A decade ago, former PGA Tour pro Adrian Stills was invited to conduct a golf clinic in Las Vegas, the PGA Tour reported. He stood on the fourth tee at Rio Secco Golf Club when one of the other members of his foursome, Ken Bentley, asked him to explain why it had been nearly 25 years since an African-American had made it through the TOUR’s Qualifying School.
Sure, Tiger Woods had bypassed it altogether in 1996, and emerged as the world’s No. 1 player, but where were all the other minorities that were supposed to follow in his footsteps? The floodgates never opened.
Bentley, an executive with Nestle USA, had watched “Uneven Fairways: The Story of the Negro Leagues of Golf,” a 2009 documentary chronicling the victories and struggles of African-American golfers, the PGA Tour reported. He couldn’t understand why there were fewer minorities playing at the game’s highest level than when Stills earned his Tour card for the 1986 season.
Stills ticked off several reasons for their lack of progress, but as far as he was concerned, the lack of a place to play topped the list, according to the PGA Tour report. He explained how in his day, he competed and honed his game in tournaments organized by the United Golf Association, a series of professional events for blacks conceived during the era of racial segregation in the United States.
“Ken looked me in the eye and said, ‘Let’s re-create it,'” Still recalls.
And thus was born the Advocates Pro Golf Association (APGA), designed to bring greater diversity to the game by developing African-Americans and other minorities for careers in golf, the PGA Tour reported. Stills developed the blueprint. Celebrating its 10th season, the APGA has grown from three events in its debut to a full-fledged seven-event series, including its first 72-hole tournament, which was won by former Web.com Tour player Brad Adamonis on February 3.
This year’s schedule (see below) features tournaments at TPC Scottsdale and Innisbrook Resort, the same courses that host PGA Tour events. With competitions at those kind of venues, the APGA feels it has re-established a platform for minority golfers to succeed in the professional ranks.
Tim O’Neal, who has earned playing privileges on the Web.com Tour and PGA Tour Latinoamerica during his career, has witnessed the Advocates Tour’s evolution, having finished tied for second in the inaugural event in 2010 at historic Rogers Park in Tampa and winning the Lexus Cup Player of the Year award in 2018, the PGA Tour reported.
“It’s been huge for everyone who plays in it,” said the 46-year-old O’Neal. “It’s a chance for us to see where our game is, how it stacks up and learn where we need to improve.”
O’Neal was recently selected by Tiger Woods for the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption at next week’s Genesis Open, an event run by Woods’ foundation, the PGA Tour reported.
“I’m looking forward to seeing Tim compete in the Genesis Open,” Woods said in a press release announcing the exemption. “Like Charlie did as a player, Tim has shown great determination in his professional career.”
To its everlasting credit, the Advocates is a grassroots effort that began as a group of 20 to 30 friends who gathered a couple of times a year and bonded over golf outings, the PGA Tour reported. On one occasion, Bentley purchased a set of golf clubs and sold raffle tickets, donating the money raised to a local charity.
In 2006, the group was formalized as Advocates USA, a501(c)(3) organization comprised of African-American men from across the country, the PGA Tour reported. Advocates’ membership has since grown steadily, as has its purpose: mentoring youngsters and contributing more than a $1 million to charities and scholarships.
The non-profit organization does more than just sponsor professional golf tournaments, according to the PGA Tour report. Every event combines health and wellness and career fairs. APGA also sponsors Diversity Symposiums, where leaders of the minority golf community gather to discuss ways to best introduce diversity at all levels of the game.
To bring greater diversity to golf, the APGA Tour has partnered with inner-city youth organizations to host golf clinics that introduce both boys and girls ages 14 to 22, most of whom have never touched a club before, to the game, the PGA Tour reported.
“Everyone talks about who is the next Tiger Woods? I think he or she is somewhere in one of our youth classes,” Bentley said.
While graduating to the Tour remains the primary goal, the APGA also prepares its players for a potential future working in the golf business, the PGA Tour reported. “We do more than just help our players with their game,” Bentley said.
That may be an understatement. Life on the mini-tours is a struggle for most trying to climb the ladder rung by rung, the PGA Tour reported. Bentley says the APGA has paid medical bills for a player with a bad back who couldn’t afford to go to an orthopedic surgeon as well as for a pro’s asthma medication, and also sent a plane ticket to a competitor who couldn’t afford the expense.
“Our guys sleep five to six to a room, and have putting contests to determine who gets the bed,” Bentley said.
“What’s so unique about the APGA Tour is it feels like a big family,” added Wyatt Worthington, a 31-year-old PGA professional at The Golf Depot at Central Park in Gahanna, Ohio.
Worthington qualified for the 2016 PGA Championship by finishing sixth at the 2016 PGA Club Professional Championship, becoming the second African-American qualifier for the PGA Championship via that route, the PGA Tour reported.
The APGA still has ambitions of growing to 10 events, but it already has become every bit the traveling band of tournaments that Stills envisioned, with a database of 140 players.
Before they made it to the big time, Harold Varner III and Tony Finau, who became the first Tongan to play on the PGA Tour, competed in APGA events in Tampa and Los Angeles, respectively, the PGA Tour reported. But Bentley conceded that the process of developing the next generation of Tour pros has taken longer than he expected.
“We have some guys really knocking on the door,” he said.
Bentley recites a host of names, including Joseph Bramlett, who is looking to get back on the Tour after being sidelined by injuries, along with Willie Mack III, Trey Valentine and Christian Heavens, the PGA Tour reported.
“There are several players with the talent to play on the Web.com Tour right now,” O’Neal says. “They just need the opportunity.”
The 2019 APGA Tour schedule has been set as follows:
Jan. 31-Feb. 3 (just completed)– Pacific Palms Resort, Los Angeles
March 23-24 – Grand Palm, Miami
April 29-30 – TPC Scottsdale, Phoenix, Ariz.
May 20-21 – Innisbrook Resort, Tampa, Fla.
June 24-25 – TPC Craig Ranch, Dallas
Aug. 19-20 – Tour Championship, location TBD, Atlanta
For more information, click here.
Each APGA Tour event —fields typically consist of 40 to 50 players, with 80 spots in the Tour Championship—holds eight spots for promising high school and college players so they can determine if they have the desire to pursue a career in professional golf, the PGA Tour reported. Scores keep trending lower.
The APGA Tour has elevated its game, too, upgrading courses and increasing purses, the PGA Tour reported. First prize has grown from $4,000 to $15,000 at this season’s Tour Championship in Atlanta, and overall prize money will top $200,000 this season.
As the APGA Tour has grown, so has its list of sponsors, according to the PGA Tour report. From its humble beginnings with a grant from Nestle’s and Farmers Insurance, the APGA Tour has inked deals with the Aids Healthcare Foundation, City National, and a five-year partnership with the PGA Tour in 2013, which was extended two more years.
In 2018, Lexus agreed to a three-year deal to be the circuit’s presenting sponsor, including to fund the season-long Lexus Cup and a $30,000 bonus pool that pays the top-five finishers to help fund their Q-School dreams.
O’Neal, who won the top prize in 2018, used it to pay for European Tour Q-School.
“You need both the finances to have the opportunity to do it and the tenacity to hang in there until you break through,” Stills says. “You have to really love it. You’ve got to really want it.”
And it doesn’t hurt to have a series of events to play.
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