Three men with prominence in the African-American golfing community who have helped the organizations promote minorities’ history in the game have formed a group known as Golfers Opposing Bigotry and are calling for major tournaments planned for Trump-owned clubs to be moved.
Three men with prominence in the African-American golfing community have formed a group known as Golfers Opposing Bigotry and are calling on the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) and the United States Golf Association (USGA) to sever ties with Donald Trump, the New York Daily News reported.
Group member Jeffrey Sammons, a Professor of History at New York University who until recently had connections to the USGA and PGA through the African-American Golf Archive, called on the organizations to move events planned for Trump golf courses to other venues and to forego booking new ones, the Daily News reported.
The 2017 PGA Senior Championship is set for Trump National Golf Club DC in Virginia, while the 2022 PGA Championship is booked at Trump National Bedminster in New Jersey.
Joining Sammons in the Golfers Opposing Bigotry group are Calvin Sinnette, a historian of black golfers, and Cedrick Smith, a two-time National Minority Collegiate Golf Association All-American, who also earlier this year resigned from the USGA museum committee over the issue, the Daily News reported.
“I invite like-minded golfers and non-golfers to stand together against the racial, religious and other intolerance that Donald Trump’s policies and rhetoric promote,” Sammons wrote in a letter posted as part of the “Not Who We Are” campaign, an online site designed to encourage people to organize against Trump based on their occupations and communities.
“There is no place for this kind of discrimination or divisiveness in the golf community or in America,” Sammons wrote.
“The PGA supposedly is committed to growing the game, yet it closely associates with someone who revels in exclusivity,” he added.
Noting that the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open, a USGA major championship, is also scheduled for Trump National Bedminster, Sammons wrote that “considering Trump’s public denigration and demeaning of women, the choice of site is unjustifiable on moral and ethical grounds. The same applies to his negative characterizations of immigrant, Mexicans, and Muslims.”
Women’s professional golf is highly diverse, Sammons wrote, and “as an international arbiter of golf, the USGA should do better by its responsibility to promote the best values of golf,” he said.
He also noted that aggrieved members of Trump’s Jupiter, Fla., golf club have sued the developer and said he has “stiffed” contractors at another golf property. “Trump is not even good for golf, let alone America,” Sammons wrote.
Representatives for Trump and the PGA did not return requests for comment, the Daily News reported. The USGA responded by saying that it is not canceling events at Trump courses, even while distancing itself from the candidate.
“During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump has made some remarks that are at odds with our belief that golf should be welcoming and inclusive for all,” the USGA statement said. “We have reiterated for more than a year that we do not share his views, and that is still true.
“But with the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open a year away, our focus is still on conducting the best championship we can for the players, the spectators, the fans, and the volunteers.”
The USGA’s statement also acknowledged the resignations of Sammons, Sinnette and Smith by praising their work, but saying, “We respect their views.”
In his letter, Sammons said that by refusing to disengage with Trump, the PGA and USGA are rewarding the candidate materially and giving him “undeserved legitimacy while undermining the image of golf.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.