Shoal Creek Offers a Course and a Lesson for the PGA Works Collegiate Championship
None of the golfers scheduled to compete in the PGA Works Collegiate Championship this week at Shoal Creek Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., were born when the club became the epicenter of racial discrimination in golf. Yet, the 1990 PGA Championship was an impetus for change that impacts them today.
Some consider Shoal Creek hosting what was once called the "National Minority Golf Tournament" not only a significant event but an example of how a private club can promote diversity and grow the game in a public forum. This isn’t your grandfather’s Shoal Creek.
“Obviously, we know the history of the club and how a lot of these kids would have never been able to play there 30 years ago and maybe less than that, to be honest,” says Mike Rice, the head golf coach at Florida A&M. “For Shoal Creek to open its doors and welcome all of these young people is historic. We're not just going to play a golf course. It's Shoal Creek in Birmingham. It's history in the making."
The PWCC, formerly the PGA Minority Golf Championship, is in its 36th year and features more than 30 teams representing Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and other minority-serving institutions from across the nation.
Sponsored by PGA Works, Comcast and Shoal Creek, the 54-hole stroke-play event will attract a field of more than 200 participants divided into five divisions: Division I men, Division II men, women's team, individual men and individual women.
Howard University is the defending Division I champion. California State University, Dominguez Hills won the Division II crown, while Texas A&M-Corpus Christi retained the women’s title. Howard’s Greg Odom is looking to three-peat as the men’s medalist winner.
Shoal Creek, Jack Nicklaus's first solo design, opened in 1977 and is the third different venue to host the PWCC since the event began moving each year. After being held for 22 consecutive years at the PGA National in Port St. Lucie, Fla., the 2021 PWCC was played on the storied Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass and the 2022 event was hosted by the Union League in Philadelphia.
Shoal Creek had approached the PGA of America about hosting a major amateur or professional tournament and welcomed the invitation to host what's considered the HBCU National Championship.
"We couldn't be more excited," says Greg King, Shoal Creek club president. "There's a focus today at the club around giving back to the game and providing opportunities to grow the game. We felt like this fit well with what our goals are. It connects with a lot of the initiatives we've been working on internally at the club over the last number of years."
Shoal Creek Country Club distanced itself long ago from its darkest moment in 1990 when Hall W. Thompson, the club’s founder, went public with his exclusionary membership policy. “We have the right to associate or not to associate with whomever we choose,” he told a reporter from the Birmingham Post-Herald before the PGA Championship, one of golf's four major championships. “The country club is our home and we pick and choose who we want. I think we’ve said that we don’t discriminate in every other area except the blacks.”
His words caused a firestorm. Shoal Creek and the privilege surrounding golf were instantly attacked for exclusionary practices common at country clubs throughout the nation and put pressure on the PGA Tour and PGA of America to no longer hold events at clubs with all-white memberships. Corporate sponsors, including IBM, withdrew their support for the event and civil rights leaders vowed to stage protests. Just days before the tournament began Shoal Creek quelled the controversy by accepting its first black member, Louis J. Willie, a local insurance executive.
"There were things that were unfortunately said then that didn't put Shoal Creek in the best of light," King says. "We acknowledge that and we own that. But today it's a much different situation at the club."
Since 1990, Shoal Creek has been host to the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur, the Champions Tour Regions Tradition from 2011-15, and the 2018 U.S. Women's Open. Internally, the club launched a tour development program where 14 individuals male and female from various backgrounds, races, and other demographics can pursue professional status under a free membership at the club.
“That’s just one example of things we’ve engineered to create opportunities for young folk who want to play the game at the highest level,” King says.
The fact Alabama is home to the highest number (14) of HBCUs in the country served as another incentive. The men's golf team at Miles College, which competes in Division II, practices at Shoal Creek about once a month.
"When they offered the opportunity for our college to play the course, I thought that was awesome," Miles coach Leonard Smoot says. "They've welcomed us with open arms. I haven't dwelt on the past of Shoal Creek. I'm more excited about the future of Shoal Creek and what that means to the current membership and the state of Alabama."
The PWCC isn’t just a tournament, it’s a civic event that incorporates a program that exposes minority student-athletes to the various careers in the golf industry and fundraising commitments for HBCU golf programs. "Beyond the Green" is a pre-tournament gathering where competing student-athletes and more than 150 high school and college-age minority students in the Birmingham area will learn about the vast businesses and income opportunities in golf's $84 billion industry.
In addition, Shoal Creek and its membership is committed to supporting and prompting the PGA Works HBCU Golf Scholarship endowment, with 50% of funds raised staying in Alabama. The endowment provides men’s and women’s golf scholarships to underfunded HBCU and minority-serving institutions to help sustain those programs for the long-term.
It will also offer a chance for a history lesson. While golf’s issues with diversity remain a challenge, there are invitation-only clubs like Shoal Creek that are committed to growing the game.
“If anything, the incident that happened 30 years ago was a platform for change,” PWCC tournament director Scooter Clark says. “The Shoal Creek membership is committed to this event and the Birmingham community is fully immersed in this. It’s going to be a special experience.”