Among the world’s best golfers, there’s Bubba Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Rory McIlroy. African-Americans who have also earned this prestigious title include Tiger Woods, Calvin Peete, Cheyenne Woods and Charlie Sifford, just to name a few.
I admit that I recognize the names, but I couldn’t even begin to tell you the difference between a par, bunker, birdie, ace or bogey. But I do know that people are as serious about their golf—whether watching it or playing it—as any diehard fan is of any other sport.
What you may not know, is that since 2003, African-American Golfer’s Digest has been the nation’s leading print publication and online portal for avid Black American golfers—and its headquarters is in the Big Apple! Inside its pages, readers will find a wide array of everything of what they call “the ‘soulful’ world of golf,” from interesting interviews with golf industry business owners, to resort and destination reviews, news, travel features, course critiques, equipment and product information and a great deal more.
The publication also hosts a series of signature annual hosted golf excursions to some of the most amazing and culturally enriching destinations all over the globe, each designed to not only showcase the many stunning, distinctive courses and picturesque landscapes, but to also bring together people of color and others who share a passion for the game. To top it all off, African-American Golfer’s Digest is a woman-owned business, 100 percent minority-owned and -operated and independently published.
While looking through their website recently, I learned that there is an entity called the National Black Golf Hall of Fame, which is designed “to recognize and honor the contributions of Black golfers for their skills and, to honor persons, regardless of race or ethnicity, who have done the most to promote golf in the Black communities.”
Its founder was the late Harold Dunovant, the first Black person to graduate from the Professional Golf Association’s Business School in 1960. Although it was well over a decade before his PGA Class A membership was officially bestowed because the all-white membership at the time refused to ratify it, Dunovant went on to play the “Black Tour” with other African-American golf greats in the mid-1960s and served for many years and at several courses across the country as head professional. He founded the Hall of Fame (online, not a brick-and-mortar building) in 1986.
PUTTER (WOOD, IRON, SHAFT …) ADVENTURES
Avid golfers travel all over the world to experience some of the best golf resorts on the planet, each offering their own distinctive elements, weather, vistas and more. According to one source, the U.S. is home to 50 percent of the world’s best courses.
To that end, here are a handful of premier golf resorts that can be found on many a “Top List” according to numerous A-List print and online golf, travel and other publications.
Lysa Allman-Baldwin is a freelance writer and the publisher and editor of Amazing Escapades, offering “adventures for the Mind, Bod and Belly” (www.amazingescapades.com). She can be reached at editor@amazingescapades.com.