Did you know that a Black man, Dr. George F. Grant, created the modern golf tee — that pronged piece you put in the ground to hit your ball off of? I didn’t. Golfing, to me, has always felt like a rich man’s sport. Beyond the fame of notable Black golfers like Tiger Woods and Lee Elder, fully understanding how expansive the sport can be has always seemed out of reach.
An invitation to the fourth annual Urban Golf Weekend, held in Miami during the Labor Day holiday, opened my eyes not only to golf’s connection to the Black community, but also to how a new generation is taking up the sport and creating its own culture around it.
Clifton Addison, a Florida A&M University alum and avid golfer, founded the weekend and the Urban Golf Foundation to help make the golfing world more accessible for Black people. “I always felt like I was the only person who looked like me in the sport. I knew I wanted to do something to bring more people of color to golf.”
His efforts to cultivate this space for newcomers and lovers of the sport helped create this year’s events, which brought 600 other attendees — and me — into a new world of how the Black community interacts with golf.
“We wanted to create a space where even if you don’t know anything about golf, you feel comfortable asking the right questions, networking, and getting information.”
That space included Black-owned golf apparel brands and businesses like Masterpiece Sports Club, which earlier in February of this year collaborated with Tarte Cosmetics on a full golf-themed collab, as well as panels providing networking opportunities and financial literacy in and out of the golf world.
Having influencers like D1Golfs and Bria Scottie at the conference, who showcase golf to a completely new generation outside traditional channels, also showed me how different the world of golf is from what I had imagined. I also found creators who were at the event, celebrities participating in the weekend’s festivities like Woody McClain and Dr. Rama John, and so much rich Black history within the sport.
The sport is becoming more accessible through creators, businesses and events like these, but you could especially see how younger people interacted with golf culture in the students who participated in the Fore Life golf program.
Addison participated in this program growing up in Miami, where he learned to play the sport and how it can carry over into many aspects of life outside of athletics.
The program, which serves kids locally in South Florida, gives students skills and experience not only in playing golf but also in networking, life skills and more.
Royce Jones, a 15-year-old from Miramar, Florida, and a young golfer, spoke about what she continues to learn through the Fore Life program.
“It teaches me patience, because when you’re on a golf course, you have to be patient. It teaches me accountability and discipline; it teaches me how to be strong, that you really have to work for something and strive for it in order to reach your goals.”
That determination showed up not only in the young students in the program, but also in the many people my age who were there celebrating, learning and participating through their love of golf.
This experience made me want to explore our community’s connection to the sport and how events like these make it easier for people who may not have thought of golf as an outlet or tool. And that’s a goal of the organization as well. The Urban Golf Foundation presented a $15,000 donation to the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Men’s Golf program, making sure HBCU golf initiatives and student-athletes have the tools and support they need to succeed on and off the course.
But back to George Grant’s invention. Black people aren’t simply discovering golf now. History, community and culture already surround the sport. This event, which celebrates golf culture and the growing golf community among Gen Z and even younger, made me even more excited to learn and see where Black people can go in golf.