This project will explore the relationship between race and golf from a transnational perspective, focusing on both change and the persistence of exclusion within the sport. It asks how far the racial dynamics of golf have changed from the twentieth century to the present, and whether that change has extended beyond image, to the deeper structures of racial and class inequality that have shaped access to the game. Furthermore, the case study of Tiger Woods as a breakthrough Black golfer will help evaluate whether golf has escaped its exclusionary past.
Golf has historically been associated with whiteness, elite privilege, and exclusion. Spreading from Scotland through imperial links and upper-class networks, the sport developed within private clubs that often restricted access based on race and class. This tradition extended to the professional ranks, where the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) limited members to golfers of the Caucasian race until 1961.[1] This history makes golf a revealing case to examine how racial barriers within the sport have been questioned, challenged and sustained.
Thus, the rise of Tiger Woods in this environment provides a valuable case study. His record-breaking 1997 Masters victory challenged the long-standing notion of golf as a white sport, creating visibility of a non-white golfer dominating a historically exclusive game. However, this project will not simply follow Woods’ achievements but instead use his career to investigate how race in golf was reimagined across different national and cultural contexts. Lane Demas stresses the importance of his breakthrough as a Black athlete in a sport historically linked with colonialism, wealth and whiteness.[2] Andrew Billings extends this debate further, highlighting the importance of Woods’ self-identification as ‘Cablinasian,’ due to his mixed heritage.[3] His mother’s Thai background saw him celebrated as partly Asian, and thus Woods didn’t represent a single racial narrative, but became a transnational figure through which race in golf was renegotiated.
Junior golf is important to this project, as it shows whether racial change in golf moved beyond image, to a structural level. Matthew Hawzen et al.’s[4] analysis highlights that junior golf continues to reproduce social inequality within golf, which helps explore the limitations of recent racial changes and Woods’ impact. Moreover, while focused on golf, this project will also situate the sport within the wider context of race and sport.
To avoid this project simply becoming a biography of Woods and his achievements, Jill Lepore’s ‘Historians Who Love Too Much’ provides a framework for preventing the project from becoming biographical. She warns against coming too close to a subject, which is an issue I could face as a golfer. Thus, rather than treating Woods in isolation, the project will use his career to uncover broader issues of race, class and exclusion within golf.[5]
The project will draw on a range of primary sources, including PGA records such as the ‘Caucasian clause,’ and newspaper articles from the 1990s and 2000s showing how Woods’ success was framed in different national contexts. Statistics will also play a key role in determining how diversity in golf has changed in recent decades, particularly in key areas of investigation like junior golf.
Together, these primary sources and the secondary literature on race and sport will help investigate how golf has moved away from its exclusionary past and where its deeper structural inequalities remain intact. Because golf continues to struggle with questions of race and class, this project holds value beyond its immediate case study, offering clear scope for further research into the persistence of inequality within the sport.