Golf is one of my favorite things in life because I work at a golf course and play a lot of golf. I tend to learn a lot about the things I love in life golf being one of these I dug a little bit deeper into my favorite tournament held every year the Masters. Held in Augusta Georgia the tournament is the biggest event in golf every year but behind the scenes the tournament holds a dark past. The course is a private golf club which was built on known old plantation that held slaves in its’ past. The course also before the civil rights movement illegally underpaid all people of color working at the course. These people were also not allowed to even play the course. Being a private golf club, it is an extremely exclusive and cannot be played by the public. In order to even become a member at the course you have to be rich or a champion of the Masters tournament which isn’t particularly out of the ordinary for a PGA tour level course. The issue arises when you look deeper into who is and isn’t a member here. The Masters has been played since 1934 and didn’t extend an invited to a black golfer until 1975 which is clear racism and wasn’t stopped by American higher ups for way too long. Along with this according to Michael Margulis in the article below the caddies of the famous tournament by rule until 1983 had to be African American. For those not familiar with golf the caddie is the person who carries the golfers clubs and gives advice on the course. The manner of racism within the sport of golf was so easy to see that Tiger Woods as a young golfer was even asked about it. If you’d like to see the full interview you can do so below. The club also didn’t have its first African American member until 1990 and didn’t allow women memberships until 2012. This raises the question of why wasn’t this stopped earlier? The simple answer to this is as a private club they can choose to operate as they’d like therefore, they didn’t have to show any remorse for blacks or women. I believe the government should be able to force even private corporations to give equal opportunity to all in the case of systemic injustice. The Masters was around during the heat of the civil rights movement and even with all the change that came with the movement through people like MLK and John Lewis the private businesses of the south didn’t change with America. In the Masters case this is rather ironic given that the course is located in the heart of the southern black belt which is know for its large African American population. In conclusion, even the most famous tournament in America golf has dark history like other plenty of other iconic American traditions. The dark days of slavery still stain this country and will forever as history cannot change.
Sources:
Margulis, Michael. “Welcome to Augusta: Home to Racism, Classism, Sexism…….and Golf.” Medium, 20 Aug. 2019, https://medium.com/@michaelmargulis/welcome-to-augusta-home-to-racism-classism-sexism-and-golf-23cda988f391
Trans World Sport. Tiger Woods On Racism: Unedited RARE 1990 Interview. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw9iaKKrem0. Accessed 26 Mar. 2021.
The topic you selected was so interesting especially because its very different subject that is not talked about as frequently. I honestly was not aware of this before and I found really upsetting to see that racism is a part of huge sporting event.
I was also not aware of this before reading your post. I really like how you brought this to light, especially as someone who loves the sport, acknowledging and informing others that even in the things that we love, there is almost always some form of corruption at the root.