Pete McDaniel

By JOHN NORTH

After playing it in college and writing about it later in his career, the game of golf has paid off for Pete McDaniel, so he is deeply disappointed that young blacks are tending to avoid any association with the game, he said during a Feb. 24 presentation at UNC Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall.

McDaniel has extensively researched the stories and struggles of African-American golfers during segregation, having recently completed production of the documentary film “Uneven Fairways,” narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

In telling of the sacrifices and difficulties black golfing pioneers made to pave the way for the emergence of Tiger Woods, who until recently was the world’s No. 1 golfer, McDaniel acknowledged during questioning later that Woods — ironically — stands virtually alone as the only top golfer in the world who is black. (Woods actually is multi-racial, but he emphasizes his connection with African-Americans, insofar as golf is concerned.)

While there are tremendous opportunities for young blacks to win scholarships to colleges that are under pressure to add racial diversity to their golf teams, and later to participate in all facets of the multi-billion-dollar golf industry, African-Americans are shunning the opportunity and instead focusing on basketball, football and other such sports, McDaniel lamented.

Joe Louis

The filmmaker screened his new documentary before about 80 persons, followed by a brief talk and an extensive question-and-answer session. McDaniel, a senior writer for Golf Digest and Golf World magazines and author of “Uneven Lies: The Heroic Story of African-Americans in Golf,” is an Arden native.

McDaniel was introduced by Edward Katz, UNCA’s associate provost and dean of university programs, who noted, with pride, that McDaniel earned a bachelor’s degree from UNCA in 1974.

He also said McDaniel played basketball and golf at UNCA, after which he eventually served for 13 years as the sports editor at the Hendersonville Times-News, where he earned several North Carolina Press Association writing awards. Later, he became a senior writer for the two golf magazines. He also co-authored with Earl Woods, Tiger’s father,” a best-selling book, “Training a Tiger.” In addition, McDaniel co-authored Tiger Woods’ all-time best-selling golf instruction book, “How I Play Golf.”

Charlie Sifford

McDaniel has been inducted into both the African-American Golfers Hall of Fame and National Black Golf Hall of Fame.

Prior to the screening, McDaniel said that his documentary was a collaborative effort about the black golf tours, which were affectionately nicknamed “the chicken circuit” or “neckbone tour.”

In introducing his film, McDaniel noted that “there was a time when fairways weren’t fair ... African-Americans were denied a place on the tour, but still found a place in the sun ... The history of African-American golf began in caddyshacks” across the United States.

As the film noted, the United Golfers Association, the first black tour, included such notables as Charlie Sifford, James Black, Pete Brown, Thomas Smith, Renee Powell, Calvine Peete and Jim Thorpe.

In 1925, the first UGA championship took place the the Shady Rest Golf and Country Club,  in Scotch Plains, N.J. It was the only such full-service country club — run for and by blacks — in the U.S. at the time, the documentary stated. The UGA, organized and financed by a group of black businessmen in the Washington, D.C., area, served as the governing body of black golf until desegregation opened up many public courses to blacks in the mid-1960s.
The first winner of the UGA tournament took home $50, while the comparable white Professional Golfers Association title awarded $250 to its winner, the film said. The UGA tournament was open to anyone who qualified, including whites.

While Charlie Sifford was the first black to obtain a PGA player’s card, Pete Brown was the first black to win a PGA event in 1956, when he had to deal with the distraction of a racist throng of spectators, the film noted. Among the early black celebrity golfers and golf enthusiasts were Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstein and Ella Fitzgerald.

For years, the PGA had what was known as the Caucasian-only clause in its bylaws, excluding blacks from participating, the documentary stated. However, boxer Joe Louis broke golf’s color barrier in 1955, when Louis was invited to play in the San Diego (Calif.) Open as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption. He became the first African-American to play in a PGA event.

Lee Elder

Despite some initial PGA resistance to allow him in the tourney, Louis’s celebrity eventually pushed the group toward removing the bylaw, paving the way for the first generation of African-American professional golfers such as Calvin Peete, according to the film.

Louis himself financially supported the careers of several other early black professional golfers, such as Bill Spiller, Ted Rhodes, Howard Wheeler, Clyde Martin and Charlie Sifford. He was also instrumental in founding The First Tee, a charity helping underprivileged children become acquainted with the game of golf.

In 2009, the PGA of America granted posthumous membership to Rhodes, Spiller and John Shippen, who were denied the opportunity to become PGA members during their professional careers. The PGA also has granted posthumous honorary membership to Louis.

The documentary stated that Rhodes “arguably may have been the greatest black golfer” before Tiger Woods. In 1975, Lee Elder became the first African-American to compete in the Masters, golf’s most prestigious tournament, in Augusta, Ga. In 1997, Woods became the first black to win the Masters.
Woods stated in the film that “Charlie Sifford is the Jackie Robinson of our sport ... He had the focus and concentration you must have.” In praising the courage and dedication of the early black golfers, Woods said, “I owe everything to them.”