The lone Tiger in the jungle.

Tiger Woods: Arguably the most dominant player in any sport of this century. Just take a look at these statisitcs: He has been world number one for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any other golfer. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons. He has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player only behind Jack Nicklaus, and 72 PGA Tour events, third all time behind Sam Snead and Nicklaus He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer does. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. In addition, there is a video game series  named after him (Tiger Woods PGA tour) 08"With all of this success, Tiger Woods was expected to break down cultural and racial barriers in golf and usher in a generation of African-American stars. But the revolution has yet to materialize.

In fact, fourteen years into Woods' professional career, there are now fewer African-American players on the PGA Tour than were in 1976. As other sports have grown to become predominately black, Golf is one sport that remains racially singular. Over the course of history, there have been few blacks that have joined the PGA Tour. This lack of diversity is due to the fact that Golf was considered a white man's sport, and often excluded and discouraged those of other races from playing. Charlie Sifford, the first black golfer to join the tour and often considered Golf's Jackie Robinson, joined in 1961 and became the first African-American to win a PGA tour event with his win in 1967. Up until that point, the PGA Tour had a clause that stated "Caucasians-only". During these times, black golfers had to instead settle for playing in the UGA, an all-black tour which is often compared to baseball’s Negro Leagues. However, this exclusion and deterrent doesn't only take place at the professional level but also at the local levels too. Up until the 1990's, majority of Golf clubs around the US had in place racial restrictions for those who wanted to utilize their course. And for those courses that did allow blacks during that time, there was often racial hostility shown to those who played by the other whites on the course. Even today, there are country clubs within our own community that restrict blacks from joining or frown upon their playing. Although the problem was worse in the past, there still remains an element of racial discrimination that prevents African Americans from gaining success and following in the sport. You simply cannot expect a level of equality on the tour if there is none at the local level.

Besides racism, African American financial situations are another factor that skews the percentages of black golfers. Our nation is comprised of 12.6% African Americans. Part of the reason we don't see a similar percentage of black golfers is because compared to the white majority, blacks are receiving worse educations and, on average, are earning a lesser salary. This in mind, Golf is a sport, unlike basketball, soccer or football, that costs lots of many to play and improve. Each time you play, you are paying anywhere from 15 to 40 dollars. In addition, the cost of clubs, balls, tees and other apparel makes it even more difficult to play.  Compare this to soccer, where all you need really to practice is a ball. If you desire to improve, you have to take lessons and practices, which costs even more money. Thus, it's more likely that the successful golfers we see come from wealthy backgrounds, which, due to the difference of salaries, which are converging but yet still unequal, often equivilates to a higher percentage of whites in the sports than normal.