Golf is a quiet game, but this is ridiculous.
If you watched any of the U.S. Open from Winged Foot over the weekend, you didn’t see any fans in the gallery. I also didn’t see a single sign placed by the USGA or a patch on any of the golfers’ attire or a sticker on a bag or caddy’s apron that said Black Lives Matter.
Now, golf has always been the playground of the white privileged, and it took a transcendent black champion like Tiger Woods from Stanford to be welcomed to the tour by fellow players and millions of fans. And of course, the slow integration of the game at places like Augusta National was an embarrassment.
Two of the true stars of golfer, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka, participated in Blackout Tuesday, posting solid black images on their social media sites. They may not have been the only PGA pros, but they were two regulars on the leader board.
The history of Winged Foot as a white elitist golf club rivals Augusta National, which waited far too long to take its first black and woman members, so it must have not seemed strange to anyone up in Westchester County. But two players in different places have participated on tour.
Cameron Champ, a rising star from Houston and son of a biracial couple, wore a black shoe and a white with names of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the words Black Lives Matter at the BMW championship late August and is not shy about promoting the cause.
And a white senior golfer, 20-plus years older than Champ, slapped a BLM sticker on his golf bag as he played on the champions tour over the summer. Kirk Triplett, 53, has four children, two adopted minorities, and says his family often discusses racial injustice.
What exactly happened at America’s national golf championship last weekend? Was it the players who live in such a white world that it’s not top of mind, or was it USGA making a statement by not making a statement? Every pro league, including hockey – with a handful of black players and half who are Canadians, has stepped up to have their collective voices heard.
For golf, it’s a triple bogey off a duck hook.
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