Golfweek Examines Tiger Woods’ Impact On, Off Course

Woods Remains One Of Few Black Golfers Playing On Major Tour

In the first installment of a three-part series on Tiger Woods’ impact on the sport of golf, GOLFWEEK’s Beth Ann Baldry notes 82 Division I colleges added a women’s golf program from ’95-’05, while a dozen schools added a men’s team. But the “pipeline isn’t gushing with a new wave of black athletes. With only a handful of black players competing at top-100 Division I golf programs, it’s more like a trickle.” Woods remains the only black player on the PGA Tour, and the LPGA “hasn’t had a black athlete competing regularly” since LaRee Sugg in ’00. Including Tim O’Neal on the Nationwide Tour, there are only two black players on the aforementioned three tours. Eddie Payton, the golf coach at historically black college Jackson State, said, “There has been an increase in the enthusiasm about the game, but as far as the talent level, I have not seen a measurable increase. The pool is still as shallow as it was 10 years ago.” East Tennessee State golf coach Fred Warren “credits Tiger for the role manufacturers now play in developing young players,” meaning they provide them with “more free equipment.” But Baldry notes that free equipment “generally goes to those who compete on elite junior tours. In other words, those who can afford to buy their own sticks, don’t.” Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler said the PGA Tour’s First Tee program is not paying for kids to travel to USGA and holiday tournaments. Heppler: “That’s what it takes to get a college golf scholarship” (GOLFWEEK, 8/5).

SUPPORT SYSTEM: Payton said that after Woods, “there is no second-tier black star to emulate, and ... that discourages kids from giving the game a fair shake.” Sugg noted that “many disadvantaged children often fail to receive” the type of support that Woods received from his father, Earl. Sugg: “Tiger has been great, but in a lot of ways it’s kind of not pertinent to what’s going on, especially with what’s going on with the African-American community” (GOLFWEEK, 8/5 issue).