John Paul Newport, Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2009
{snip}
From a golf perspective, the most intriguing aspect of the inauguration festivities was the appearance on Sunday, at the HBO-produced Lincoln Memorial concert, of the world’s First Golfer, Tiger Woods, also an African-American. This was of interest, first, because Mr. Woods appeared nervous. For us golf fans, it was the first time I can recall getting to witness Mr. Cool operating out of his comfort zone, which suggests that his serenity in the clutch may not be a gift from God after all, but something that can be learned. There’s hope for us all.
{snip}
Despite several similarities between Messrs. Obama and Woods—both are about 6 feet 1 inch tall, are multiracial with one foreign-born parent, and rose to the apex of their professions by virtue of preternatural talent and exceptional focus—there is one striking difference. The organization that Mr. Obama leads, the U.S. government, reflects the rich racial composition of American society at large, whereas the organization that Mr. Woods dominates, the PGA Tour, does not. Many hoped early on that Mr. Woods’s example would change the face of professional golf, but that has not happened. And the half-dozen leaders of the African-American golf community I spoke with this week would like to see that situation change as soon as possible.
‘If you turn on the golf tournament Sunday and Tiger Woods isn’t playing, what do you see? About 140 white guys competing and no blacks,” said Eddie Payton, the golf coach at historically black Jackson State in Mississippi (and the brother of the late football great Walter Payton). “What kind of message does that send to kids? That they should watch basketball instead, even though they aren’t going to grow up to be 6-foot-10? If we don’t get some black players on Tour soon, we’re going to lose a generation of potential African-American golfers.”
At the recreational level, African-Americans’ participation was only about half the 14.5% rate of whites in 2003, according to the most recent data available from Golf 20/20, an industry group whose charter is to expand the game. And there are shockingly few African-Americans among the club pros and teachers in the PGA of America—only 145 members and apprentices out of about 28,000. Mr. Woods is the only active African-American on the PGA Tour. The LPGA has none.
{snip}
Why the paucity of African-Americans at the top level? “They need help, they need money,” said Charlie Sifford, now 86 years old, the only African-American player in the World Golf Hall of Fame. In February for the first time, an exemption named in honor of Mr. Sifford will open a place in the field for a minority player at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. “Maybe something will come out of that, maybe not,” Mr. Sifford said.
Making it to the PGA Tour requires a long and expensive apprenticeship, ideally starting with national junior competition, then college golf in a top program with the best coaching and facilities, then three to five years or more of competition on the developmental tours, typically requiring a stake of $70,000 to $100,000 a year. This process overwhelmingly favors those who either grow up as the sons or daughters of Tour players or teaching pros, and thus have easy access to instruction and courses, or come from wealthy families or clubs, whose members frequently band together to sponsor promising players postcollege. Not many young African-Americans fall into those categories.
“The main thing that’s missing for young African-American players is training,” said Lee Elder, the first black to play in the Masters. “We need some kind of academy or training ground that will support minority golfers who want to take their games to the highest level.”
To their credit, the PGA of America and other organizations have become more proactive in reaching out to African-Americans. The PGA now sponsors the Minority Collegiate Golf Championship each May, at which the number of competitors has grown to 187 last year from 92 in 1998, and uses it as a recruiting vehicle. Although its primary purpose is to introduce youngsters to the life values inherent in golf, not to develop great players, the First Tee program is nonetheless working on a concept to help identify young single-digit-handicap minority players and match them with top regional instructors.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on January 26, 2009)
Comments
will there be an effort to recruit white AMERICAN players into the NBA, all the whites are either Canadian or European
just another example proving the MSM ideologues that electing a black president will have absolutely no bearing on black whining.
Regarding Eddie Payton’s comments about the negative effect on young blacks of not seeing blacks besides Tiger Woods in PGA golf tournaments-what about the effect on young whites of not seeing white americans in any appreciable numbers playing in the NBA? What about the predominance of black players in the NFL, despite the fact that blacks make up only 13% of the U. S. population? As usual, blacks chose to ignore these disparities-“so what” is their response. They want to play games where the rules ar “heads I win, tails you lose” with whites. Unfortunately, their message is validated by the elite race traitors at the Wall Street Journal and other arbiters of public taste and popular culture.
Tiger Woods is just as much Asian as he is Black, and yet no one is bemoaning the lack of Asian representation on the PGA Tour? Had it not been for his Asian mother, I seriously doubt Tiger Woods would be the ‘Black’ golfer he is today. But then again, Asians don’t need, nor want out of personal honor, to get anywhere because of Affirmative Action.
I doubt that even Tiger Woods wants any more Blacks in golf. He knows that people who can’t manage to be still even in church will not have any more self-control on a golf course. After all, he married a blonde Swedish woman so that his offspring would be quadroons instead of Blacks. He surely doesn’t want a bunch of high-rolling rappers coming to golf tournaments, as they do boxing matches and basketball games, and embarrassing him. Only White liberals have more disdain for their own blood than does Tiger Woods.
There aren’t enough whites involved in crime, I suggest more whites commit crime. Oh, and don’t forget to quit your job, sit on the couch and wait for that welfare check.
“If we don’t get some black players on Tour soon, we’re going to lose a generation of potential African-American golfers…”
And if that doesn’t portend the end of western civilization, I don’t know what will. Perhaps if they can get gang members to start walking around with 5 irons it might have some effect, but I just can’t see them wearing loud green pants and white buck golf shoes anytime in the near future.
Do we see the NFL, NBA, MLB creating programs for white children? When will the NBA ease its color barrier?
Angry White Dude
“If we don’t get some black players on Tour soon, we’re going to lose a generation of potential African-American golfers.”
Competitive sports are not driven by affirmative action. You have to have innate talent and learned skills.
If this guy wants more black golfers, let him find those with talent and train them. This guy apparently believes anyone can be a great golfer if only given the opportunity.
Since the arrival of Tiger Woods on the tour, there must be thousands of blacks who took up golf in the hopes of achieving what Woods achieved. If any of them had the talent, they would make the cut and be on the tour. None of these slots are being taken from talented blacks and given to untalented whites. Not in the real world of competitive sports that is. Only in the imagination of people like Eddie Payton.
Contrary to what this article claims, Tiger Woods is not African-American and he rejects this label. He is only 1/4 Black as his father was only half Black, being also 1/4 Chinese ad 1/4 Amerindian. His mother was half Thai and 1/4 Dutch and 1/4 Chinese. Tiger Woods is more Asian than he is Black, yet Blacks love to claim him as their own despite the fact that Tiger Woods himself doesn’t.
They might as well claim that Vijay Singh is Black.
This is funny. I recall perhaps seven or eight years ago when Tiger Woods was at the apparent apex of his golf “Phenomenon” status, a great deal of fuss was made about young Blacks being drawn to golf. Perhaps not unlike all the gushing proclamations of how Black youth are now “inspired and empowered” by Obama, much hay was made over the new “diversity” that would, no doubt, fully enrich the game of golf. Evidently, that fantasy too has proven elusive to be kind, or simply nonsensical to be more accurate. Also just like the “Obama factor.”
Before Tiger Woods the only black golfer was OJ Simpson.
He managed to get in 16 holes a day while searching for his ex-wife’s killers.
“If you turn on the golf tournament Sunday…what do you see?”
Something even less entertaining that watching paint dry? And it’s not because of the “lack of diversity”. They better be careful with all this affirmative action talk, or they’ll have to start letting straight women into the LPGA.
“Tiger Woods isn’t enough.”
Oh, Lord! The same old gripe again! Just what is
(And incidentally, Mr. Newport, it’s my understanding that Mr. Woods does not consider himself “African-American” and does not use or like that term.)
How did the old black golfers get ahead? maybe what the young “dudes” need is the very ingredient government can’t provide, commitment, dedication, perseverence, decency, concentration, pick one or pick all. Young black dudes don’t seem to have it.
They excell in sports where bash and slash (with speed), are the prerequisites.
The whining will never end. And one other thing, “golf is a difficult sport in which to rise.”
Good point on Tiger though, if black is so good why didn’t you marry one? No, lets not go there MSM.
Do we see the NFL, NBA, MLB creating programs for white children? When will the NBA ease its color barrier?
The U.S. government isn’t creating any programs for white children either.
While we are at it, we need more blacks in the NHL, which only has 6 total. Teams like the Detroit Redwings have NO blacks players, yet the city of Detroit is 88% black. A complete overhaul is needed.
Who cares about the state of blacks in golf? I don’t see any blacks worrying about the state of Whites in basketball.
This site was posted awhile back about how white athletes are pushed out of sports to give the impression of black, athletic superiority, but it also covers a section on Tiger Woods. Apparently he’s being over-hyped because he’s a quadroon, even though he lost to a white South African at the last Masters.
http://castefootball.us/viewarticle.asp?sportID=9&teamID=0&ID=23287
Why is there this idea that Blacks must engage in every sport known on the planet in order to be “free?” It will never happen, but there has been mention a few years ago of eliminating the Winter Olympics because they are “too dominated by Whites and too European culturally.” By eliminating sports that Blacks do not participate in or don’t dominate, Blacks will be the obvious winners - “free at last.” I have figured out just lately that “overcoming” means dominating, not being given parity by law.
“Competitive sports are not driven by affirmative action. You have to have innate talent and learned skills. “
Posted by sbuffalonative at 10:53 PM on January 26
> I must take issue with you here, sbuffalonative. That is because in certain sports, reverse discrimination has long been active to the point that many taleneted Whites just assume they won’t be competitive. Many Whites no longer even try the track team or basketball, etc., in high school because they assume that they will be no good at it. Whites with drive find other sports where they don’t sense an attitudinal barrier for a long time now.
I recall the Harlem Globtrotters and how they have for decades toured, doing basketball tricks and humiliating the clown team of White players in front of international crowds. Do you think there was no political/racial point in this? I was in London in 1988 and happened to see their tour bus one night on the street. It was full of blonde White women.
To Anonymous at 3:16 AM on January 27:
Precisely. Tiger Woods doesn’t identify with “African-Americans” or their adversarial socio-political agenda. His interracial parents (black father and Asian mother) obviously instilled him with such admirable qualities as individualism and a commitment to succeed.
In spite of pressure from the NAACP for him to join their boycott of South Carolina over the placement of the Confederate flag on statehouse grounds, he told them he didn’t associate with their “cause” and he continues to play golf in that state.
Tiger Woods has earned my respect.
But did you know that the NCAA doesn’t allow college basketball tournaments to be held in South Carolina because of that state’s non-compliance with the NAACP’s demands regarding the display of that “rebel” flag?
I’m boycotting college sports, and I’ve notified the National Colored Athletic Association of my reason.
But did you know that the NCAA doesn’t allow college basketball tournaments to be held in South Carolina because of that state’s non-compliance with the NAACP’s demands regarding the display of that “rebel” flag?
Why not eliminate it. I read so many anti black rants on this website all the time. About how they are all un American and want to ruin this country. People hear speak about them being anti American and not caring about the state of their country.
But don’t you think a flag resembling a time of separation, slavery, a rebellion against the greatest government in the world is a little bit un American.
i dont have a problem with tiger woods and i fairly object to newport making him the centerpiece of a racial brouwhaha that he didnt ask for. also, ive begun to realize that comparing whites to blacks in sports, health, wages, etc is a game that liberals play in order to incite animosity. fortunately, tiger has been smart enough not to be drawn into the liberal’s sneaky game.
I have never in my life seen such fawning, such obsequious behavior, from white sportscasters and other whites, as I have seen in how Tiger Woods is treated. If he has a bad day and doesn’t win the tournament, the excuses by these commentators and golf sycophants come in waves. When he wins, it is just another brilliant and expected Tiger Woods performance. Not even Mohammed Alli in his heyday was so adulated.
The Confederate Flag is as American as the Stars and Stripes. Grandsons of Revolutionary heroes rebelled against the threat of Northern tyranny. Senselessly embracing a flag that had come to represent the domination of one section of the country by another is no more patriotic than raising a new, rebellious flag. Can anyone seriously argue that the Red White and Blue is not the flag of Empire, rather than the Republic? And is this anti-White empire anything that honest, thinking men can support?
To Anonymous at 5:30 PM on January 27:
I don’t mean to use this site as a forum for debate with you, but you obviously don’t appreciate the patriotism evinced by citizens of the southern (Confederate) states in their endeavor to establish independence from a hostile government as precedented by the original 13 colonies’ separation from mother England.
“Why not eliminate it (the flag)?”
You can call it pride, or anything you want, but southerners don’t need sports heroes to fill a void in our self-esteem. We have champions like George Washington, Robert E. Lee, and our own loyal ancestors to revere and commemorate. Also, it bears mentioning that our “rebel” flag has religeous significance.
I think white southerners should be loathe to relinquish the symbols of our culture and heritage just to accommodate the whims and sensitivities of any other segment of society, but I’ll add that it galls us that the Yankees employed blacks to defeat our people in The War, to subjugate them in the Reconstruction, and to plague them with integration.
This is the latest version of an extremely old song. Major league baseball has long had its “RBI” program(return baseball to the inner city) program for blacks, which, by the way, seems to have produced virtually no black major leaguers. We still await the NBA’s “RBS”(return basketball to the suburbs)program for white kids-and we’ll probably wait forever. The race traitors that populate the coaching ranks and administrative positions in professional sports need to be put out of business-how about a “just say no” program for whites to boycott professional football and basketball? Make them get real jobs.
Make no mistake, I see the same deliberate effort to glorify black athletes that you see. One of the amusing aspects of this deification are the headlines in the sport section of the newspapers. If another player beats Woods, the headline is often something to the affect, “Great Performance by Woods Nipped in the Bud” with no headline naming the winner. Even when Tiger loses, he’s still reported on as if he’s the best and only player.
Another multiracial template I see is when a hockey team with a black player makes the playoffs and there’s a slew of articles highlighting the lone black player as a champion or the new face of hockey.
And I agree with your point (but which was not the thrust of my post) that white athletes are being ignored if not discriminated against. It’s the same with medicial school and other professions.
If non-white role models are good for non-white athletes, are not white role models good for white athletes?
What I see sports writers and broadcasters doing is little more than saying ‘this or that black guy is a credit to his race’ but now in very indirect ways.
“After all, he married a blonde Swedish woman so that his offspring would be quadroons instead of Blacks.”
That baby looks more like a 1/16th.
I agree that Woods would not like blacks at his tournaments. Aren’t the spectators, camera people and others supposed to be quiet so the players can concentrate?
I’ve never seen 2 or more blacks together when they don’t talk as loudly as possible.
It is disappointing to see just how prejudice we are as Americans. The sins of our forebears still resinates in our thinking and behavior. Superiority in any race is sham. Hitler was ever so reminded of this fact in 1936. Those that practice and focus get to be the greats. Just look around the world and see that sportsmen of all races excel. The Black and White issue is getting old. Tiger has some blood from many races.. as do most Blacks and most Whites. Yes his color in traditional White Sport sets him apart. But remember when a Black man broke the White only requirement for the PGA. It allowed Blacks.. Tai…Koreans…. Mexican Indians… and others to be able to make a living a golf as well. We are all passing thru time. In the years to people of all colors will have there stars represented in all sports. It is ofter just a matter as to where you live and what you can afford to pursue.
