All at once, the world of professional golf appeared to tilt toward racial progress recently. On December 4, Tiger Woods completed play in his first tournament in 16 months after being away with back problems and surgeries. Although a bit rusty he showed enough of his former brilliance on the course to cheer up his fans.
On the same day, African American Harold Varnum III won the Australian PGA for his first victory in the big leagues of golf. With Tiger away, Varnum, in his first year, was the only African American male on the PGA Tour in 2016; and he is only the second African American to qualify for the Tour since Tiger started 20 years ago.
Such paucity of African Americans was not always the case. After the PGA was forced to integrate in 1961, African Americans began joining the PGA Tour, and by the end of the 1960s there were usually some eight to ten black players at each tour stop — players such as Charlie Sifford, Rafe Botts, Pete Brown, Jim Dent, Lee Elder, George Johnson, Charlie Owens, Curtis Sifford, Nate Starks, and Chuck Thorpe. In the 1970s as many as a dozen blacks played the Tour.
Some of these players won tournaments. Charlie Sifford, the “Jackie Robinson” of professional golf, won in 1967 and 1969. Pete Brown won in 1963 and 1970. Jim Thorpe won twice in 1985 and once in 1986. Calvin Peete, the most successful black golfer before Tiger Woods, had 12 victories, including four in 1982, and 11 during a four-year peak which culminated in his win at the 1985 Players Championship.
Thus, 2017 should bring progress, as two African Americans will be competing on the PGA Tour. However, things are looking even better for the women’s Tour. On the same day that Varnum won in Australia, African American Sadena Parks placed third in the LPGA Qualifying Tournament to earn full participation on the LPGA Tour in 2017. In the same qualifying tournament, Mariah Stackhouse, who led the Stanford women to the NCAA championship in 2015, placed high enough to earn part-time status on the LPGA Tour, and Ginger Howard failed to make the LPGA Tour but finished high enough to qualify for the Symetra Tour, the top women’s “minor league” tour, which feeds the LPGA.
Cheyenne Woods, Tiger Woods niece, played on the LPGA Tour the last two years and played well enough in 2016 to retain her full-time status for 2017—not always a certainty in professional golf. She was on the LET (Ladies European Tour) in 2013 and 2014 and won the Australian Ladies Masters in 2014, the biggest professional win by an African American female.
For the first time, three young African American women—Parks, Stackhouse, and Woods—will play in the same year on the LPGA Tour, and Ginger Howard will be knocking on the door. Parks, Woods, and Stackhouse have become the 5th, 6th, and 7th players to qualify for the LPGA Tour. Thus, nearly one-half of all the women who have ever qualified for the LPGA Tour will be playing next year. Yes, things are moving forward.