1990 PGA Championship
The 1990 PGA Championship (August 9-12, 1990) was the tour championship tournament sponsored by the Professional Golfers' Association of America and hosted by the Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in Shelby County.
152 players vied for a share of a $1,350,000 purse. The winner was Australian Wayne Grady who finished three strokes ahead of Fred Couples and four ahead of Gil Morgan to claim the $225,000 top prize. The win was Grady's first and only major championship victory.
The fact that the tournament was to be hosted at an all-white country club was the trigger for a series of protests led by Abraham Woods Jr's Birmingham Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Founder Hall Thompson provided several incendiary quotes which prompted alarm in the national press. After several television sponsors pulled out of the broadcast PGA president Pat Rielly threatened to move or cancel the tournament.
In response, the club's leadership agreed to accept Black members. Louis Willie became the first African-American invited to join Shoal Creek. Since 1990 the PGA has made policies requiring hosts for tour events to demonstrate non-discriminatory membership practices.
See also
References
- Johnson, William Oscar (August 13, 1990) "The Gates Open: By admitting a black, Birmingham's Shoal Creek led a quiet revolution." Sports Illustrated
- Clay, Bobby (September 1996) "Breaking par against racism: beyond Shoal Creek - African Americans and white country clubs." Black Enterprise.
- Schupak, Adam (September 2, 2022) "Full circle at Shoal Creek: An untold story of one man’s convictions changing racial inclusion at 1990 PGA Championship and golf as a whole" Golf Week
External links
- Leaderboard at sports.yahoo.com