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Award will recognise those who have actively helped, encourage or supported a diverse working environment in golf
Award will honour those who have actively helped, encourage or supported a diverse working environment in golf
Charlie Sifford is an advocate of diversity in golf for more than 40 years
The Golf Writers Association of America has created an award for those who have encouraged, encouraged or supported the active advancement of diversity in golf.
It is called the Charlie Sifford Award, in honor of the trailblazing black golfer and advocate who helped to create the first PGA of America scholarship and award a tee time for African-American youth in the 1990s.
Read more: Senior PGA Tour player Lang makes BBC pledge
The Golf Writers Association of America established the award in 2013, after being approached by the PGA of America’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, and launched with an award presentation to Simmons College in Philadelphia.
The award will honor those who have actively helped, encouraged or supported a diverse working environment in golf.
Nominations will be accepted from golf writers and members of the golf media and the award will be presented at the 2018 Golf Writers Association of America Awards Dinner in May, 2019.
Also today…
Stephen Ruffin, the manager of the Golf Writers Association of America’s Diversity and Inclusion Council is calling for 40km/h to be banned by the PGA Tour.
It has been reported that his fellow industry colleagues at a forum in Las Vegas this month do not agree with him.
He believes 40km/h is a poor speed for inexperienced drivers to train at.
“I feel you shouldn’t be out there more than three times the speed of traffic with no attention, without any instruction from a course pro or driving instructor,” Ruffin said.
“That would be the kind of guy who, if he ever got to this skill level, would get very unhappy with the vehicle and then have to move to the next one and spend even more money to hone that skill.”
Barry Syron: Older most winner of Challenge Tour
Among some of those present at the meeting was Barry Syron, the golfer who achieved a seemingly miraculous comeback from more than a decade of injury problems to win the European Challenge Tour Order of Merit at the age of 41.
Syron wants 40km/h banned – it is legal for drivers to go 40km/h in the Czech Republic and other countries where the Challenge Tour is allowed.
“I went to track him down in Prague, but he won’t talk to me,” Syron said.
“If the Tour is that bad on this, then it should get better.”
The Tour’s long-term policy, which encourages participation in learning courses rather than improving skill, has been seen by many to be a fair enough policy, except when, as it was in the case of Syron, it has the unintended consequence of promoting the senior circuit.