By Harvey Silverman, Silverback Golf Marketing, old white man, golfer
By Craig Kessler, Director, Governmental Affairs, SCGA, old white man, golfer
“Inflection point” – the moment when significant change occurs; a turning point; a shift of direction.
It’s a phrase applied to many things these days, too many things if truth be known. But a phrase properly descriptive of the confluence of racial and societal reckonings stimulated by the televised execution of George Floyd, the differential impacts of COVID-19, and the vast divide between technological haves and have-nots revealed by COVID-19’s closure of the nation’s K-12 schools.
Often impervious to society’s inflection points, golf’s non-profit organizations caught on quickly this time – “caught on" at least in terms of rapidly responding with the right words. The jury is out on the all-important follow-up, but the words seemed different this time – more than mere words, but calls to action. The USGA released a statement redolent not of public relations puffery, but genuine contrition for past shortcomings, closing with the following words:
“While the game of golf is built on the values of fairness, integrity, and respect toward all individuals, we recognize that our game’s history has not always represented the best of these ideals, and at times our own organization has fallen short. The USGA joins the call for open dialogue, understanding, unity, and the courage to envision and build a better world. We commit to being part of the solution moving forward.” -USGA, June 4, 2020
The PGA of America used the international stage afforded by the PGA Championship at Harding Park to highlight many leading African-American PGA professionals in leadership, ownership and management positions in the game and didn’t mince any words about their disappointment in the ranks of African-American PGA professionals not being a more significant percentage of the profession after years of efforts to diversify.
That’s why it was so disappointing to get an email recently about a September “Golf Strategy Summit” that seemed oblivious to all that had happened in recent months and oblivious to the reality that most of corporate America has pivoted toward beginning to add deeds to their own good words about commitments to racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual equity. Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) didn’t get invited to a golf business strategy party that invited just about everything else about the business of golf, including the obligatory presentation about customer service. Surprising, but hardly shocking to veterans of the golf industry.
Golf ignored the central role played by municipal governments in growing the game to the 30 million adherents it claimed at its height in 2005 and left the field to those not well disposed toward the game to define it solely in terms of pampered elites at exclusive country clubs. You know the drill – too rich, too white, too old, too self-centered, etc. There are still those who preach that if the game can just squeeze more of that demographic into its cozy confines, it can continue to prosper. That might work if there were younger golfers in the pipeline behind the baby boomers or if the nation weren’t headed fast toward the same racial/ethnic mix that defines these two baby-boomers’ home state of California.
But the younger golfers are missing, and the nation is headed rapidly toward a future in which the majority of its population is not white. So, if the color that motivates you is the green color of money, “diversity and inclusion” is not some do-good, feel-good, concept; it is what is going to keep you in the golf business.
These two baby-boom white gentlemen understand enough to know that while we see where the game needs to go to remain viable, neither we nor the rest of our cohort is best positioned to understand how to get there.
And by “cohort,” we mean the bulk of those in the game’s current leadership positions. The folks best positioned to navigate that route are the ones not only closest to the diverse communities we hope to include, but the ones who against strong odds and with little support from the game have achieved results in the realm. We sought out and spoke to many of them for this story – persons of color who represent those who the game would be wise to support with its dollars and look to for leadership:
- Azucena Maldonado, Founder, Latina Golfers Association. www.latinagolfers.com/what-we-do/
- Tiffany Fitzgerald, Founder, and CEO, Black Girls Golf. www.blackgirlsgolf.net/
- Clemmie Perry, Executive Director, Women of Color Golf. www.womenofcolorgolf.org/
- Michael Cooper, Chairman, WE ARE GOLF Diversity Task Force.
- Renee Powell, Owner, Clearview GC, Canton, OH. www.clearviewgolfclub.com/
The second part of our article will summarize the wisdom of the “persons of color” who we suggest have demonstrated the success against long odds that qualifies them to lead the game out of its old, rich, white morass to the promised land of racial and ethnic resonance – the wisdom in their stories and more importantly, the wisdom in their prescriptions. We’ll detail recommendations for strategies that golf course operators can and should consider, adopt, and deploy. Our goal is to fill a void left open by other organizations’ “strategy” meetings and open the minds of golf course operators to how adopting strategies that encourage diversity is good for business.
Stay tuned – more next week.
Harvey Silverman is the proprietor of his marketing consultancy, Silverback Golf Marketing, and the co-founder of Quick.golf, golf’s only pay-by-hole app. Harvey authored NGCOA’s “Beware of Barter” document and has spoken at their Golf Business Conferences and Golf Business TechCon.
Craig Kessler is Director of Governmental Affairs for the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) and Chair of the California Alliance for Golf’s (CAG) Legislative Committee. He can be reached at ckessler@scga.org