Tom Woodard didn’t personally experience the “Uneven Fairways” that many of the pioneering African-American professional golfers endured, but he certainly heard the stories first-hand.
Woodard, a longtime Coloradan who now serves as director of golf for the Foothills Park and Recreation District, probably has more appreciation than most for the pros who are the subject of Golf Channel’s “Uneven Fairways” documentary that is airing in February as part of Black History Month.
You see, Woodard played some of the surviving tournaments of the predominantly-black pro tour that was depicted in the one-hour Golf Channel program. The 53-year-old estimates he competed in eight United Golfers Association events or their offshoots, starting in 1978, shortly after graduating from the University of Colorado. So when “Uneven Fairways” focused on the key black pros who played on the UGA before and during the Civil Rights Movement, they were no strangers to Woodard.
“I knew almost all the guys in that documentary,” Woodard said in a recent interview. “When they were going through it, I was saying, ‘I knew him, I knew him.’ That’s because there were still a few of those tournaments around when I started playing (professionally).”
In fact, though Woodard said “I got my brains beat out (on that tour) after four years of playing at CU,” he did win an event in 1979 in Chicago, earning $5,000. But that was long after the heyday of the tour, which Woodard said many competitors referred to as the “Chitlins Circuit.”
“In the black community, they were social events,” Woodard said.
In addition to getting a feel for the competition such tournaments offered, Woodard gained an appreciation for what playing professional golf was like for black pros in the decades before the PGA Tour was integrated. A dinner he once had with Charlie Sifford particularly made an impression. Sifford was a regular on the UGA circuit and became the first black member of the PGA in 1962, a year after the elimination of the Tour’s infamous Caucasian-only clause.
“He asked how it was going for me (on the PGA Tour),” Woodard relayed. “I said it’s tough driving from tournament to tournament in a van, and sometimes I’m a little tired. Then he tells me how they used to travel four or five to a car with luggage, and sometimes they had to sleep in the car. And there were some places they weren’t accepted (because they were black). I stopped complaining after that.”
Woodard spent eight years as a full-time player, including 2½ on the PGA Tour (1981-82 and 1985), and during that time blacks were relatively well represented on the world’s top circuit. Prominently included in the 1985 PGA Tour media guide, for example, are Calvin Peete, Jim Dent, Jim Thorpe and Lee Elder. In fact, Peete was one of the top players of his era, winning 11 times from 1982 through ’86.
In contrast, the 2009 PGA Tour media guide prominently includes one African-American, albeit one of the greatest players in the history of the game — Tiger Woods. Woodard also notes that the last African-American to earn his PGA Tour card through the qualifying school process was Adrian Stills in 1985.
“During the eight years I was playing (full-time), there were eight or nine (blacks) who played on Tour,” Woodard said. “Why have we gone through a 23-year stretch where no one has made it?”
Woodard doesn’t have the answers, but he has some theories. Money is a factor, but Woodard points out that guys like Lee Trevino, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson became all-time greats despite growing up poor.
For Woodard, there’s also a question of desire. “I don’t see a lot of guys willing to put in the time” on their games, he said. Woodard points out that, as junior players in different eras, he and PGA Tour regular Jonathan Kaye spent all day at City Park Golf Course in Denver working on their games. “We went out all day every day,” Woodard said. “I was talking with Doug Wherry, the “˜Yes!’ rep on the LPGA tour and we were discussing the Korean ladies (and their considerable success). He said they work harder than anyone else. When someone shows an aptitude, all of the family’s resources go in that direction. Even education becomes secondary.”
Woodard suggests another possibility. As the next generation of African-American players following the pioneers, “There was a concerted effort to get us involved.” In Woodard’s case, a black organization called East Denver Golf Club saw that Tom had promise and financed him by paying for his clubs and shoes and sending him to tournaments around the country.
“Now there are a lot of instructional programs” for underprivileged kids, including The First Tee, Woodard said. “But when a kid has ability, it comes out of your own pocket” as parents. “That happened with me and my son (Aaron, who teamed with Craig Stadler to win the 2004 First Tee Open title on the Champions Tour). On the American Junior Golf Association, expenses are as high as playing the mini-tours. But there’s no substitute for competition and experience.”
When Woodard was growing up, as he himself points out, he didn’t win many Colorado Golf Association amateur events. That’s for a good reason — he rarely competed in them.
“It wasn’t because I wasn’t a good player,” he said. “I played in events in Minnesota, Kansas City, Omaha. (The East Denver Golf Club) paid my way for what I would call mostly segregated events in the late 1960s and early “˜70s. I won a ton.”
By the time Woodard made it out on the PGA Tour, he said he was treated no differently than any other player. “By then a ton of players of color had played the PGA Tour, so by that time it wasn’t an issue,” he said.
Still, when Woodard earned his spot on Tour, he spent a lot of time with the caddies.
“In the early “˜80s, 95 percent of the caddies were black,” he said. “I went to college on a caddie scholarship (the Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship), so a bond formed. I felt comfortable around them.”
Woodard regularly played practice rounds with fellow African-Americans Peete, Thorpe, Dent and Elder, among others. But ask him if he was truly comfortable on Tour, and Woodard hesitates for a moment before giving an answer.
“People like to hang out with their peers,” he said. “Let’s face it: If you ask a white person if he’s ever been in a room where everyone else is black, and they say no. In golf, you’re always in that situation (if you’re black). I ran into one other black Division I player in college golf. The last PGA fall meeting, they were talking about diversity in golf, and I’m sitting in a room of 250 people and I’m the only black. Does that bother you? It’s just different.”
Woodard said there are some holdovers from the old UGA circuit still being played, and a while back he inquired about one, thinking that he might enter the event and renew old acquaintances. He was told there was one in Asheville, N.C., that paid $3,000 first prize.
“I’d have to win to break even,” Woodard said. “I don’t need to see them that bad.”
“Uneven Fairways” will re-air on the Golf Channel Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m., Feb. 21 at 7 p.m., and Feb. 28 at 6:30 p.m.
