The Future of Golf

January 20, 2008

What was this Golfweek cover really saying?

Recently, comments by The Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman that referred to lynching Tiger Woods in a back alley have created a stir in the golfing world. Originally shrugged off by both Woods and the Golf Channel as an inappropriate but harmless verbal oversight, Tilghman was suspended for two weeks after the demand by Reverend Al Sharpton that she be fired. A week later, an equally controversial Golfweek cover that featured a noose in reference to the Tilghman story resulted in magazine editor Dave Seanor losing his job.

I would like to publically commend Seanor for having the courage to publish the article cover, undoubtedly knowing that there would be consequences for his actions. Seanor’s cover and the subsequent story that followed highlight the real issue that was behind the backlash from Tilghman’s comments.

It is obvious why Tilghman’s comments were offensive to the black community. Tilghman specifically, although accidentally, referred to a specific black player and commented on how the other players should use racially motivated violence against him. While it is possible that she did not know that the word “lynch” is used more often than not in the context of racially motivated violence, it is far more likely that, in the same way that a child might accidentally swear in front of their teacher, she let “slip” a word that she uses with jest when in the company of a certain (white) crowd. It is no wonder, then, that the initial reaction of the (white) community was to play it off as an error of the tongue and not the mind.

Seanor’s cover image was different. It did not make any racially motivated suggestions or site any action against any particular person. The image is there for the sole purpose of making (white) people feel uncomfortable, and as any senior manager of Golfweek can tell you, Golfweek’s reader base is almost entirely (white) people. And, for his success, which he had in abundance, his (white) boss immediately fired him.

So what is it about the image of a noose being placed on a golf magazine that makes (white) people so uncomfortable? Could it be the fact that only 2 of the 144 PGA Tour cards are held by people with dark colored skin? Or the fact that more than 25 years after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed public segregation, the PGA Championship was held at an Alabama golf course that didn’t allow blacks? Whichever way you want to look at it, the fact remains that golf is a white sport dominated by white interests.

So, about the future of golf. Here is the truth, when society is ready to accept it. Black golfers will dominate in golf the way black basketball players dominate the NBA, black running backs dominate the NFL, and the way black sprinters dominate the Olympics. It is an inevitability that resides in their DNA, which allows many of them to excel at fast-twitch muscle exercises.

The fact that golf is inaccessible to the bulk of the minority population in the United States helps to keep the faces of golf the way sponsor corporations want them. But as the black community continues in its fight for equality, a fight that is being won inch by inch, corporations will target more and more of the black community. In opening up the game to them, the golfing world will open its arms the most talented generation of golfers ever known. Course architects will quiver, scoring records will crumble, and Tiger Woods will be known as the Jackie Robinson of golf.

And that’s why the (white) golfing world is brought to its knees by a picture of a rope.

Written by John at 7:07 pm. Miscellaneous