From my new column in Taki’s Magazine:
Steve Sailer
April 17, 2024The New York Times ran an op-ed titled “The Most Famous Golfer at the Masters Is Black. Why Aren’t There More Players Like Him?” by Peter May, who is promoting his book about the breaking of the Professional Golfers Association’s color line in 1961:
When the Masters Tournament commenced on Thursday, featuring 89 competitors, there was exactly one Black golfer in the field: the one we all know, Tiger Woods. Beyond that, the field for the 88th Masters didn’t look all that different from the previous 87.
That raises a good question: Where are the black golf stars? As The Onion headlined in 2012:
Golf Pretty Sure All Those Young Black Kids Inspired by Tiger Woods Should Have Arrived by Now
The obvious answer for why few blacks have followed the famously mixed-race Tiger into the upper ranks is that golf is a costly sport.
Yet, there were nine top-level black touring pros in 1965 versus only two today (assuming that Tiger, who shot an 82 on Saturday, is effectively retired).
So why has the number of black touring pros declined since a half century ago? The answer explains a lot about changes in American society over my lifetime.
Read the whole thing there.
