04/19/24
August 24, 2010
Shoal Creek Lands Champions Tour Major: Twenty years ago, Shoal Creek Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., almost lost the PGA Championship because the club only had white members. "I think we've said that we don't discriminate in every other area except the blacks," founder Hal Thompson said about his club's membership policies, a remark for which he later apologized. For the first time since then, Shoal Creek has landed a pro golf tournament. The Champions Tour will play the Tradition there in May 2011. Shoal Creek has three black members today, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Hal's son Mike Thompson has invited more than a dozen others. "Shoal Creek is just like Birmingham. Once there was total segregation. Then there was the appearance of inclusion," said James Lewis, publisher of the local black newspaper Birmingham Times. "Now there's real inclusion." (Ten years earlier, publisher Jesse Lewis said this: "Shoal Creek has not changed in the last 10 years and will not change in the next 20 years," Lewis said. "Shoal Creek is always going to be Shoal Creek.")
That's a great story. And shows how truly this is a more sophisticated, tolerant and wise society... Provided none of them are Muslim.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:52 PM on August 24, 2010
Well, good. We need a cash infusion 'round here.
I thought Sir Charles (Barkley) was a Shoal Creek member, but maybe not.
I've played Shoal Creek. It's a lovely course, and hard as hell. I think I shot a 104 from the white tees.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:46 PM on August 26, 2010
A club only has to have a policy of not excluding members, but they can still in effect exclude members of a group and be welcomed by the PGA (see Augusta National). I think the PGA should be embarrassed by that sort of thing, but it doesn't seem to be. Shoal Creek has obviously changed its policies and welcomed new members. That's good. Kudos to the black folks who decided to join the club despite the club's history.