like Robert Jones, about whom nothing negative apparently was ever said, or will he resemble a fallen angel, beautiful at the start, but thrown from Heaven for seeking his own way above all else?

Woods is Lucifer, Son of the Dawn, who reaches too far and thus falls to eternal fire. Thomas seems to have read his Milton (1962). Still unsatisfied, Thomas further writes:

It is also nice to see a man with dark skin who claims victory and not victimhood: a man who doesn’t have a grievance, but one who can smile engagingly in a way that makes people of all races wish him the brightest of futures.

The darkie’s smile. Thomas, a man of erudition, reads Conrad, too (1960). Here, resistance takes the guile of the serpent and the subtlety of the snake, but race as the trope for thinking about the American experience continues its insidious power (Gates 1999).

Thomas’s condescension is both countered and extended the same day in a guest column by Don Kaul (“Tiger Is Golfdom’s Jackie Robinson,” p. 5A). Kaul first describes the Masters as “the world’s worst golf tournament.” He then asks,

Why the worst? Because it more than any other tournament epitomizes the inequities, social and otherwise, that make up the very fiber of the game. It is racist, sexist and class-ridden. The lure of golf is built upon the country club, which exists to exclude those who are deemed socially unworthy… Augusta National, the Georgia club where the Master is played, is the game’s chief citadel of exclusivity. [He continues] The players never complain about anything, partly because they’re afraid to and partly because they tend to agree with the rules. They are a product of the game, you see.

Dawkins and Kinloch make the connection between societal and local social structures. Golf, “in its typical country-club setting, tends to be more elitist, individualistic, and community-based than many other sports” (2000: 7). In the social, commercial, and physical settings of golf, golf plays out some fundamental American goals, values, and ethics. They show how these microsocial events instantiate macrosocial patterns.

In a sense, athletic rituals may be viewed as social dramas in which social roles, norms, intergroup dynamics, organizational processes, institutional arrangements, and the dynamics of social change are all ‘played out’ as ‘spectator sport.’ While such ‘dramas’ may appear open and democratic, they clearly reflect the types of inequality predominant in the larger society, whether racial, ethnic, gender-based, class-oriented, or age-defined (5-6).

The drama, lead by the young Woods as the exceptional emblem—even while appearing to support opportunity—ironically reinforces inequality and restricted options.

Woods’s time on the Augusta Chronicle podium is not univalent. His role in the drama invites attention first to one dynamic then to another and then to a third. For example, he points out the achievements of past African American golfing legends: “Thanks to Tiger Woods people want to know more about the late Ted Rhodes, the first black to play in a PGA sanctioned event… Woods thanked Rhodes as one of the black golf pioneers following his Masters victory” (“Woods Credits Pioneer Rhodes,” April 17, 1997, p. 5C). Rhodes seems to slip through recorded history:

Unlike Woods, Rhodes’ place in history is small. He had only a few chances to play against white golfers thanks to the PGA Tour’s ‘Caucasian Only’ rule, which wasn’t rescinded until 1961, a year after Rhodes retired. He sued the PGA with Bill Spiller and Madison Gunther in 1948 only to see tournaments changed to an invitation-only format… But he spent most of his time on the black tour where he won more than 150 tournaments in the United Golfers Association between the late 1940s and his retirement.

A small place in history for a man who “won more than 150 tournaments?” However, “During that time, segregation was in full swing and blacks were banned from public and private courses. Rhodes picked up tips while caddying and then sharpened his swing in city parks or cow pastures.”

Today, however, Woods’s prominence and moneymaking abilities (both for himself and, more importantly, for his sponsors) casts a much larger shadow. “It seems like there are two types of tournaments on the PGA tour these days – those with Tiger Woods and those without,” according to an Associated Press writer, Pete Lacobelli (“MCI Classic Has Tiger-Less Status,” p. 5C). Woods has been commodified and joined the ranks as the chief business commodity in the world of golf, alongside other athletic products, such as Michael Jordan and Joe Montana, in other sports.

While Woods has wide economic impact, his ability to attract recruits for the game of golf may be more modest. An April 5, 2000, article points out, “Twenty-five years after breaking the color barrier at the Masters Tournament, Lee Elder said Tuesday he is disappointed that more black golfers have not followed in his footsteps.” Elder has become known as a “token” figure in equality issues, “Elder received the Charles Bartlett Award from the GWAA in 1977. The award is given to the playing professional who worked the most toward the betterment of society.” Thus in a June 8, 2002, article headlined, “Despite Tiger, blacks still struggling to reach golf’s top levels,” Paul Newberry argues that

Elder, no stranger to Woods’s positions, is quoted in the article, “‘the time has come for us to pass the baton. Unfortunately, there’s no one else to pass it to except Tiger, and he’s only one person. He can only do so much’.

Newberry reviews the numbers:

The number of black golfers has grown substantially, increasing 30 percent from 1996--When Woods joined the PGA Tour--to 2000…the National Golf Foundation…estimated 882,000 blacks had taken up the game, representing less than 4 percent of the golf-playing public but still a staggering 100 percent increase over 1991.

However, inequities in golf remain:

There are black players out there who are good enough, but they need sponsors…. Guys have to have the opportunity to play two, three, or four years without worrying about finances… I can name 10 black guys who have the talent. But they don’t have the finances.’ Back in 1997 – the same year Woods won his first Masters – Braswell sent out 100 letters to Fortune 500 companies asking for financial help. He was turned down by every one’” (“An African American on the Hooters Tour,” June 8, 2002, web posted).

However, the number of sponsor slots is limited and market-driven: “The golf industry is hiding behind the fact that, ‘Hey we support Tiger, how can you say we don’t support minority golf’” (Newberry)?

Beyond Exceptionalism: The Roots Remain

Like all dramas, this one will soon play out and come to an end. However, dramas do seem to have a habit of repeating themselves. To break the cycle of repetition, to change the drama, the script must be rewritten. Carolyn Heilbrun (1988) agrees with Peter Berger (1963) that our scripts are pre-written, our roles pre-cast. Ironically, like convicts stacking the cinderblocks of their own prison, we (the actors) cooperate in the continual inscription of our roles. Again, like prisoners, we can resist. We can contest the master’s spectacle (Debord 1994). Many enthusiastic and very competent African Ameican golfers have contributed to the attempts to move golf out of its racist and classist milieu (See Wells, Hogan, Emert and Avery 2002).

Eddie Payton, golf coach at Jackson State University, says, “Until the gap from introductory lessons to high-level coaching is bridged, the racial gulf will continue to grow. Despite Tiger, Blacks still struggle to reach golf’s top levels” (June 8, 2002). Payton suggests that golf must be disassociated from social class. To do so, one must start at the beginning, reaching for future golfers at an early age. Quality courses must be built in all areas of the city, including modest and poor neighborhoods. Youth Golf associations could take a cue from local little league organizations. For golf’s script to be opened to multiplicity, it must be unshackled from its reliance on private clubs, whose root rationale depends on the power of exclusion. The venues for the game must be widened and democratized.

Golf, however, is part of a larger social structure, the professionalization of athletics in the United States. When college and university missions are subverted by the desire for winning teams and television contracts, when professional sports are tied to commercial schemes to enrich owners and players, when the rare accident of extraordinary physical prowess or skill is seen as the most likely avenue for people of modest means to achieve social mobility, then golf for African Americans, and other Americans alike, will be saturated by dynamics of exclusion and denial. A product of that exclusion is the formations of other exclusions by those who have been excluded, thus creating a ceaseless pattern of loss.

Newspaper Accounts of African Americans and Golfing in the Home of the Masters

The Augusta Chronicle has served its city faithfully, reflecting and reproducing on its pages the dramas of inclusion and exclusion that have characterized golf both here, in city of Bobby Jones, and in America at large. We find in its pages the willful ignoring of early African American activities in and contributions to the world of golf. Later, the Chronicle both reports on and resists the struggles of African Americans in Augusta and in the United States to create in their recreation that same equality African Americans were seeking in society at large. Over the last thirty years, we find subtler, but nevertheless powerful, strategies by elites to resist the destigmatizing efforts of African Americans pursuing equality. Simultaneously, we find the exploits of extraordinary golfers celebrated as well as exceptionalized.

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