Pete McDaniel, Award Winning Sports Writer, Author, Producer, Husband, and Father.

Black History Month – Minority Golf Magazine

By Herschel Caldwell

The sport of golf has challenged and charmed people for many generations. Believed to have originated in Scotland as early as the 15th century, golf was imported to the U.S. in 1888 and has over the past 200 or so years remained one of the country’s favorite pastimes.   Historically golf was the exclusive province of wealthy, Anglo-Saxon males, and it remained that way until the -1960’s.

Over the years African Americans who loved the sport were relegated to caddying, equipment cleaning, cooking and waiting tables. Their desires to play had to be satisfied on public courses off days, and on all-Black membership circuits that sponsored their own tournaments and training opportunities. It was only 50 years ago that the PGA integrated its membership ranks and disbanded its archaic Caucasian-only rules for play. In the latter part of the 20^th century, more great minority players began to emerge and we began to see cross-country a gradual disbandment of exclusionary rules that prevented women, minorities and the working class from enjoying the sport and joining most clubs. Another positive consequence: the challenges and intrinsic beauties of the sport have continued to expose a much larger number of willing and active participants of color, to the game of golf, thus fueling the most phenomenal boom of players in the history of modern sports.

Today here are approximately ten million minority golfers in the U.S., up from approximately 500,000 just 20 years ago. Many attribute this factor to the higher education and income level of minorities entering and playing the sport; and to the greater number of minority Baby Boomers and Millennials that have taken up the sport for rest and relaxation. Additionally, men and women from the Caribbean, South America, Africa and Asia have come to this sport by the millions as a result of accessibility, Tiger Woods and the unique international appeal of the game.

Much work remains to be done, however. Minorities who play professional golf are far too few in number, and the numbers of Minority female golfers are infinitesimal. There are also very few African Americans who work in the business of golf as directors, club pros, rangers, starters, mechanics and maintenance personnel, or in publishing, marketing or promotions.

February is the traditional month in which the achievements of African Americans are celebrated across professions. During this annual ”Black History Month,” media, libraries and other sources offer volumes of information on any subject one would want to explore that has any relevance to people of color.

This article is the first of a series to further inform our readers of the rich history of African Americans in golf by reintroducing the works of five distinguished African Americans and their contribution to the story of golf in America. We begin with Pete McDaniel.

A native of Arden, N.C., and current resident of Conyers, Ga., McDaniel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974 from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. A freelance golf writer, he was a contributing editor/senior writer for Golf Digest and Golf World magazines a combined 19 years. His primary responsibility with Golf Digest for 14 of those years was to collaborate on instruction and feature articles with Tiger Woods. Pete was also sports editor of the Hendersonville Times-News for 13 years where he earned several North Carolina Press Association writing awards.

He is a recipient of the Harlem YMCA’s Black Achiever in Industry Award and the co-author of the late-Earl Woods’ best-selling book “Training A Tiger.’’ Additionally, he co-authored Tiger Woods’ all-time best-selling golf instruction book “How I Play Golf’’ and then wrote the critically acclaimed “Uneven Lies: The Heroic Story of African Americans in Golf.’’ Pete also co-wrote and co-produced the documentary “Uneven Fairways,’’ which aired on the Golf Channel. Among his honors are “Publisher of the Year’’ and an inductee into both the African American Golfers Hall of Fame and National Black Golf Hall of Fame, plus the Denzel Washington community service award presented by the White Plains (NY) Boys and Girls Club. He has completed an unpublished book of poetry titled “22: Musings and Misdemeanors,’’ and is currently co-authoring his son Tristan “T-Skrilla’’ McDaniel’s autobiography titled “The Hook: A Young Black Man’s Journey to Hell and Back.’’ Much more can be written about Pete McDaniel’s professional journalistic career but, as he intimated to the late Paul Bojanower, along-time PGA photographer friend, “I would rather things are written about what I write, not who I am.”

Our next article features the work of Dr. Calvin H. Sinnette, “Forbidden Fairways.” Other African American writers’ works to be featured this month include “Just Let Me Play” by Charlie Sifford, and “Skins & Grins: The Plight of the Black American Golfer”.

 

Minority Golf Magazine online is devoted exclusively to the interest of persons of color in the United States and around the world. ed.