I hope 6 year old Marshall is still enjoying golf when he is 60.
1
The major problem with this article is not sincerity, it is poor social scientific reasoning. We're running entire programs in many different areas of American social life on a capture the flag model - all we need is one of "our people" at the top of the system as a "role model" and the dam will burst, the ocean will part, we wont need fluoridated water, etc.
The problem is that there is no logical connection there at all. Its wishful thinking that completely ignores how our system of social inequality works. We can all focus our efforts "supporting" a very small number of people in winner-take-all labor markets and then act like we've done something.
But it doesnt work. One or two championship golfers wont "lift up" everyone else. A few fortune 500 ceo's wont "lift up" everyone else, etc. The entire model is wishful an seriously flawed.
13
Class is and has long been the actual fault line in the sport of golf. The PGA has long been a bastion of country-club kids. The existence of players such as Tiger Woods (access to Naval base courses) or Jim Furyk (access to elite country clubs through his dad's job as an assistant pro) are, statistically speaking, flukes, not trends. Tiger inspired a pipeline in ways no other player could, but the flow reduced to a trickle once the First Tee subsidies faded. Class, or more crassly "money," remains the main reason for the unbearable whiteness of golf.
6
I made a lot of money teaching the game of pool. All sorts of people learned a lesson or two. Now no doubt all is true in this article and of great concern but if one diversified one's research one might find out that six flags were represented in the top eight placements of the latest LPGA tournament and find out who the Jutanugarn sisters are as well as Communist Chinese players one of whom perhaps are having too good a time teasing bovines and an overall wonderful international sportsmanship, though it is true perhaps that they could use some Williams sisters. I sure never got exposed to golf and probably couldn't afford it but I sure loved teaching pool to all comers.
The entire point of golf and golf clubs in America was and is exclusion. Just ask the president.
Tiger Woods is admired by white golfers, that's it. Just ask the president.
It's good news that young black people have better things to do with their time than play a sport that loathes and excludes them.
5
Golf is still accessible to many beyond the elite class. So called town-funded "muni" links are one of the backbones of the golfer pipeline. Even Newark NJ has one. Anyone working class or better can afford a tee-time. I've played with cops, firemen, brick layers, social workers, teachers - you name it. In upstate NY outside of Syracuse, I assembled my first "set" of clubs for a quarter apiece at garage sales (albeit in the 1970s) and many had old-fashioned names, not numbers. Spoon. Mashie. I took my baseball swing, applied these clubs to wound balls with a little rubber cores and hit soaring slices across the school yard. One day my friend brought his dad's lawnmower and mowed down a patch of school grass to nearly dirt level to make a green. We embedded a chock full o nuts coffee can in the ground, jammed in an orange snowmobile flag and voila, a golf hole that we played over and over. I guess the moral is where there's a will there's a way. You can still buy a quality starter set of clubs on eBay for less than a pair of Air Jordans.
12
Um, who cares?
Golf is a monied but aging and mostly unappealing demographic, except perhaps for pharmaceutical advertising. Folks with athletic talent have a lot of possible avenues, and golf is only one of them. Nike has abandoned golf, and you can see why.
The Wall Street Journal has a piece today "Tiger Woods Can’t Keep Golf Out of the Bunker", noting:
"Not only does the sport lack the contact and action that lures viewers, but the average PGA Tour watcher in 2016 was 65 years old—2½ decades older than those watching Major League Soccer."
Why would any of that be interesting to talented young athletes, black or white? And particularly given the prominent association of President Trump with golf, there's little about the game that says "that'll be fun" to young Americans.
6
@Crocodilian
Answer me this>
How many individuals who played hockey and football versus those who played the 'sport' of golf will age out of their active years and into what is commonly referred to as 'assisted living' confused and needing care for the rest of their lives at rates astronomically different because they suffer from mental disabilities?
I would imagine the numbers of those who played contact sports will outnumber those who didn't a million to one.
Just go to a golf course on a day when the 'senior leagues'are playing and you'll get my drift. Slow Play, you betch ya, but it's because of their aching joints not their rattled old brains. Aging into one's 'Golden Years' for those two classifications is night and day.
"Fore"!!!!!!!!!!!
4
Thanks for the thoughtful story, Ms Crouse.
As a country club member and official I affirm that part of the problem does lie with traditional old stodgy clubs. This does not, however, put the game of golf as opposed to a golf profession out of reach of those with limited resources. Programs like First Tee and public school teams are good news for many children and youth.
3
Maybe the take-away is that sports are based on skill and talent, not diversity and affirmative action.
And for sports with few venues and very high costs for equipment and playing time—think golf and skiing—of course poor people of all colors have limited opportunity to explore and continue the sport, especially when other sports like soccer and basketball etc. are so much less expensive and much more available.
12
Golf will never truely be an inclusive sport because of it's close ties to class economics. You gotta have MONEY. Poor folks are to focused on getting out of their own stature to be playing golf.
1
Tiger Woods’ emergence was unique in every way. His introduction to the sport started at a very young age from a golf obsessed father. It was not part of a larger group of kids interested in golf.
Tiger’s golf career was like an asteroid. It will not be repeated. The sport is going back to what it always was.
Golf is a sport largely associated with economic class and country clubs. It is expensive to play. This image is why most people stay away from the sport. (Minority or not)
9
Nothing will change the fact that golf is an expensive and elitist sport well above the means of most people who struggle to just get by. I caddied and hunted for balls to sell as a kid so that I could afford to play on the local municipal course. Then adult life happened and I moved on. As a Senior I am an avid, some would say obsessed, disc golf player. Disc golf, which is generally and erroneously called frisbee golf, is a challenging and athletic sport which uses all of stick and ball golf’s objectives and terminology, but with discs in place of balls and chained baskets in place of holes. Also lots of trees and bushes to make your life miserable. It is a true people’s sport, accessible to everyone. Almost all of the thousands of courses are free, often built on unused wasteland, maintained by volunteer groups and do not need to be watered or fertilized. The only expense is a minimum outlay for a few discs. Check the PDGA website for more details.
4
Golf is boring.
5
The only golf that many minorities can afford is miniature golf.
1
I watch with delight as Tiger Woods became a master...and then news began to seep out about his horrible and dishonorable behavior which he quietly exhibited to people standing close enough to see and hear...I really never could reconcile.
Topping it off, of course, is his willingness to play patsy with
Donald Trump.
7
So, ole Tiger fools around on his women. A very large number of men, and women, do. Outstanding golfer though, and worked his way through that back injury, we'll see how it's working on a few years. Best of luck to him.
3
Golf is losing young players of all stripes. As another person pointed out the only young people I know who are playing golf had golf introduced to them by there fathers at a young age. I actually never played golf until I was in my twenties but I don't see many young people doing that. It takes to much time and is too expensive.
I now live in Florida but even here the golf scene is changing. I can see a lot of golf courses going out of business in about 15 to 20 years.
3
Seriously: “Woods’s”?
4
@John McLeod Yes, correct. His name ends in an s, and many styles call for the addition of an apostrophe plus an s to make it a possessive.
6
He turned his back on African Americans and rejected this label. He should never have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
4
Oh, come on. Just look elsewhere in today's paper: John Daly received permission from the PGA to use a cart at this week's open. Citing the Americans with Disabilities Act. If that doesn't signify, what does?
2
Contrary to leftist thinking, playing golf with a person of color isn't going to improve your score or experience, just as a person of color isn't going to enjoy the game anymore playing with a white golfer. Never has race had anything to do with my enjoyment of the game or anyone else's for that matter. Not once in my life has race entered the fairway. I don't play country clubs, I play munis and people of color are out in droves. We don't cringe when a white man joins our group nor do whites fumble over themselves when a person of color joins in on them.
14
Golf is an elitist, time-consuming and frightfully expensive sport.
Why is it any surprise that so many minority kids do not learn golf from their folks at an early age? Their folks don't play golf, can't afford the time or money to play golf, and can't afford to to pay for equipment and course access for their kids. And there are not many public (or private) golf course in inner cities, where so many minority kids live.
By the way, the Tiger Woods Foundation has done much to introduce minority kids to golf (google it); the ongoing problem is the cost of supporting the high cost of play and coaching once the interested and talented kids have been identified.
6
Woods's?
4
Please: Woods’
Not: Woods’s
4
Country clubs used to be closed on Mondays and the caddies were allowed to play. Since pros and clubs can make tons of money from golf cars and holding events on Mondays, caddies have mostly vanished.
As a blue collar kid living in Fairfield County, CT I caddied from age 13 onward, learned the game, got to play courses like Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Westchester because my pro liked me and wanted me to be a professional. I acquired hand me down clubs. Instead I went to college and played D-I golf!
All the wealthy golfers ought to go back to walking the courses--it's part of the game since it's beginnings--and closing the courses on Monday. The golf car has been a dagger to the heart of the game in the USA. Shame!!!!!
Tiger Woods is not a very nice person; it's always been all about him. Charlie Sifford, who was treated with respect at the old Wethersfield Open, is one of my heroes, along with Ted Rhodes, Jim Dent, and Calvin Peete. Get the game back to its old-time Scottish roots as a game for the common man and woman!
12
Maybe now that Donald Trump has awarded Tiger Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom for being good at golf, diversity will explode. On the other hand, President Trump has said the following in a Golf Digest interview from 2014:
Trump - "I would make golf aspirational, instead of trying to bring everybody into golf, people that are never gonna be able to be there anyway. You know, they're working so hard to make golf, as they say, a game of the people. And I think golf should be a game that the people want to aspire to through success."
Golf Digest - "So you'd like it to be an elitist activity."
Trump - "It was always meant to be, and people get there through success."
7
"Tiger Woods’s Success Promised to Diversify Golf. It Didn’t."
Is that because golf is about talent, not diversity?
6
Tiger and Trump are buddies so that's a sticking point. And look no further than the fiasco that is John Daly if you want a specific person to blame for making golf look like a hobby instead of a sport. Not too inspirational
2
Oh my, you need rich - or at least well to do parents to get into it.
it's not a sport like soccer, where all you need is ball and that you can play even without shoes. Which, by the way, does make you a better player, cause if you kick the ball wrong, your toes will let you know
2
Next, we'll be presented with an article arguing that auto races are sufficiently integrated. Or, that horse racing skews in the opposite direction, since just about all of the jockeys are Hispanic.
Jeez...
4
Other than because the Times has never seen a story (in the past few years) which couldn't be about race, why should anyone care?
I think Tiger's story is fascinating enough. That he is a "black", or "Thai", or "mixed-race" golfer is not really the story. Except in the NYTimes....
4
Tiger's race and background have been a story in every news outlet since the beginning of his career. Maybe you haven't noticed, but we're two decades in on this and it's not limited to the nyt
3
When Tiger Woods accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom for winning a golf tournament, his comeback became moot. He cannot represent people of color. He just inappropriately accepted an award ("freedom," really?) from a racist president. Whatever he hoped to have achieved is erased. He does not represent people of color. Numerous teams and players have declined White House invitations. He represents greed and arrogance. A sad ending to what would have been a great come back. And certainly not a role model.
11
A really excellent, popular, and superbly maintained public course near my home costs $55 per person for a tee time reservation, takes 3 hours to play, and hundred of dollars worth of equipment to play properly. How is this within reach with a normal homes youth sports budget? Of course golf is elitist and racist. THat is a function of the cost of entry.
7
Why would anyone expect anything from Tiger Woods? He's buddies with Trump and has the same values...or lack thereof.
7
Unlike basketball and soccer, golf is expensive to play and has limited venues to play at.
2
We saw the same naive predictions on how Obama’s election would spur the end of racism in America.
1
Wasn't Tiger Woods just a terrible person at some point...how did we get past that so soon?
6
One reason there may not be more African-American golfers, especially among the top ranks, is golf is a sport that is usually introduced to the young person by their fathers. The influence Deacon Palmer and Charlie Nicklaus had on their sons is well documented, but you can pick virtually any player on the PGA or European Tours and early in that player's life a father was putting a golf club in his hands, showing him how to hold the club and swing, taking him along to the course after work, and maybe working two jobs to pay the greens fees.
Since 1991 more than 65% of African-American babies have been born to a single mother. It's not politically correct to point this out, but I'd wager the reason there are not more golfers of color is not because golf is a racist or elitist sport as some may suggest. Rather it is because the first domino in the string of dominos that produces a great golfer - a father introducing his child to the game - is largely absent in the lives of African-American youth.
18
Back in the 50s and 60s African-Americans got into golf through caddying. Read Lee Elder's bio sometime. He took jobs at golf courses, practiced in his spare time and became a hustler. Then he got to the PGA Tour. Golf carts took many of these opportunities away. It didn't help that some journalists got offended that black caddies were schlepping bags for white golfers, even though those were great jobs.
7
@Scott The only place for anyone to caddy now is elite clubs. When I was young you could caddy at the local public course. Golf carts are a big money makers, caddies aren't
1
No news here. Golf is a country club sport. As a middle class white kid, my parents were saving for college and had no money for country clubs. Surely that "saving for college" bit it a much higher pressure now, only making the issue worse.
Oh, and the country clubs where I grew up were segregated. So my parents wouldn't have gone even had they the money and I was interested.
4
I don't understand why anyone would think that one individual would make golf (or life) more diverse. My experience as a black woman who has loved golf all my life is that black people sadly see golf as a white man's sport. I see it as a physical and mental challenge that requires skill, patience and stamina when you take away the golf cart.
While golf has made Tiger Woods both famous and wealthy, it's easier for kids of ALL backgrounds to take an interest in other sports and want to become the next Steph Curry or Derek Jeter or Odell Beckham Jr. There are basketball hoops, baseball diamonds and football fields in just about every school in America. Golf is a country club sport where the majority of non-whites who are interested are more likely to get a job tending the greens than to get a membership enabling them to play on them.
You can't expect one person to be the solution to what ails us when so many can't even agree on the problem, be it related to sports, religion, sexuality or even politics. The haves and the have-nots are glacial in changing their minds about who belongs where and what they can and cannot do.
I have to believe we'll get there. It's just going to take more time.
14
I love to play golf, though haven't in some years. I learned from an early age by a mentor, my sister. That said, I haven't seen Tiger advocating diversity -- and, as has been pointed out, greater accessibility -- in golf, oh, let me think, like ever.
Every now and then Tiger will give an interview (reluctantly, it seems, his personality and interviews are much like watching paint dry, but I digress), but I've never seen an event outside of the golf course, read about any golf advocacy initiatives he's behind, testimony before Congress (say, in tandem with other issues that would help accessibility, like affordable housing, relief from economic ghettos, public transportation), etc. Nothing.
Given Tiger's enormous and impressive success, his comeback from physical (and other) hardship, you'd think he'd be out in front on a range of issues that could support growing diversity and accessibility in golf and other related issues to help others. Maybe I'm missing it. Or maybe he needs a better p.r. person. Or maybe he's writing checks and wants to stay behind the scenes. I don't know. Golf is a quiet sport. Maybe Tiger just likes peace and quiet.
8
@James L. Fortunately, ignorance is curable.
According to Wikipedia, "The Tiger Woods Foundation is about empowering minorities, especially underprivileged minority students." Check out the details yourself and you may wish to apologize for dissing Tiger, who does not spend his time beating his chest about everything he does to help others.
2
@James L. Also see Michael Jordan
@James L. - He has a foundation. I'me sure it is helpful to quite a few youngsters.
Overthinking it. Golf brings to mind many other sports---equestrianism, skiing, sailing, rock climbing, tennis, mountain biking, kiteboarding...--that low income families simply cannot afford because of the equipment and/or access costs. Nevermind Golf, some relatively diverse sports like baseball are becoming less diverse because of these barriers to entry. Once our high-income families are diverse, then we'll see more diversity in these expensive sports.
24
@Skeet Ice hockey, figure skating, curling.....
1
Tiger did not even see himself as a "black" golfer as evidenced by his early interviews (before the nike team took over his image). That said, golf is an expensive game and if there were more income equality (by whatever social engineering), then black representation would go up and although it would not be like basketball, the representation is more like what is seen in baseball.
3
The game of golf ( I have been playing for 60 years ) has taken too many steps backward.
4 1/2 hours to play 18 holes ( if yo are lucky )
Way too many players imitating the Pros on the putting green by taking 5 minutes to hit the dang putt.
Greens fees through the roof.
Rounds played at most clubs declining every year.
10
Why would it be surprising that a bastion of white privilege has not diversified as quickly as the author might wish? I refer you with respect to the lore of golf and urge you to find me a person of color in the movies, shows, literature, etc. about golf (take your time and watch Caddyshack or Tin Cup twice). Golf is a game that successful athletes in real sports take up after they retire. Our best athletes in their prime play more physically demanding, and more rewarding sports. Golf is played by guys who need carts to maneuver around, and when televised is best used as background noise in retirement homes. Sorry.
7
Yes, but it is letting trump profit from giving Tiger an important medal that should be those who do great things for our country, or a real hero.
That this shirker who evaded military service will use Tiger to increase profits at his golf clubs is a disgrace.
8
@mikeReally, this came back to Trump?
1
Woods is a once in a generation phenom, regardless of ethnicity. Did anyone actually believe/prophesy that courses would be flooded by people of color?
7
It didn’t diversify or grow the game. There are literally less golfers and less junior golfers than before Tiger. Team sports are running over individual sports like golf and tennis.
Golf is very expensive...... basketball not so much. It is as simple as that.
4
@Jordan there a wealthy black people. They just dont like golf. Its boring. It is as simple as that.
programs like first tee are great and should be supported. but that alone is not going to help with increasing diversity in golf. i agree with the sentiment that golf is not a very accessible sport. although golf equipment sales is very much a racket involving the marketing of voodoo science, even using old clubs aren't a solution as usable grips can be pricey. and unless you're playing par 3 courses, you'll need a bag to lug around all the clubs you'll need (not everyone can be like bubba watson and clean up a regulation course with a decent score using only a hybrid).
and as mentioned in other comments, you can't just golf anywhere. you can't hit drives or at your local park without possibly damaging someone else's property or getting a citation and fine. putting on run-of-the-mill park turf isn't going to help your putting game much either. so you have to go to a course and pay green fees. and courses take up a lot of space that just isn't available in urban areas, and require upkeep that can be expensive.
unless all of the above changes, don't expect much in terms of improving diversity in golf.
1
@josestate
You can get a decent new set for under $200 and good used set for $50 on Ebay/Craig's list and that includes a bag.
One needs to put in many hours at the Driving Range before you expect any success on a golf course. Putting and Chipping are free. Then find a deal and bucket of a 100 balls can be a few dollars.
Plus for that extra help, a cheap roll-up green for your living room and plastic balls and net for your backyard. All for under $50.
Tiger's success didn't "promise" anything. Observers who hoped for specific outcomes, some financial, some cultural and some personal, expressed their predictions about what his success might mean or bring. I understand that headers are meant to draw us in, but language really does matter. Nothing was promised.
9
I grew up with a public golf course in my neighborhood. From the age of 8 I've played any chance I could get.
Back then, I would wake up early and walk thru the woods to find lost golf balls by the dozen. Then I would clean them, and sell them back to the players until I earned enough to pay for a round. In the evening when the course closed, I would sneak on and play until I couldn't see the ball anymore.
Golf isn't for everyone, but I know it's for me. Been playing for 40 years, and hope to play for another 40.
8
@RP Smith If a young person of color snuck onto a golf course to play, he or she would be arrested.
@Kristine What evidence to you have of that? Statements like that don't help.
1
Omitted from this article is the mention of any programs Tiger supports with his own resources to help these young players. Unlike LeBron James, who has built and supports a school in Akron OH, Woods seems to prefer business deals with Trump.
23
@apparatchick Woods and his father established the TGR Foundation 20 years ago. Look it up. He's poured millions into it.
5
@apparatchick Not everyone wants to waste money. LeBron’s school is a waste of money.
Golf is a tough sport to play and to a degree where you want to routinely come back and play again and again and again. And like every sport, their is a frustratiuon level that comes with mastering just the basics.
And without that understanding going in the sport can leave you quite frustrated for years before you end up maintaining the skill set needed to leave you at the end of the day eager to return to a golf course.
And acquiring the skillset requires a level of concentration where a misshit of a fraction of an inch when striking a ball can translate into feet or many, many, many yards.
One just has to put in the time to get to a level of play one can be content with.
One other thing I'd like to mention because of the interest Tiger Woods brought to 'playing golf' is I wish after Woods won the most recent Masters Golf Tournament and how it was tied to a series of surgeries to address what had put his career on the back burner for over a decade, was the notion we hear about so often when the discussion of pre-existing conditions comes up during the discussion of Medical Insurance.
I'd like to have heard Woods's take on pre-existing condidtions and how fortunate he was due to his success over the years and the notion as a millionaire he got to recieve the best care money could buy without any worry at all when he decided to opt to get the surgery he needed.
After all, most don't have that luxury and could end up living in pain or dying prematurely.
2
@merc First of all, golf is not a sport, it's no more of a sport than is chess. It's challenging, true, like painting, or weaving fabric to achieve the right softness. However, to call it a sport is an affront to athletes everywhere.
6
@Arch66
Oh, please...
"Sport includes all forms of competitive physical activity or games..."
Just because one is not slamming into another person doesn't mean it's not a sport.
8
@merc Tiger also had free medical care until he was 18 through the Army's medical system because his father was an Army officer. Pre-existing conditions never entered Tiger's mind. He's never had to worry about paying for medical expenses.
3
Odd that this piece has the tone of lost opportunity. That Mr. Woods' success failed to open up a new market segment for Nike and other manufacturers of overpriced equipment to shill their fancy sticks to is not a negative. It always gives me hope when people outsmart the marketers and, as far as leisure activities go, there are few that are more wasteful of resources (and just wait until the water crisis amps up in the Western US in a decade or two, where these abominations are built in deserts).
Getting into golf is of course very expensive and time consuming and requires accessible public courses or a country club membership. And everyone I know who played golf at a young age had a parent that did. The claim "[t]here were supposed to be scores of" minority children playing now due to Tiger's success is irrational, unless "scores" is used as in "four score and seven years ago." 87 sounds about right.
I would also note that the Williams sisters' success is nearly identical to Tigers' in terms of time period and dominance but I have not heard of a great demographic shift in youth tennis. The barriers to entry are far lower there, and the sport is more exciting to play and has greater youth appeal. Maybe the answer is that, even with slick advertising, these children have their own preferences are not going to take up a sport simply because someone of with a common heritage is great at it.
27
It’s not a social problem that golf participation is shrinking. If it’s a major problem, then we live in an undreamed of paradise.
7
Golf is not like basketball. Not only do you need expensive equipment, you need to have someone teach you how to use it.
Then you need actual golf courses to practice on, for which there are tee times and fees.
It's not like simply grabbing a basketball with your friends and finding a local court.
37
@Joe: Or even more so, soccer, which only requires a patch of grass or even a patch of dirt.
1
Very good article, I was a poor kid from the wrong side of town who loved golf in high school when sports were included in the High School curriculum. But even then we knew which kids had the money to go on to possibly Go Pro beyond public school and though many of us bloomed and progressed during the 4 years of Public High, the Wrong Side Of The Tracks Bunch went on to sports like basketball that could be played in the street, football that could be played in the back yard and baseball that could be played in the back lot of a public park.. And we had fun in ripped up tennis shoes, cut off shorts and language that would never be tolerated on a PGA course.
Today the kids are different, nearly everyone, including the parents who take out the 2nd and 3rd mortgages, wants to get and be famous, wants to be admired and be on TV and the Internet..
We just played our hearts out because that is what kids did for fun back then.
2
Glad to see an article on this topic. As a golf major is currently in action (on a classic PUBLIC course!), most of the contenders, Koepka, Spieth, Johnson et.al., will tell you they were directly inspired by Tiger to take up golf and to approach it as athletes. All three of the above are strong, long hitters, strategic thinkers, and charismatic - in fact they are like Tiger clones, except for one thing - they're caucasian, not "cablinasian". The Williams sisters inspired a squadron of up and coming non-white next-gen tennis players. The difference between golf and tennis is simply barrier to entry. Golf is a cloistered sport for the economically privileged. It's not just the cash. It's the time and travel and the location and accessibility of courses. It's a long distance from your local muni to the types country clubs that the PGA plays on. Bethpage Black is actually the exception.
2
It's really seems to me one of those sports that just doesn't appeal to most kids growing up. I played a few times as a teenager - didn't really get what it was all about and quit.
Then by my mid 20's, I started to play again and over the years I fell in love with the sport. The same thing happened to my kids - they lost interest quickly as they grew up and by High School they were done. Then all of sudden they are in their 20's and I now get a call asking if I want to play a round.
The one nice thing about the sport at this moment - It's never been cheaper to play. Good sets of clubs can be bought off ebay for next to nothing, they even give them away on Craig's List. Groupon and other Discounts can get you a round of golf for under $20 at good courses.
5
@John Have not seen a $ 20 fee since the 60's
@ken person
Can't say for everywhere but around Chicago it's not hard to find a Groupon for $20 to $30 a round for twilight at a decent course. Some of the ok at best courses can run under $20 if your willing to walk
Sure their are many of the better known courses that run at $75 to $150 for 18 with cart. But, their are great deals to be had with a little searching at the little less know courses.
2
The elephant in the room for golf is that it not only is elitist, a place for the rich to impress their friends and exclude "poor" people, but it is also, to this day, extremely racist.
It is hard to believe, but many of the top 100 private golf clubs basically exclude Blacks, Jews, Muslims and Asians from their membership. They may have a couple of tokens, but that's so that they can still have PGA golf tournaments at their clubs.
Unless your Daddy/Mommy belongs to a private country club, you are just not going to be able to play golf as a kid. Making the golf team at a prestigious university is basically White Affirmative Action.
Even at the public courses around where I live in New Jersey it is prohibitively expensive for a kid to play golf on a regular basis. Golf at public golf courses should be free for anyone under 13 years of age, and at least the rate for seniors for those between 13 and 25.
27
@doc
Here in Chicago, Public courses are everywhere and can be fairly cheap at under $20 for a round. Their are all kinds of kids leagues that are in fact cheaper then many Basketball, Baseball, Soccer leagues.
In fact, if you want your kid to play High School and College Sports - Golf is most likely your easiest bet. They won't get a scholarship or anything like that. But, they are so desperate for players; that if you can hit a decent ball and know the rules - your in.
2
Golf requires patience and an attention span longer than 30 seconds. Besides, to most people it’s boring.
10
@Jts
Are you saying that only high income white people have "patience and an attention span longer than 30 seconds"?
There was talk for a time about making some truly idiotic changes to the game to appease the delicate attention span of the Millennials - thankfully these never came into being. Golf is an elegant contemplative sport that should not be rushed.
Maybe golf has a future after all.
3
Golf is a slow, expensive and snobby sport. No wonder children of diverse backgrounds don’t have any interest in it.
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Golf is and always will be an elitist sport.
The price of golf puts it out of the reach of most people. The United States Golf Association and golf courses, in an effort to grow the sport, have tried to bolster the player base by offering substantial discounts and scholarships to young players, but the very fact that these efforts are necessary is an indictment of the sport.
Golf courses are also often terrible for the environment. In 2014, California’s 921 golf courses used about as much water as 2.8 million people (7 percent of the state’s population).
Golf courses are an inefficient use of space and impede greater urban density. It also exacerbates economic and racial disparities by creating isolated, cultureless McMansion suburbs for the white and well-todo.
Why should we be concerned trying to help golf recover as an industry or a sport by continuing to watch it or applauding any of its timid efforts to diversify or become more environmentally sustainable?
Just let it die already.
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@Robert M
A great comment. You speak the truth.
But the rich white folk will not allow golf to die, I am afraid.
It's part of their mythology, their religion.
It would be great to turn all golf courses into public parks. But it is (sadly) just not going to happen.
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Most country clubs pay little tax and/or lease the land for a fraction of its value. E.g. members only country clubs like the LA Country Club sits on 20 billion worth of land and pays nearly nothing in tax.
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I’d much rather the NYT saw Tiger Woods’s story as that of excellence, perseverance, resilience and redemption. It’s not that golf isn’t diverse enough, as that is proof positive that it’s more about athletes’ sport preferences than discriminatory barriers. Same with NFL, NBA and MLB where the players evidence outsized proportions of minority players. The fans don’t care as long as the players are the best in the business.
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