The NCAA News - News and Features

March 31, 1997

Sudden impact?

Golf administrators hope Tiger Woods' appeal will attract more ethnic-minority youths to game

BY GARY T. BROWN
Staff Writer

With Tiger Woods' success splashed across every television screen and newspaper front page in the country, young ethnic-minority golfers can't help but hear the message: "If Tiger can do it...."

But how many of those feeding off the success of golf's newest and shiniest star have a chance to follow in his footsteps?

While some youth program administrators think the doors of access and affordability remain locked to ethnic minorities seeking a future in the game, others hope Woods' rise to stardom may ignite a change. If nothing else, the knocks from Tiger zealots lined up at the threshold can be heard loud and clear.

"Ever since Tiger turned pro, the numbers have gone through the roof," said John Morrison, director of the Ladies Professional Golfers Association's Urban Youth Golf Program in Los Angeles. "Normally we get a few calls per week, but now it's a bunch of calls per week from people interested in teaching their kids how to play.

"I don't know if Tiger is the actual reason they're calling or if they were reading about Tiger and in the article read about our program, but I do think that Tiger has definitely peaked kids' interests. He's a great role model -- he's young and the kids can relate to him."

Overcoming obstacles

Morrison's program is one of several formed through partnerships between professional and youth golf organizations to recruit ethnic-minority youths who otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to play the game. The program provides about 20 weeks of summer instruction and access to local golf courses at discounted rates.

"We wanted to overcome all the obstacles that have prevented kids from learning the game in the past," he said, "which are proper instruction, equipment and, most importantly, access to different golf courses. But once these kids acquire the proper skills, they're on the golf course all the time. You can't get them off."

The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) also appears to be another beneficiary of the Tiger boom. The PGA's First Swing program is administered at colleges and universities in conjunction with the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP). First Swing at the University of Detroit Mercy has grown from slightly more than 100 participants to more than 500 in just a few years. Coordinator Rubin Washington said the Woods phenomenon is a factor.

"With Tiger Woods being a young student out of college and in the limelight," he said, "it has increased the awareness for these young people that, hey, it's not an old folks' game but a young person's game, and once you learn how to play it, it's fun."

First Swing began in 1993 as a partnership between the NCAA and the PGA and has expanded from eight universities to 45 this year. The PGA provides equipment, curriculum materials and in-service training to the NYSP staff at the schools for them to use with their own programs.

Involvement is the tough part

Washington said at Detroit, golf is a requirement.

"The way I've designed the program is for all the kids to have a chance to become initiated to golf," he said. "If you just tell them they have the opportunity to pick golf, they wouldn't because of the other sports we offer.

"In our program, golf is required because we're trying to broaden the kids' knowledge in golf, especially for males. Now it's become not a case of us making them take the sport but of them wanting it."

Levia Stovall, who coordinates First Swing at Hampton University, agreed that it was tough getting kids to embrace golf initially, particularly those inclined to choose football, basketball and track.

"What we heard from the kids at first was, 'Yuk, golf -- you only get to look at that on Sunday when there's nothing else on TV,' " she said. "But once you let them see that it's like any other sport in how you just have to get used to it and feel comfortable with the skills, they begin to like the sport.

"And we do have some kids who are trying to follow in Tiger Woods' footsteps."

Willie Gregory, manager of community/public relations at Nike, which launched Woods' professional career, said the impact of Woods' success hasn't gone unnoticed in the Memphis area. Gregory is involved in the Mid-South Junior Golfers Association program that aims to increase the pool of minority golf candidates.

"Last year we sponsored between 50 and 100 kids," he said. "This year that number has already swollen to 150 and 250 kids, which we think is a direct result of Tiger Woods' rise to the golf scene."

And Talladega College's Johnnie Lindsey -- who directs golf clinics in conjunction with the NYSP girls sports initiative, which targets young girls with limited exposure and experience with nontraditional sports -- said Tiger's success has golf wanna-bes coming out of the, well, woods.

"I would not have expected such a high turnout for our clinics," she said. "I think a lot of it has to do with Tiger Woods. I've heard a lot of discussions in class in relation to sports and his effect on young students.

"Minority participation in golf is increasing, and I think Tiger Woods might be one of the reasons."

Coach not surprised

Woods' impact comes as no surprise to his collegiate coach. Stanford University's Wally Goodwin said Tiger's focus while he was in school was always on kids.

"He kidded me one time last year," Goodwin said. "He said, 'You know, coach, when I get a chance, I'm not going to do anything for all you old people -- you're beyond help, and you don't need it anyway. I'm going to do things for kids.'

"Well, I know Tiger pretty well and he's a heckuva kid. He'll be a big benefactor to kids in the United States and maybe all over the world. He'll be known as maybe not Robin Hood, but when people find out what he's going to do -- and what he has done -- he's going to be in that sort of ballpark."

Woods already has given back to the kids by joining the American Junior Golf Association's (AJGA) One-Percent Club, in which PGA, LPGA and Senior PGA professionals agree to donate one percent of their official tour earnings each year to the AJGA Foundation. In turn, the Foundation helps fund other grass-roots programs nationally.

Goodwin said he wouldn't be surprised if golf courses built exclusively for kids crop up during Tiger's watch.

"I think his impact for years to come will be monumental if people leave him alone and let him use his own good judgment and not be forced around by all of the social pressures," he said.

Though there's little doubt that the Woods factor has jump-started youth programs, access beyond the grass-roots level continues to be an issue for program developers. Morrison said that programs like his are facing that issue head-on.

"Our program is really geared toward getting kids into college," he said. "It's not about teaching them to be professionals. The majority of our kids who do graduate from our program and from high school go on to college on one level or another, either on a golf scholarship or an academic scholarship."

"Golf awareness has improved through NYSP and the PGA," Washington said. "And I see the talent pool increasing. Some of our older kids are saying. 'Hey, I may not be a good basketball player, but I may be able to play some golf if I work at it -- if I get the opportunity to play.'

"There still aren't many opportunities outside of NYSP for minorities to play because if they try to get a lesson, it may run $50 or more and we're basically dealing with low-income kids."

That's where the closed doors are still a factor, some say. But if it's true that there's strength in numbers, then maybe the doors will be broken down.

"Traditionally, our kids have been steered more toward football, basketball and track," Gregory said. "We think that with Tiger Woods on the scene, kids' interest in golf is peaking, and if that's true, then we certainly need to be able to take advantage of it."